Yorkville dad makes BBQ sauce!!

I would like to introduce myself to all of you I'm Dennis Larson I love to BBQ and I also have created a phenomenal BBQ sauce. I've been interested in cooking since I was a small kid, I remember standing on a chair to watch my mom and grandmother cook and bake.

When I was 11 years old, my dad passed away. My mom worked a full time job and would often come home late. I remember times when my mom would call home and ask me to help make something for dinner for her and my two brothers. So over the phone mom would tell me where and what needed to be mixed together, in our home then and even now we always made meals from scratch (a little of this and a little of that) I don't recall ever eating a box of anything over the years. I come from a Great family that all love to create and eat some awesome foods. One of the reasons that I started to blog is so I could share some of my great recipes with so many of you as you continue to follow me. Over the years in our home we made everything from scratch, The more I cooked the more interested I was in cooking new things. 

After I graduated high school, I went on a mission to Long Beach, CA for my church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I often cooked for my roommates, They loved it when it was my turn to cook dinner and would often ask me for the recipe. One day a Mike Triplette a member of a congregation that I was serving in had us over for lunch and while I was eating Mike said, " Elder Larson, you have to try this amazing teriyaki sauce." Turns out the second that the teriyaki sauce touched my tongue there was one ingredient that stood out more boldly to me then anything else that I tasted in the sauce. It was some thing that I remember eating with my mom when I was a kid. At that moment is when I started to fully realize that I have a great gift, the gift to create and taste ingredients individually in foods.

I remember Mike had challenged me to duplicate the sauce. After several trials, and much wasted food I created sauce that I felt tasted better then the sauce that Mike had originally had me try. There were many times in the 2 years while I was in California I remember I would knock on my neighbors’ doors in our apartment buildings and have them try a sauce that I had created. I would then ask them what they thought the sauce needed? I wanted to make the sauce to the likings of everyone else not just to what I like. “I listened to their comments and make changes.”

After this initial creation my roommates asked me, " if you can create a teriyaki sauce what else can you create?"  So I started to started creating more sauces.

I'm not one for A1, but I've always used BBQ sauce on my steaks and fries so I decided to try and create my own BBQ sauce. Starting off I had no idea where or what to even start with to create a BBQ sauce. I looked up tons of different recipes for BBQ sauce to get a general idea about what was even in BBQ sauce and where to start. Sadly I found that almost every recipes that I came across ALL used ketchup, I didn't want my BBQ sauce to be like all the rest that are out there so I never used ketchup. My BBQ sauce as of today is called "That's Barbeque" took me about a year and half to fully perfect the recipe.  

Before long I was taking requests for my barbeque sauce, The sauce has a bold sweet taste at first but as you eat it about 10 seconds in there's a perfect kick, not to sweet not to hot. It’s thicker than most barbeque sauces, the sauce caramelizes at lower temperatures and sticks to your food so it doesn't slide off. That's because I use real brown sugar, honey, & molasses as sweeteners not High Fructose corn syrup as the sweetener like most other big brands do.(Go check yours). When you read my ingredient list you will see that the only HFCS that is in my sauce is in one of the ingredients that I use and I can't change that but at least its a very small amount and not my main sweetener.

In 2008 I find a bottling company to manufacture and bottle my BBQ sauce so I would be able to sell it to more of you and to stores and restaurants. Since 2009, I have been selling the sauce, which I named That’s Barbeque, at various locations, including Prisco’s Fine Foods, Aurora and Dave’s Meat Market in Yorkville. I also sell it on my website, www.thatsbarbeque.com. I'm a Local business that is trying to make it big, I will sell my products anywhere that I can and am always looking to expand. If you are a owner of a store or restaurant and would like to sell my sauce in your store or serve it contact me. Orders can be placed through my website if you would like to try out my BBQ sauce. I have also created sauces for frozen dinner meals and pouches.

Currently the only sauce that I have manufactured is the BBQ sauce but one day all of the sauces that I make will be available for sale at stores and on-line. Here is a list of some of the other sauces that I have created over the years:  strawberry vinaigrette, teriyaki sauce, salsa, spaghetti sauce, enchilada sauce and a gluten-free, low-sodium, low-carb, health-conscious barbecue sauce, sesame ginger sauce and many more to still come.  

One thing that keeps me creating and selling my products is, “I enjoy when I get to talk to others about food”

Good to talk to you!