I encountered a tricky little situation during a hot sauce cook one January Sunday morning in our commercial kitchen in Lowell, which gave me some perspective on failure and growth. My co-cook Ben and I were making a 5 gallon batch of 40 Shades of Green Chilli, a sauce I’ve made 20 times before.

From a cat themed hot sauce restaurant, to monks creating hot sauce in Arkansas and a vegan restaurant that grew from a hot sauce line in Berlin, Germany, there is evidence of community at all intersections of hot sauce.