The secret ingredient is: don’t f* it up
Turns out, cooking gets easier when you start with ridiculously good ingredients.
I moved to Vermont right after college - not for the foliage or the skiing -but because I’d ditched a career in computer programming for baking, and I couldn’t afford to live in my hometown on a baker’s budget. We’re talking $8/hour part-time while trying to start a business. It wasn’t lux, but with a good roommate and a lucky break on rent, I could cover the essentials.
Making friends was important, and for me that meant feeding people. I couldn’t put out lavish spreads, but when I scored good produce, cheese, or meat through vendor trades at the farmers market, I’d invite folks over and share the bounty.
The thing that kept happening - over and over - was that even when I messed up a dish, people were really into it. And key was that the ingredients were just that good. When you’re working with stuff that’s grown with care on small farms, it kind of doesn’t matter if the roast is a little overdone or the salad is a little weird. The flavor carries you.
That’s where “choose the best ingredients and don’t f*** them up” came from. And it’s still the throughline in everything we do at BBVT and Fat Toad Farm.
What started with flavor turned into something a lot bigger - real relationships with farmers, support for small-scale ag, and the kind of impact I could actually feel. When we buy from a multinational company, we’re a drop in the ocean. When we buy from a 5-acre farm down the road, it means something.
All of our products are designed to show off what goes in them, but our 3 and 4 ingredient sauces are where those ingredients get to really strut.
To get the best flavor, you don’t have to grow the peppers or boil the maple syrup - just grab the sauce that already took care of it.
When you use BBVT and Fat Toad Farm sauces, you’re choosing the same small farm ingredients I picked to make my own cooking shine. So even if you over-toast the toast or under-season the beans, don’t worry… the flavor’s got you.
