Slanging the Funk Since '24

Back in 2003 while attending culinary school at Le Cordon Bleu in Austin, I met a beautiful girl named Laura Hernandez. We shared our passion for food and traveling and would plan trips based on where we wanted to eat. Given that Laura was from the Rio Grande Valley we spent a lot of time looking for those hidden gems there. Whether it was for the best El Pastor Taco, the juiciest carnitas, or traditional barbacoa there was always one element that made the meal memorable, Hot Sauce!!! Shortly after graduating culinary school, we decided to move down to the Rio Grande Valley where we both pursued our culinary careers on beautiful South Padre Island. When we were not working, we spent a lot of time with her family. Particularly with her Grandma Tonia. Tonia was a strong Latina woman that was not only a great wife, mom, and grandma, she was an amazing cook. We never passed up an opportunity to eat her fresh handmade tortillas or her delicious papas and salsa. If you have never had a taco with fermented hot sauce and Whataburger Fries, you are missing out on a life-changing experience. I remember the first time I saw her red hot sauce fermenting in her kitchen cupboard, it was so bright it seemed as if it was glowing! Not only was it beautiful to look at, but the flavor was also unlike any hot sauce I have ever tasted. It was spicy, it was funky, it was complex, and most of all it was mysterious. “You don’t have to refrigerate that?” I would ask myself. The process seemed to go against everything we had been taught in school and working in restaurants. For the past twenty years I have been making hot sauces (at times two or three times a day), not really realizing that I was on a quest to replicate Grandma Tonia’s bright red sauce. As iconic as the Texas tradition of Red Soda and Barbacoa, Gran Rojo is a nod to my Valley family and the inspiration of its rich culinary traditions that have shaped me.

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