Janice Johnson has been selling her one-of-a-kind garlic sauce in Immokalee for 35 years.
She's known as the Garlic Boss, the name that also graces the bottles of her sauce.
Now, she's ready for the whole world to know about Sassy Sauce the Garlic Boss.
“This is an extreme garlic butter seasoning sauce that is amazing on seafood, pasta — it’s universal. It’s creamy with chucks of minced garlic. The garlic doesn’t leave an aftertaste. All the herbs and seasonings are balanced together," Johnson said.
Her sauce recipe is a well-kept secret, but it's one that has evolved over time.
“As the years passed, the sassier it got,” she said. "You’ll get lost in the sauce. I’m just letting you know. You’ll be hooked."
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Johnson grew up in Immokalee and graduated from Immokalee High School. Her journey has not been easy. She's built her sauce business on and off since she was in high school, but now she said she's selling her Sassy Sauce all over the country, one $10 bottle at a time.
In an effort to amplify Black voices in the Southwest Florida foodcommunity, we spoke with Johnson about her longtime dream of joining the culinary industry.
On how Sassy Sauce started…
"Black people love shellfish. Everybody loves it, but in my community we love blue crab. So back in the '80s, when I was in high school, there was this guy in Fort Myers and he was selling them and I always wanted to be a real cook. I started 35 years ago making his butter and it didn’t have a name or nothing else, it was just great. So throughout high school and throughout having my kids, any time I would fall short and needed a different job, this is what I would do. I would pick up with this same sauce that I had been doing for so long and I would start selling crab dinners and reaching out to the community. And every time throughout my life it was very successful. When I was in high school it was successful. When I had my second daughter it was successful."
On turning Sassy Sauce into a business…
"I am a hair dresser, but since COVID happened I had to stop cutting hair because I have lupus, and I have diabetes and high blood pressure. So I couldn’t cut hair anymore which gave me the opportunity to fall right into Sassy Sauce and make it into something spectacular like it deserves to be."
While dealing with some legal issues last year, Johnson was introduced to Callhan Soldavini at Legal Aid of Collier County.
"At the time I was depressed because I was going through a lot and Callhan, she just sat me down, got to know me a little bit, and I told her about this special sauce I make that people can’t get enough of, and she said, 'Let’s turn it into a business.' I said: Really?”
Soldavini walked Johnson through the legal process and signed her up for a Goodwill SWFL MicroEnterprise Institute-Entrepreneurship Program.
"It was a gift from God. I managed to get through that class and graduate and I went to the Culinary Accelerator of Immokalee and got a monthly membership there. That’s where we prepare the sauce and where we ship it. We’re waiting on the labels right now and we’ll be working on packaging and bottling."
On running a family business…
“Oh my gosh, my whole family holds this business up, through times when I only had $5 in my pocket. This butter has taken me through this pandemic, my family through this pandemic."
Johnson said that she and her daughters have a catering license to sell food when necessary. So they get together, cook up crab legs and sell sauce.
"When this (pandemic) first started happening and hair cutting was slow, we would set up a tent and family members would put what we had together to buy supplies and we would have a successful event. Everybody came out with a little but more than they started with."
On what Immokalee means to her…
“Immokalee means everything to me. Immokalee holds my whole childhood memory. It’s only a couple of streets that hold half of my life. The people in Immokalee and the people from Immokalee will always be my family and that’s why I will always go and show love to and for Immokalee no matter what."
For information on where to find Sassy Sauce, visit the Sassy Sauce the Garlic Boss Facebook page.
Sarajane Sullivan writes about food and restaurants for The News-Press and Naples Daily News. Email her at sarajane.sullivan@naplesnews.com and find her on Twitter @bysarajane.
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August 18, 2020 at 07:00PM
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Collier Restaurants: Sassy Sauce the Garlic Boss achieves a dream 30 years in the making - Naples Daily News
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