Edible Food Finds: Hillside Harvest Hot Sauce
Photos by Katie Noble
There’s no shortage of great hot sauces on our market shelves, all offering varying degrees of heat to spice up your morning eggs, marinades, chili or, if you’re so inclined, as one big commercial brand boasts, “I put that s**t on everything.” So when, after completing his master’s degree at Babson, Kamaal Jarrett told his parents about his plans to start a hot sauce business, they were at best surprised.
Jarrett’s Hillside Harvest trio of hot sauces manage to break away from the pack, not just by offering heat, but distinct flavors that serve as enhancements, not overpowering distractions. Why douse your chicken in hot sauce only to be left with a numb tongue and no chicken flavor?
Jarrett, who did his homework, says he is not trying to “be a novelty product or win any competitions—we understand there needs to be spice and heat in a hot sauce. We want to make sure folks are enjoying their meal and using our sauces to complement, not overpower—we focus a lot on flavor.”
And flavor he delivers. Hillside Harvest appeared first at Volante Farms in Needham with two 5-ounce hot sauce options: Original Hot Pepper, a fiery blend that doesn’t allow that fire to overshadow the bright flavors of lemon and ginger in the bottle, and Pineapple Fresno, a less intense sauce, mellowed by the employment of flavorful, medium-hot Fresno peppers and sweet pineapple juice.
Like so many, television cooking shows fueled Jarrett’s early passion for food and cooking. “I used to try to replicate what I saw on TV for my family,” he laughs, but it was his Aunt Elaine Wallace who indulged his interest. Wallace first operated a bakery, Elaine’s in Egleston Square, and then a Caribbean restaurant and catering business. “She nourished that curiosity of food and helped me explore flavor.”
Jarrett found himself at UMass Amherst and wound up as a financial analyst daydreaming about taking the degree courses at Johnson & Wales and Cambridge School of Culinary Arts, “but then I’d get a job offer and, well, the rent had to be paid.” He knew he wanted to be an entrepreneur. “I thought I might start a business of my own and Babson could help me figure that out.” He’d worked with medical devices and coffee appliances, earning his stripes in product management, sales and product development; “I’ve learned at each stop along the way in my career.” But he knew it was food that called to him.
The name and concept come from Jarrett’s Caribbean and American culture. “I grew up in Milton, below the Blue Hills, but I was born in a place called Cypress Hall which sits above the Red Hills of Kingston, Jamaica,” he explains. “It’s the harvest from both of those places and we’re trying to combine American and Caribbean culture. The ‘H’ in our logo is purple, a combination of the red and blue hills of my childhood.”
After nearly seven years of research and development, Jarrett found a place at Commonwealth Kitchen, making his hot sauce in small batches using fresh ingredients and with plans to grow. “We are a hot sauce company now, however, even when I first started, it was always to be more than that, to provide a line of condiments and marinades,” he says. “We want to grow into that; we don’t want to grow too fast or try to be too many things at once.”
This story appeared in the Spring 2020 issue.
