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Passions-to-Profit: True Made Foods
Passions-to-Profit: Celebrating the Barbecuing Entrepreneur
As the traditional end of summer, Labor Day also serves to celebrate the American work force and their commitment to productive, inventive and important contributions to our society. In this spirit of honoring America’s hard-working heroes, we’d like to dedicate the entire month of September to applaud the entrepreneurs who’ve applied their talents to making your barbecuing adventures more engaging…and tasty!
First-in-a-Series: True Made Foods; Family Legacy and Serendipity Converge
Ryan Mitchell grew up in barbecue. He was prepping hogs and tending the coals alongside his dad, Pitmaster Ed Mitchell, for as long as he could remember. While barbecue is in his blood, growing up alongside it was a constant chore. The unrelenting work around barbecue pits initially made Ryan want to forge his own path. Ryan earned a scholarship to play football at East Carolina University, and after graduation, went into investment banking. The 2008 financial crisis then changed everything for him—Ryan was given the choice of taking a severance or moving to Singapore. He chose the severance and turned the experience into a growth event. He took a look at his life and realized that his heart and heritage was really back in barbecue.
Planting the Seeds with a Perfect Partnership
We (the Mitchell family) have primarily been restauranteurs, but we’ve always wanted to launch our own BBQ Sauces and Rubs. We suffered a number of set-backs and prejudice when trying to launch our BBQ Sauces the first time in the 2000’s and kind of gave up on the idea for awhile. But then our current business partner, Abe Kamarck, reached out to us in 2017. He had launched a no sugar, all-natural ketchup brand, True Made Foods, and wanted to expand into BBQ Sauces and was looking for a Pitmaster partner. It was the perfect fit, since at the time my dad (Ed) had just been diagnosed as pre-diabetic and we have always wanted to bring BBQ recipes back to their roots and do something different from the wall of junk you currently find in the grocery store.
Design Serves to Solve Challenges
We are still overcoming those obstacles! We’ve had lots of false starts and challenges along the way, too many to list here. The CPG space is brutal, probably tougher than the restaurant industry! One problem we have recently overcome was our labels. We let our old labels be influenced too much by the natural foods industry, so they did not represent the BBQ culture that is core to our identity. We have recently redesigned our labels to better represent our heritage. Yes, our products have no added sugars and are all-natural, but that is because we are true Pitmaster representing hundreds of years of family legacy. Our tradition and culture should lead and be the core message on our labels.
The Difference is in the Details: Wholesome Ingredients
Our No Sugar BBQ Sauces are authentic, regionally-inspired recipes that date back to when before high fructose corn syrup and cane sugar became the major ingredients in every BBQ Sauce in the grocery store. We make BBQ Sauces for people who know.
Our BBQ Sauces and Rubs are 100% natural with NO HFCS, Added Sugars, Stevia, Monk Fruit or any other non-nutritive sweeteners. Instead, we make our BBQ Sauces the way our ancestors did, with all natural, puréed spices, fruits and vegetables, providing real flavor and better performance on proteins and on the smoker.
Quite simply, they’re America’s basics, made better!
Recipe
Mama Mitchell’s Oven-Cooked Barbecued Shoulder
During the Holiday season and winter months the grills sat idle but grandmas oven cooked pork shoulder would always bring the backyard BBQ feeling inside. Savory spices, crushed red pepper vinegar sauce and crispy crackling pieces was a taste of heaven. I’ll never understand how one black pot could hold so much love!
Passions-to-Profit Series
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