The Ashley Food Company - Fusing Fiery Foods With Rock-And-Roll

DEDHAM, MA. - The Ashley Food Company, an innovative specialty food venture based in Dedham, Massachusettes, has been creating award-winning sauces for over thirteen years. Founder David Ashley, who serves as President and Director Of Product Development and Marketing, found his way into the food sector way back
in 1976 as one of the owner/managers of Alice's Restaurant in Lenox, Ma.... yes, the very restaurant made famous by the Arlo Guthrie song bearing the same name.

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Photos courtesy of The Ashley Food Company

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This would also mark the beginnings of Ashley forging his continuing connection between food and music. "I've been around music for a long time and have had a lot of fun with it," David told this writer in a recent interview. "I honed my
skills while working around music personalities such as Kool And The Gang, Led Zeppelin, Foreigner, and members of the Rascals."

While working as the General Manager for over ninety employees at Alice's, the restaurant was serving Tanglewood patrons, a local venue promoting the Boston Symphony Orchestra, rock concerts and other events. "Once, while working with the New York City company Studio Instrument Rentals, I was sent to change equipment for Led Zeppelin at a show during their 1977 tour and ended up hangin' with them for a month," Ashley said. "And now, getting endorsements from rock bands and stars like Joe Perry of Aerosmith and Bob Weir of The Grateful Dead - that helps! People just want to use the products that celebrities use - and I
have to make sure that they aren't disappointed."

Ashley is a self trained cook, and his vision began to take shape right from his own kitchen in nearby Brighton, where he had began experimenting with his own barbeque and hot sauces in 1985. "I've always loved fiery foods, having grown up on the south side of Chicago where we lived above a Mexican family. That was my first experience tasting hot sauces," Ashley stated in a recent, exclusive interview. "We then moved to New York City, and I learned some cooking from my father. We used to bake bread together when I was growing up."

It wasn't long before Ashley was supplying friends and relatives with his "Mad Dog" sauces for which he stated from the beginning "only uses all natural ingredients, doesn't burn when you cook with it and has a kick." Eventally with the encouragement of his wife, and the aid of credit cards and his own determination, Ashley decided to try his hand at the commercial production of his specialty sauces and the Ashley Food Company was founded in 1991. He would rapidly earn acclaim and an international reputation with his line of quality
cooking sauces.

David prides himself in the fact that every batch of his Mad Dog Sauces are hand-crafted and measured to ensure one of a kind, "fresh-from-the-kettle" taste and quality. Only the freshest imported Bird's Eye peppers, Jalapeno chili
peppers, and unsulphured molasses are used, along with the finest soy sauce or Tamari, which is brewed in Japan and furmented in underground wodden barrels for three years to maintain the richest flavor possible. Other choice ingredients include imported cloves and the very best in Caribbean spices.

Some of Ashley Food's products include the Mad Dog Original Barbeque Sauce,Boston's Liquid Fire Hot Sauce,Inferno and Teriyaki Hot Sauces, Mad Cat Hot Sauce and the latest - the 357 Mad Dog Collectors Edition Hot Sauce. Made with 600,000 Scoville unit pepper extract, this sauce holds the title of the "world's hottest hot sauce ever made," and comes complete with a golden bullet key-chain dangling from the bottle.

As David Ashley's reputation grew, so did the aforementioned "musical connections" when his company drew interest from Boston rock guitar legend Joe Perry of Aerosmith, who approached Ashley in 2002 to join forces and create his
own cooking sauce. "Joe originally approached me a little over five years ago to talk about the possibility of creating and distributing his own line of hot sauces," David said.

"He tossed the idea around with the band's traveling cook without anything materilizing, but then discovered my products and the successful distribution I had created. After his initial contact, I didn't hear from Joe for about four
years. Until one day when I was actually closing in on the purchase of a recording studio and ironically got a call from Joe to again talk about the possibilities of collaborating on a cooking sauce." There's that food-meets-music karma again.

Joe Perry's Rock Your World Boneyard Brew Hot Sauce has a distinctive blend of Habanero and red bell peppers, zesty garlic and onions, red wine vinagrette, and a tangy lime juice that creates a versitle sauce recommended for
chicken or pork, marinades or Mexican, and shrimp or fish as well. "If your gonna play, play loud...if your gonna cook, cook with fire," Perry would pronounce upon the sauce's release in April of 2002.

"This is not a senereo where a famous musician has just slapped his name on a bottle just to say he endorses a product. Joe takes this very seriously," Ashley stated. "He started his own company called Rock Your World, Inc. and really wanted to create his own formula and product. We went back and forth with four or five batches and I sent several samples to him in Hawaii before we came up with the right recipe. He was closely involved, from the creating of the sauce, to the development of the Boneyard Brew logo." You can even order a bottle that comes complete with a special edition Joe Perry guitar pick.

Perry's Boneyard Brew is now in some 1,000 stores and gaining both momentum and critical acclaim. Joe will soon be appearing on Emeril Lagasse's cooking show in May, and also has recently introduced his Boneyard Brew Mini's, a six-pack of 1.6 fluid ounce bottles of the Boneyard Brew. "Along with the retail stores and chains," Ashley said. "We are also recieving many orders on the web site from all over the world...America, Europe...Japan."

Then in August of 2003, Ashley once again hooked up with rock royalty, this time teaming up with Grateful Dead legend Bob Weir to take over the distribution and manufacturing of his all-natural Snake Oil and Otherworld cooking sauces. "That was a lot of fun for me to get invloved in," David said. "Because I had been a big fan of the Grateful Dead from way back." The sauces are packed in custom black bottles complete with psychedelic labeling and the legendary Grateful Dead "lightning bolts" mounted on the sides.

The Snake Oil Sauces come in Hot and Stir Fry and feature a blend of Jalapeno peppers, California orange, maple sugar, and molasses. The "Otherworld Hot And Wok Sauces" offer subtle heat and a full flavor "from the 1,000 Islands stretching from Fiji to Formosa," including ginger, tamarind, citrus, fruits, sesame, and a dab of chili-driven flavor. All of the net profits from Weir's sauces go to the Further Foundation, which funds groups working on environmental issues both in the San Francisco Bay area and around the world.

Today Ashley Foods produces nineteen of their own products, as well as three private labels and also several contract labels. They have won over 50 industry state and national awards and have recieved critical acclaim from various
publications including Eating Well, Cook's Illustrated, Southern Living, and The Wall Street Journal. Mad Dog Suaces have even made it to the TV screen, with bottles appearing on the tables of such prime time television shows such as "Friends", "Everybody Loves Raymond", and "The King Of Queens."

Ashley Foods' web site traffic continues to grow, they attend food shows year round, participating in the annual National Fiery-Food and Barbeque Show in Texas, the Winter Fancy Food Show in San Francisco, and the Mad Dog Original Barbeque Sauce was just named "Best In America" by America's Test Kitchen, a popular PBS-TV cooking show. "Our original barbeque sause is probably my favorite," David replied when asked to pick his best sauce. "Remember, it doesn't have to be hot to be great!"

"I see the future as good: the hot food business is growing. It just takes a lot of hard work to keep your market share. I keep my business pretty simple, as I am my only direct employee, but this way I can assure quality with everything I
offer." You can visit the Ashley Food Company web site at www.ashleyfood.com, or by calling toll free at 800-61-SAUCE. David Ashley is always working on new ideas and recipes for upcoming products and whatever he comes up with, you can bet it will be unique, flavorful and original...and probably hot.