It’s something like a hybrid of barbecue and hot sauce and you’ve never had anything like it before. It’s an “everything” sauce — wings, french fries, collard greens, mac and cheese, spaghetti and even popcorn can get an upgrade from it. Sweet with a nice, spicy kick to it, Lady J Sauce is the next experience you must have in your culinary world and it’s brought to you by Black Girl Magic. Winners of the 2018 We Buy Black Convention Hot Sauce competition, Lady J Sauce is making serious moves.
Brittany Hill and Wanda V. Hill are the co-founding daughter and mother team behind Lady J Sauce. The company is named for Wanda’s mother, Judith Z. Stratton. Judith was raised in Washington, DC and by all accounts was an amazing cook. Judith raised two children by herself on Long Island and although she didn’t have much money, her kids couldn’t tell — they never went hungry and they ate better than anyone else because Judith could literally turn scraps into culinary gold. More than anything, however, everyone loved Judith’s wings — it was all about the sauce. Whenever people would try her sauce they just wanted to know, “what’s in this!?” Friends would literally come from all over to get the sauce.
After Wanda had Brittany, Judith moved down to Maryland to be closer to her granddaughter, who was the apple of her eye, her little ladybug. Judith began doing some catering but still, everyone wanted that sauce. Friends from back in New York would come down to Maryland, just to take a gallon or two of sauce back home. It became clear to Wanda that they really needed to bottle up the sauce. There was just one problem — there wasn’t an actual recipe. After Judith passed, Brittany and Wanda were determined to perfect the recipe to honor her legacy and build the business. Brittany and Wanda literally spent days in the kitchen trying to replicate the recipe Judith taught them but this time, actually writing down measurements so that they could replicate it for sale. Once they got it down, they were ready for business.
Things took a dramatic turn when Brittany decided to enter the We Buy Black Hot Sauce competition at the 2018 We Buy Black Convention. After seeing the full requirements for participation, however, Brittany thought that they weren’t eligible to compete. She was in utter panic when she received notification that Lady J Sauce would actually be a contestant in the competition — just a day before it was to take place! Brittany had Wanda fly into Atlanta the morning of the competition. They got in the kitchen and made a batch. They didn’t even have labels for the bottle so Brittany’s fiancé went to work creating one on his printer. In a matter of hours they pulled it all together and delivered the bottle of sauce — still warm — to the judges. The judges overwhelmingly loved Judith’s recipe and they won the competition!
Today Lady J Sauce is sold all over the country from their online store. Their sauce is a beautiful blend of sweet and spicy just like grandma, all made with love. Judith’s motto in life was, “pay it forward” and that’s the type of ethic that this family business operates with. You can follow them on Facebook and IG (both hyperlinked) and purchase by clicking here. Lady J Sauce is the product of pure love and flavor, get used to hearing their name and purchase today!
