FACES: Sufia H. — Silly Chilly Hotsauce

Posted on July 26, 2017 in Faces

Hotsauce is so hot right now—some sauces are hotter than others…

We sat down with Hoboken resident Sufia Hossain, who is celebrating one year as proprietor of Silly Chilly Hotsauce — handcrafted locally, available locally.

food photo

hMAG : Why hotsauce? What inspired you to focus on this product in particular?
Sufia: Besides having a dream of winning a prize for making the best hotsauce I do have something back of my head which kinda push me to focus on this product every day.

I have always known that hotsauce is a male-driven world and its hard industry to break into and I am experiencing that right now. If you visit Most of the hotsauce expo’s you will see majority of the hotsauce makers/owners are male. When I started to learn how to make hotsauce – I had bunch of people telling me ‘It is men’s job to make hotsauce… maybe you should bake or something ‘ That kind of statement made me stubborn. I enjoy making hotsauce and I spend lot of time and put lot of effort to ensure its healthy. If i want to provide the healthiest, delicious hotsauce and farm to table kind of hotsauce—why can’t I?

h: Hot sauce is a robust market. What sets Silly Chilly apart from the rest?S: Silly Chilly Only works with local farmers in NJ/NY to get all the peppers. Rutgers University Agriculture farm is one of the biggest grower for Silly Chilly. This year they are growing over 1,500 lbs of peppers. Also, Hoboken High school students are growing some peppers for Silly Chilly this summer. I only use fresh peppers—no additives, no sugar, no synthetic chemicals. One of the important ingredients I use is organic apple cider vinegar, which is super healthy for our skin and body. Most of the hotsauce companies out there don’t even use real peppers and they use synthetic chemicals, additives which is super unhealthy for us.

h: Why Hoboken? You moved from Queens—what made you zero in on the Mile Square City?
S: Two years ago I moved to Hoboken for better commute to work. My background is in Fashion , graduated from FIT and at that time I was working for Gap in merchandising. My office was in TriBeCa near WTC and commute from end of Queens was like hell. I was looking into moving closer to work and someone suggested I check out Hoboken area. When I visited Hoboken to look at apartments, I fell in love with the neighborhood moved right in. I have been living here for the last two years. I have always wanted to be part of a small community where neighbors says hello to each other and know each other. In NYC we hardly see that.
I love being in Hoboken and NJ. So far my product is in 25 stores in Hoboken and Jersey City and its getting good feedback from everyone.

h: What differentiates the three sauces you offer? What would they pair well with?
S: Currently I have 3 flavors & they are all Vegan, Gluten Free:
1) Fresh Mango and sweet peppers – MILD
2) Serrano & Chipotle- HOT
3) Habanero – SUPER DUPER HOT ( Best Seller)
They pair well with Tofu, eggs, burritos, Salad, fried rice, vegetables, tacos, wings, vegetable burgers, steak etc. You can use Silly Chilly hotsauce as a marinade. Elvis Duran from Z100 loves his wings with Habanero hotsauce.

h: What is your go-to Silly Chilly hot sauce, and what do you put it on most???
S: You know how parents say all of their children are their favorite? Thats how I feel about three of my hotsauce flavors. I am foodie so I am constantly eating different kinds of food and I use Silly Chilly hotsauce on EVERYTHING. Even popcorn.

_DSC5481 copy

Silly Chilly Hotsauce can be found in Hoboken at Organic Basic Food, Aspen Marketplace, Baking Mama, Choco O Pain, Bean Vault Cafe, 1republik.

***

Tags: Food