Kam’s Kettle Cooked Foods, Inc. (Kam’s Chili Sauce)  |  Fair Play  |  855-526-7468

Describe your business. Did you find it, or did it find you?

After 40 years of putting up chili sauce in my home kitchen, my family’s recipe for chili sauce is making its way onto grocer’s shelves across the nation. Chili sauce is a comfort food that brings me back to my childhood—harvest season, and the aroma of tomatoes and chilies cooking in a stovetop kettle. I believe that old-fashioned, home-cooked foods tell a story about people and their families, and our products do just that. It all began with my parents at home, using my great-great grandmother’s recipe. And now, 100 years later, it’s exactly the same with the taste of home-style goodness. Moving to California in the late ’90s made sourcing ingredients each summer to can chili sauce even easier, with so many local tomato, pepper and onion growers in the region. My friends always begged me for a jar of sauce, and convinced me to go to the next level and produce it commercially.

What was the first job you ever had, and what did you learn from the experience?

My first job was as a commercial real estate agent. When I was 15 years old, I took business classes at a community college and graduated high school almost two years early. When I turned 18, I was selling apartment buildings and learned firsthand about creating investment P&Ls. It gave me a great understanding of business operations. 

How are you involved with both the community and your customer?

We source all of our tomato, pepper and onion ingredients from growers in Northern California; this farmer community is tied to my livelihood. I also own and operate the Cottage at Perry Creek in Fair Play and love welcoming guests and giving them jars of chili sauce to have on their eggs or to take home and cook with.

And finally, customer service is…? 

For Kam’s, it’s providing a healthy and delicious product that emotionally connects to the consumer and exceeds their expectations.