'Sauce Bae' Mahwah Grad Combats Autoimmune Disease With Spice

MAHWAH, NJ — Ramapo College graduate Kevin Carbone used to think his autoimmune disease was the worst thing that ever happened to him, but then he became the nation's "Sauce Bae."

Carbone is the chef/owner behind the celebrated hot sauce — crafted in the kitchen of his parent's Howell home in 2018 — that he says brings the flavor without the additives that trigger inflammation linked to his ulcerative colitis diagnosis.

"I became so sick at one point that I hardly left my room for a couple of months, and at the age of 21, I wondered if this was what the rest of my life would look like," Carbone writes.

"Determined to gain back control of my life, I set out on a journey towards better health."

Carbone said he was shocked to find that items, like hot sauces, were often marketed as all-natural, even though their ingredient list — sodium, added sugars, artificial preservatives — suggested otherwise.

"I was determined to change that," Carbone said on his website. "I set out to create the healthiest option on the market, without sacrificing any flavor."

Entrepreneurial at heart and a lifelong fan of hot sauce, Carbone said it was not until he received the life-changing diagnosis that he decided to fuse his affinity for innovation with his love of the condiment.

"I experienced severe symptoms that consumed my life, and I couldn't take it anymore, so I decided to spend my days researching the autoimmune disease while using myself as a test dummy to figure out what foods I could and couldn't eat," he told Patch. "This is how I discovered the spice turmeric (which can be good for inflammation) and fell in love with eating clean."

Carbone created the recipe for his "complex yet versatile" hot sauce — all natural and low sodium, and crafted with pineapple and habaneros, and rented a small commercial kitchen in Spring Lake, where he'd make dozens of bottles of hot sauce each day.

He then turned to a commercial manufacturer to "ramp up production" to fill thousands of bottles, and allow himself more time to manage and grow the business.

Success came soon to Carbone and his turmeric-infused hot sauce, Sauce Bae, which was featured on Season 9 of the American YouTube talk show "Hot Ones" in 2019, and given to celebrity guests Kristen Bell, Trevor Noah, Adam Devine and others.

"The show appearance absolutely helped to catapult the brand forward," Carbone said. "I am extremely grateful that I had that opportunity."

Today, "Sauce Bae" is sold in more than 1,700 retail locations, including the ACME in Mahwah, Edgewater and Fort Lee, Carbone told Patch.

Marketed with the cheeky tagline "the only bae you'll need," Sauce Bae has now earned more than 1,200 five-star ratings on Amazon and is "Amazon's Choice" in the Hot Sauce category.

Sauce Bae's success is why Carbone now knows his diagnosis wasn't the curse he once thought it was.

"Looking back, it changed my life in positive ways that I would have never imagined," Carbone writes. "If it wasn’t for my autoimmune disease, Sauce Bae wouldn’t exist."