'Wadda' great sauce

By Joanne Senders/ Correspondent

Reading Advocate, Thursday, December 15, 2005, Pages 1 & 6

Hungry for some exotic and authentic BBQ flavors? They are as close as the top shelf of aisle three at Atlantic Food Mart.

 Willy's Foods, LLC has launched the wadda line of authentic, all-natural sauces. It's the creation of Reading resident Bill Downing and his partner, Andrew Bausman of Arlington.

 "We have differentiated ourselves in a few ways," said Downing. "We're all natural with no factory foods."

 The four current products offered are:

• Wadda Jamaican Jerk, a traditional island flavor.
• Wadda Mexican Fajita, a chili and cumin flavored pan sauce.
• Wadda Waikiki BBQ, a pineapple habanero taste.
• Wadda Carolina BBQ, a zesty vinegar flavored sauce.

 Downing explained that not all "all natural" foods are created equal.

 "Some companies have all natural ingredients but use funky things. Some have allergens or things people don't normally eat." For example said Downing, dyes that are all natural can be made from "squished bugs."

 "Anything you find in our sauces you would find in any normal kitchen or pantry. If you go to Jamaica and go to a small home and they would whip you up some Jamaican jerk, they would not grab high fructose corn syrup, yet it's the primary ingredient [in commercial Jamaican jerk sauces]."

 Downing calls his sauces, "clean," in that they do not contain any factory ingredients.

 "[Our sauces] are authentic, made the way natives would," he said.

 An example of how Willy's Foods goes through "extra expense and bother," according to Downing, is in the Carolina sauce. Downing and Bausman use expensive apple cider vinegar from real apples and not industrial grade white vinegar. Also, in their Waikiki BBQ sauce, they tried a test using "frozen pineapple mush" but it lacked a fresh pineapple taste. So now, they use fresh chunk pineapple to make the sauce.

 "All natural ingredients give our sauces genuine goodness and flavors the way they were meant to be - bold, but gentle enough for kids to love."

 Both co-founders have sales and marketing backgrounds. When they found themselves simultaneously laid-off from their jobs, they decided to put their mutual love of cooking, travel and exotic dishes to use.

 Downing explained that he's been working on these sauces for years. It started when Downing and his wife took a one-week vacation to Jamaica, that turned into two.

 "In Jamaica you're walking down the street and you smell this wonderful Jamaican jerk," he said. "You just have to buy some. We tried it a few times and said, 'this stuff is great.'"

 When they returned home, the Downings tried cookbooks, gourmet shops and even Jamaican jerk sauce jars from Jamaica but none were like what they had had on their trip. Even the sauce from Jamaica was hotter than what they had eaten in Jamaica. So Downing had to make his own. It's a process that took him 13 years. Similar processes lead him to the other sauces.

 "There are powdered fajita mixes," he said. "Some are really, really bad, but they are all bad."

 Downing called these mixes "a packet of chemicals."

 Downing said that nobody even makes the Carolina sauce.

 "We have a true authentic BBQ sauce just like in East Carolina," he said.

 As for his own family, Downing said, "The family loves pulled pork with Carolina sauce. It's a classic dish." On cold nights, his family enjoys fajitas made from chicken breast strips, peppers and onions.

 "The Waikiki sauce is particularly good on fish and shrimp, and on a bean salad it's killer," said Downing.

 If you would like to taste some of these flavors, Downing said he can be found on most Fridays at the Atlantic, handing out free samples. One recent Friday, Downing offered chicken and tofu with Jamaican jerk.

 "The reception was wonderful. Not a lot of people in Reading are familiar with Jamaican jerk but when they tried it they loved it. And some people tried tofu for the first time too," said Downing.

 In addition to the Atlantic, North Line Liquors on Main Street is selling a holiday gift item made up of a tray of finished hardwood with one each of the four flavors, a pen-style chef's thermometer and a set of bamboo skewers for $24.95.

 You can also check out the products, as well as fun food facts, at www.willysfoods.com.