(click to enlarge photos)
Published in The Seattle Times online on Dec. 12, 2024
and in PacificNW Magazine of the printed Times on Dec. 15, 2024
The inside story of Seattle’s Mama Lil’s Peppers is spiced with grit and grins
By Jean Sherrard
If you live in the Northwest, chances are you’ve eaten Mama Lil’s Peppers whether you know it or not.
From pizza chains to fine restaurants, the spicy condiment has added its unique flavor to our regional fare. What’s more, Mama Lil’s
peppers are not the creation of a corporate team, but the brainchild of one man who loved his mom and parlayed one of her recipes into a culinary sensation.
In a rollicking, tell-all book, owner Howard Lev unspools his roller-coaster ride to national acclaim and back again. In “A Pepper for your Thoughts: How NOT to Start a Gourmet Foods Business,” he combines local foodie history and personal episodes with a cautionary tale of narrow scrapes, near disasters and hardscrabble victories.
Born in Youngstown, Ohio, Lev headed west at age 16, hopping freight trains and hitching rides. The peripatetic youth found work as a laborer, carpenter and deckhand, occasionally stopping in at colleges and universities to study literature and film.
No matter where he found himself, his mother Lilian Lev’s homemade jars of hot peppers in oil followed. A regular side dish in Youngstown restaurants, the condiment was a savory reminder of her maternal affection.
Living in Seattle by the mid-1970s, working as a cab driver while writing spec screenplays, Lev began pickling small batches of Yakima-grown Hungarian goathorn peppers using his mother’s recipe. Every jar was eagerly snapped up by friends and family — and a nascent business was born. Soon followed a moment of truth.
Visiting a Hollywood film set, Lev distributed copies of his latest movie script along with jars of peppers to the A-list cast and crew. Within days, an eager studio boss called. Never mind the script, where could he get more of those pickled peppers?
In his often rib-tickling if heartfelt memoir, Lev charts his decades-long attempt to establish Mama Lil’s first as a local, then a national brand, caroming among canneries, Yakima pepper fields, restaurants and national food shows. “And I could never have imagined,” he writes, “the heartbreak and joy of the wild rollercoaster ride this business took me on.”
A one-man band and self-described schlep, Lev finally scored a breakthrough contract with Panera Bread to supply 700 stores with product. The Food Network shot a segment about Mama Lil’s, and Newsweek magazine ranked it among the top five artisanal food products nationwide.
Lev’s book brims with wry business acumen as well as dozens of recipes from Mama Lil’s fans such as chefs Tom Douglas, Matt Janke, Mike Easton, Jim Watkins and Dylan Giordan.
Also, several from Mama Lil herself, seasoned with love.
WEB EXTRAS
Two book events coming up:
- Dec. 19: Book launch/Cocktail party at OOLA Distillery in Georgetown (4755 Colorado S), 6-9PM.
Reading begins at 7. - Dec. 20: Reading at European Vine Selections on Capitol Hill (522 15th E). Event begins at 7PM.
For more info or to order the book online visit http://www.chinmusicpress.com.
Now, a few more photos from Mama Lil’s past:
Terrific, inspiring story! Thanks to the author, the fame of Mama Lil’s has now spread to France! Well, at least to our home in France… If only we knew who carried it.