NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Known as a culinary connoisseur among family and friends, Cherelle Cartwright would commonly find herself feeding loved ones who stopped by unannounced to enjoy the dishes.
“My business was conceived quite unconventionally,” shared Cartwright.
“When I’m in the kitchen, I often knock out a four-course meal and I have friends who would show up at my door unannounced to find out what I cooked.”
In late 2018, she scolded a friend in jest for consistently dropping in for a meal without contributing anything. Weeks later, that friend delivered a 10-pound bag of goat pepper to Cartwright, with the caveat that they taste whatever meal she decided to create with it.
A bit daunted but intrigued by the giant bag of peppers, Cartwright began experimenting. She eventually came up with recipes for two pepper sauce flavors — mango-carrot-pineapple and papaya-rosemary-Spanish thyme — that she gifted to her friends and family for the holidays.
“My friends told me while they appreciated my products, they felt like I should be selling them to make money,” shared Cartwright.
“Eventually, I did just that, and started doing a lot of pop-ups with the two pepper sauces I developed to feel the market and get a response from the public.”
Within weeks, demand for her creations spread like wildfire and Cartwright established Mama Sassy’s Gourmet Foods, seeing an opportunity propelled by the demand for her creations.
Driven to grow her new business, yet recognizing that business classes would cost her a “pretty penny”, Cartwright decided to capitalize on courses offered at the Access Accelerator to “learn as much as [she] could”.
“At the end of it, you got the opportunity to submit your business plan and enter a pitch competition,” she said.
“I entered the contest, and I was one of two winners in Nassau and won $5,000.”
Cartwright invested the majority of the prize money into product testing.
Today, Mamma Sassy’s line of products includes six pepper jams and jellies, three balsamic vinaigrette salad dressings, a Guinness glaze, two pepper marinades, along with honey and syrup. Cartwright has gotten five of her products FDA-tested through the funds.
While she has made incredible strides, she still feels she has a long way to go.
“I’m still facing roadblocks because right now, my product is one of the few products in this country that has been officially tested but is not in any major food chains,” she shared.
“That’s something that is a work in progress because you have to put your brand out there constantly. I’ve learned that you have to be persistent and tenacious.”
That tenacity was one ingredient that propelled Cartwright to win a Royal Caribbean Group pepper sauce competition in October 2021.
The contest, held in partnership with the Access Accelerator, aimed to boost Bahamian small businesses amid the COVID-19 pandemic through a pilot program specifically for local hot and pepper sauces producers.
After a panel of judges selected Cartwright’s papaya medley marinade out of three pepper sauces, Cartwright was given the opportunity to have her products featured on Royal Caribbean vessels and properties.
Now faced with the task of producing pepper jams and jellies for a large audience of Royal Caribbean guests every year, Cartwright said she feels she has no choice but to scale up her home-based business.
“It is a different ball game having to increase sauce production for Royal Caribbean,” she stated. “Some would get intimidated, but I look at it as an obstacle to overcome, and I am not prepared to fail.”
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