Chef Courtney's sauce proving to be 'future finger licking good'
By:
Jill Meier, Journal editor
Local culinary artist Courtney Richmond infuses his flavorful dishes with Southern roots. Submitted photo.
This story has been edited from its original post.
When Chef Courtney Richmond graduated from culinary school, his mother, Sharon, gave him a gift that’s proving to be “future finger-licking good.”
Sharon Richmond gifted her son – the oldest of her six children – the family’s four-generation, secret mustard-based, Carolina-style barbecue sauce recipe.
“My mother had the recipe and basically was just sitting on it for years. She kept making it and kept making it and it just got better and better,” Chef Courtney said. “She gave it outright to me because I’m the first out of six kids to graduate. Period.”
Chef Courtney’s Homemade Barbecue Sauce made its local debut at the Brandon Expo Nov. 11, and from brisk sales that day, Richmond said the sauce is proving to be popular with people’s palates in Brandon.
“They loved it,” Richmond said of the favorable response he received at the Expo. “They loved the way that I was set up, they loved the food that I was giving them, and it says ‘future finger licking good’ on the label” – a testament to the sauce’s savory goodness.
Folks got a chance to taste the family recipe on samples of baby back ribs, brisket and sausage at the expo. He even served up mouth-watering samples of jambalaya and gumbo to promote both the sauce and his sideline catering business.
“I have delicious food,” Richmond assured, noting his specialties of jambalaya and gumbo. “Anything that I cook is pretty much good.”
After relocating to Brandon last year he bottling the family’s secret BBQ sauce for retail sales. The mustard-based Carolina sauce is manufactured and bottled in Kansas, and Richmond is responsible for marketing and shelving the product.
“It’s a total different BBQ sauce than anybody has, period. It’s the old BBQ sauce, like the old-world Carolina-style BBQ sauce, and this recipe has been held in secret with my family for decades,” he said.
Chef Courtney’s Homemade BBQ Sauce (14-ounce bottle) is on shelves at Sunshine Foods in Lennox, Tea and Sioux Falls, and both Fareway Food Stores in Sioux Falls for $5.99 plus tax, or from Richmond by emailing chefcourtneyshomemadebbqsauce@gmail.com or calling (612) 532-5030 for $7.
Chef Courtney is also seeking investors for his BBQ sauce business.
