Chef Geoff Rhyne and Red Clay Hot Sauce
When local chef Geoff Rhyne concocts a hot sauce it is a whole new deal.
The excitement around his creation, Red Clay Hot Sauce, comes from the nuanced flavors that are designed to complement food—like a perfect, delicately flavored raw oyster—rather than a tongue-searing sauce that would overpower it.
Rhyne was working as a chef at Charleston hotspot The Ordinary when he developed an exceptional hot sauce to serve with oysters. His sauce was stationed on each table of the restaurant, packaged in temptingly cute mini bottles that customers kept surreptitiously slipping into their pockets. Rhyne knew he was onto something. He started developing a business plan and looking at the hot sauce market as a niche market.
“It is a crazy competitive market. Yes, my hot sauce is delicious and people are stealing it,” but what would distinguish it from all the others? Rhyne chose to use a cold process, that lets the ingredients shine, and to ferment the sauce in bourbon barrels from High Wire Distillery that impart subtle flavors of oak, bourbon, and vanilla, as well as a bit of sweetness. The Fresno pepper mix is aged for a month and then finished with white wine vinegar—another step up in flavor and quality. Rhyne laments that most hot sauces on the market are made with distilled vinegar. “It is a cleaning agent!” he says. “You wouldn’t find a chef using it to make a vinaigrette.”
Last summer, over many breakfasts at the Marina Variety Store, Rhyne settled on a name that is personal to his Southern Georgia roots, Red Clay, and he worked with a graphic designer on the label. Fast-forward seven months later, Red Clay Hot Sauce is carried in 30 stores across the country and on the verge of even wider distribution.
Chef Geoff Rhyne and his son. image: Karson Photography
Becoming a new father and developing the Red Clay business have turned into his full time pursuit. The plan is to keep expanding and converting people, which is made easier thanks to Leon’s Oyster Shop. Leon’s has been getting tremendous exposure and acclaim for their perfectly fried chicken and fresh seafood—two things that Southerners love to put hot sauce on. Red Clay Hot Sauce sits on each and every table of the restaurant. Slather it on at your table, and buy a bottle on your way out.
Rhyne saves the seeds from the Fresno peppers he uses. Those seeds will soon be harvested locally at Rebellion Farm to keep up with his growing production. He is toying with dehydrating the leftover pepper pulp to create a dry rub, perfect for smoked chicken wings, and maybe even a green chili sauce. We’ll be cheering for the home team.
words: Dee Dee Arthur
Where to find it:
Order online at redclayhotsauce.com
Locally at St. Alban’s, Leon’s Oyster Shop, The Daily, Caviar & Bananas, and Southern Seasons.
image: Karson Photography
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