Dear Friends, Family, Colleagues, and Fellow Culinary Adventurers,
In the first chapter of my working life, I was privileged to work on groundbreaking healthcare advancements and disruptive technologies designed to make the world better and safer. I helped companies market medicines that have combated diseases like HIV, diabetes, and cancer. It was a privilege to support their work, which saved and extended millions of lives.
Today, I am excited to announce a venture that absolutely won’t save humankind. But it might bring a smile to your face, a tingle to your tongue, and perhaps even a tear or two to your eyes.
Enter SpiceQuest.
This venture focuses on one of the most wonderful yet often overlooked, misunderstood, and even feared molecules: capsaicin.
Found in chili peppers, capsaicin works wonders — supporting metabolic health, aiding weight management, reducing inflammation, and even sparking happiness by releasing endorphins. Despite its benefits, we’ve barely scratched the surface of what capsaicin and its many varietals can offer.
My mission is to make capsaicin just as much a part of your meals, and the way you flavor them, as salt and pepper.
Ok, so why capsaicin — and why chili peppers?
Chili peppers have been my favorite fruit since childhood. Picture five-year-old me in Italy, proudly wielding a foot-long, chili-infused salami like a candy bar. In every restaurant, I scour the menu for the chef's fieriest concoctions — anything with a whisper of chili pepper. Yet, decades of culinary adventures have been a trek through a wasteland of disappointment.
The typical offerings? Maybe a jar of 'crushed red pepper' flakes that taste like paint chips. Or perhaps a pathetic lineup of hot sauces. My fridge is a graveyard for the stuff — most of which should've sailed into the trash can ages ago. While these sauces flirt on the edge of interesting, they're generally nothing more than vinegary stunts that should never come near a plate of anything that isn't hailing from a taco stand or a New Orleans dive.
On the rare occasion a legit chili pepper crosses my path, it’s a culinary gamble. There you are, armed with nothing but a spoon or a shaky hand, taking a stab at seasoning. More often than not, you end up with a flavor you can’t recognize — and never want to meet again — or torturing your over-spiced dinner guests into a symphony of coughs and pleas for mercy.
This grim cycle of heartbreak and heartburn has haunted me all my life. Enough's enough. It’s high time we revolutionize the way we discover, consume, and experience spice.
With SpiceQuest, my aim is simple: to make chili peppers accessible to everyone by bringing the full potential of this marvelous molecule into your home, onto your dining table, and into your life. Whether you're a pepper-skeptic or a die-hard heat-seeker, SpiceQuest has something for you.
We've carefully curated a collection of dried chili peppers, each with a unique flavor profile, spanning the spectrum of heat from the snow-bunny mild to volcanic hot. And we’ve also developed a novel way to deliver a precise dose of chili pepper to your food with just a gentle thumb press, giving you complete control of the heat.
So, while I may not be fighting life-threatening diseases with this venture (but maybe I am), I hope to make your life a little less dull, a little more fun, and a helluvalot spicier.
The adventure officially begins on June 2nd.
If you’re in Southern California, I invite you to join me at the 40th Annual Tustin Street Fair and Chili Cook-Off on Sunday, June 2, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. The SpiceQuest booth will be at spot C11. It’s been a wild 18-month journey filled with failures, missteps, and more than a few fiery tears, but I’m thrilled to finally hoist my newest baby in the air for the whole world to see and welcome.
The event holds the distinct honor of being the largest one-day chili cook-off in the country (according to the International Chili Society). But more importantly, it offers games, activities, live music, beer, wine, food, and an endless supply of chili all day long.
Also, please know that 100% of the proceeds from all Spicequest sales at the event will go to the Hailey Mayz Foundation, which raises money for and helps special needs children, wherever they may be.
I hope to see you there. If not, sign up to be notified when the SpiceQuest kits go on sale.
Sincerely,
Fabio
