Remember last month, when unknown golf pro Michael Block’s rags-to-riches story launched him into the national consciousness after a magical week at the PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club in Pittsford?
Well, sauce maker Joseph Hatfield was there for the final round.
Not golfing, but he was hoping for a little of that Block magic to rub off and he, all of a sudden, could be discovered by the masses, too.
Hatfield had won a lottery and was able to showcase his products at the famed Pittsford golf course. A golf fan himself, Hatfield saw Block nail a hole-in-one on No. 15 on a jumbo TV screen near his Taste of New York booth.
“That hole was not far from where we were,” Hatfield said. “You could hear the whole crowd erupt.”
While Hatfield wasn’t there to sell, he was able to offer tastings of his gluten-free barbecue sauces and get his name out there, a familiar business building process that he’s been experiencing the last eight years.
Maybe his sauces will find new homes in a few more Thruway pull-offs, a few more meat markets and a few more New York welcoming centers.
He’d like to make his 4J’s NVR Specialty BBQ Sauce go not exactly big, but bigger than it is.
“For the amount of people we saw, I thought it turned out pretty good,” Hatfield said. “I was hoping for an investor to pop up but eh, that didn’t happen.”
They call him 'Showtime Joe' Hatfield
Hatfield has become somewhat of a big man on campus during his 20 years off and on as chef at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva.
For a time, he would be out front of the students practicing exhibition cooking, earning a nickname in the process that he only modestly shares.
"A lot of the kids still call me ‘Showtime Joe’ because when I came back to work at school, they wanted me out front doing exhibition cooking,” Hatfield said.
He made an impression, as the students he started with inducted him in the Class of 2008, which marks a 15-year anniversary this year. Over the years, he has worked with students and their parents on private parties.
A self-described “meatosaurus,” Hatfield also is versatile, preparing vegan and vegetarian dishes and has been a kosher cook for 14 years.
“I try and accommodate the students,” Hatfield said. “They’re the ones paying for it and without them, I wouldn’t have a job.”
Jen Sandroni, owner of the Captain’s Room Café in Geneva, has known Hatfield for years. He’s a great guy and hilarious, so it’s not surprising that others would find him that way, too. And he knows what he's doing when it comes to food.
“He’s like a bright light. The vibe he has is very positive,” Sandroni said. “Joe’s Mr. Creative and he loves working with food.”
Getting 4J's NVR Specialty BBQ Sauce started
At first, Hatfield was just screwing around, helping one of his sons, who was in culinary school at the time, work on a sauce.
Looking for something different, they hit on the idea of a barbecue sauce with a fruit base and no vinegar. That’s right, no vinegar because everyone else makes sauces with vinegar.
Hatfield likes to do things differently.
The recipe developed over time and with time, so many people wanted it that it was time to make it a business.
“We just went with it,” Hatfield said.
Eight years ago, Hatfield and his wife, Betsy Lopez Hatfield, went into business.
The business name is derived from the initials of their seven children, Joseph, Justin, Joshua, Josiah, Nastazzia — the only girl in the bunch — Vincent and Robert.
The Hatfields are still at it, even though he works about 50 hours a week and his wife, who is a crafts person and sews, also is super busy. You can see them often at the Geneva Farmers Market on Saturdays.
“We can only be weekend warriors at it,” said Hatfield, noting they’ve yet to take a paycheck from their heated hobby of habaneros and other spices. “We’ve taken it from a hobby, and we’re hoping things get better for us so we can take from a hobby to a business.”
Proceeds from 4J's NVR BBQ Sauce go to charity
At first, it was slow going, but then word of mouth kicked in and his sauces caught on at Bostrom Farms Meat Market in Stanley and the former Red Jacket Orchards in Geneva as well as Muranda Cheese Co. in Waterloo.
The sauces — his rubs are dried versions of the sauces — are now available in different areas of Rochester and Syracuse. He has hopes of the sauces catching on in Florida, where their daughter lives.
The better they do, the better their charity does.
A portion of the proceeds are donated to the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Warrior Fund, as one of their sons is in the Marine Corps doing that dangerous sort of work. We’re talking about jobs like dismantling roadside bombs.
“We wanted to donate back, and tell people what we’re doing,” Hatfield said. “It’s been a good relationship. Once our numbers go up, we give more money.”
More about 4J's NVR Specialty BBQ Sauce
Made with habaneros grown in their backyard garden, the use of ingredients in the sauce is constant except for the fruit used and the amount of heat.
Pineapple habanero is a hot seller. The sauce has a gentle tropical sweetness to it, with a decent but not overpowering kick. Catching up to it in sales is his apple maple, which was created when the Finger Lakes Welcome Center in Geneva wanted the Hatfields to do something for maple month in March.
Five flavors are offered now, including strawberry habanero and strawberry mango.
“A lot of people who do the fruit-based barbecue sauces, they’ll add cider vinegar or white vinegar to it so you’ve got that tang in the background,” Hatfield said. “I really didn’t want to be like everybody else. It was either people will like it or they won’t like it and it is what it is.”
Jen Sandroni does buy the sauce from Hatfield and sells it at her cafe. She thinks the sauce, which is thick and not runny, is great and uses it in meatloaf and as a dip for pretzels, for example. It’s also great with chicken, pork and ribs, she said.
“We use it at our house also so personally we love it as well,” Sandroni said.
The Hatfields recently entered the Kansas City BBQ Society Sauce and Rub Contest and fared well in a loaded field, which makes Hatfield extremely happy since this is the first — and not last — contest entered.
“I checked out the winners, most are owned by corporations, so us just being a mom-and-pop company from little Geneva — I'm way OK with it,” Hatfield said.
His quest will continue. He enjoys it, so he will make more sauces. He's confident many more people will see his sauces as a hole-in-one, once they taste them.
“I love what we’re doing,” Hatfield said. “I would just like it to be a little bit bigger.”
More info
For more information on where 4J's NVR sauces can be found, visit https://www.facebook.com/4jsnvr/.
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June 20, 2023 at 02:14PM
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Geneva's 'Showtime Joe' Hatfield says 4J's NVR BBQ Sauce is a hit - Democrat & Chronicle
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