One of our fave hot sauce & spicy food makers, and just one of our favorite people, is in the news again. Those who know anything about Blair Lazar have probably heard the story about how he got started in the business, but now this information seems to be news-worthy on a wider scope. See this article from the Atlanticville out of Long Branch, NJ where they provide a nice little recap of Blair’s rise from bartender to world-class capsaicin purveyor:

Sauce maker turns up the heat on taste buds

Highlands eatery’s sauce holds a world record for hottest flavor
BY JOHN SUTTON Correspondent

HIGHLANDS - - It was closing time, 2 a.m. in a bar on the Jersey Shore in 1989, and Blair Lazar was ready to pack up and go home for the night after a night of slinging drinks. There was only one problem - a few bar patrons don’t want the party to end. The solution to that problem turned Lazar’s career and life upside down.

Lazar simply made a deal with those pesky customers. If they could eat four wings with his special hot sauce, they could stay in the bar for the rest of the night. Nobody was able to do it, and Blair’s Sauces & Snacks was born.

What started with only $550 in bar tips has now turned into a global corporation that has put Lazar in the Guinness Book of World Records for the hottest chili sauce commercially available in the world, which Lazar says is his proudest accomplishment. Originally from the Jersey Shore, Lazar was told that a Jersey boy didn’t know anything about hot sauce, but he has proved his critics wrong.

“I would always hear, ‘Oh, what does a Jersey boy know about hot sauce?’” said Lazar, whose business is based in the Highlands. “And today I can proudly say I’m in the Guinness Book of World Records for knowing about hot sauce, so I guess a Jersey boy does know something about hot sauce.”

One particular flavor, Jersey Death, gives a nod to his local roots. Lazar uses Jersey tomato puree in this sauce to bring a little taste of the Garden State to the rest of the world. Other sauce flavors have names like Mega Death, Beyond Death, Muerte, Possible Side Effects and Sudden Death.

Click here to read the rest of the source article from the Atlanticville online ‘zine

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