About

Fresh Pepper started as an experiment, not a business plan.

On a fire escape in New York City, I began growing hot peppers as a hobby, inspired by my grandmother. She kept a chili plant in her Bronx apartment windowsill and would snip peppers straight into her omelettes. One conversation with my mother about those memories turned into a small growing project… and then a much bigger one.

As yields increased, so did the questions: What do you do with this many peppers? How do you preserve their flavor? How do you scale something that started in a blender?

That curiosity led to recipe development, fermentation experiments, and eventually a move toward professionally produced sauce. Along the way, time spent living in Peru reshaped the flavor direction entirely. Exposure to rocoto, tropical fruit, and regional cooking techniques pushed the product beyond traditional hot sauce and into something more versatile, built for cooking as much as finishing.

Today, Fresh Pepper produces a rocoto-forward hot pepper sauce designed to be used the way chefs and home cooks actually cook: stirred into proteins, blended into starches, used in marinades, dressings, and slow-cooked dishes.

What began on a fire escape is now a growing foodservice and consumer brand, but the philosophy remains the same. Real peppers, real ingredients, and built for the kitchen.