CHEF CLAUDETTE ZEPEDA
Our .664 Salsa Macha collab with celebrity chef and culinary rockstar Claudette Zepeda combines a crunchy foundation of hot and savory chilies with the sweetness of macadamia nuts and the richness of avocado oil. The result: an irresistible blend.
Here’s how it all came together.
We met Chef Claudette Zepeda in LA on November 9, 2019 at a Summit event she co-hosted with Don Julio pairing tequilas with chiles. Instant WOW factor. This woman is a boss. A rockstar in an apron. A rising star in a heavily male dominated field. A proud Mexicana with vibrant tattoos, burgundy red lips and unicorn hair paired with total confidence in her culinary prowess. As working parents ourselves, it was all the more impressive how she was crushing it professionally while also holding down fort as mom.
We connected on IG and saw we had a close mutual friend (Andy from HFB!). Fast forward to June 2021. We met another mutual friend who graciously offered to pass our core collection on to some of her close chef and culinary contacts. A week or two later Claudette posted our hot sauce and spice blends to her IG story. (Thank you, Chef!)
Then Dec 2021 Claudette sees our Half Face Blades XXL large format drop and DMs us about it and mentions she loved seeing us on Hot Ones. By now, we are huge fans of hers. So when, in a casual DM exchange, she hits us with, “Let’s make a sauce together!” Ummm… FUCK YES.
When we do collaborations, typically Nico and the collab partner discuss flavors, ingredients, heat level. And Nico takes it from there. He sends samples. He makes tweaks. But he’s driver. So early Jan we have our first call with Chef Claudette. And it’s clear she has some concepts that are intriguing to her. And some peppers she thinks would pack the right punch. So we end the call with Claudette to send over some peppers to sample. Remember, this is for a HOT SAUCE collab. Nico and Lauren try the peppers, give feedback, Claudette gets to work.
Initially she’s thinking 1 collab hot sauce and 2 rubs. But after us playing around, what ultimately arrives is 2 hot sauces and 1 jar of something else she threw in as an extra. We hardly pay it any attention at first. The hot sauces are really good. They are unique and bold and substantive. Then Nico says, “try the other thing, I’m curious what you think.” Now you all know Lauren is NOT the cook in the house. But she does know what tastes good and she’s pretty spot on with what our customers will love. Lauren helps Nico nail down the final version of each Señor Lechuga flavor, even if she has no idea how he’s using the ingredients and all of their individual roles. So Lauren takes one bite. Off a spoon. Closes her eyes. And say to Nico, “OH. MY. GOD. THIS. IS. IT.” And Nico smiles, “100 PERCENT.”
Now we do hot sauce. Plus spice blends and we offer some brand merch too. But is this other thing sooo good, we’re going to launch with a brand new collab partner into a brand new product category for us?
YES. 1000 percent yes.
As many know, Claudette is an award-winning chef, celebrated and recognized by Michelin, James Beard, The New York Times, Food & Wine, Iron Chef and so many more. Her culinary work is a love letter to Mexico and Mexican cuisine. So the production also presented a responsibility. To create a product that makes Chef Claudette Zepeda and also Nico Lechuga proud to have their names on the jar. And have Lauren love it too. That’s some pretty high standards.
And we did it.
Spicy. Premium. Limited. 1000 bottles. By hand. By us.