Everyone has a favorite hot sauce, and the hot sauce families want you to choose theirs. And the Baumer family is no exception. Listen as we talk with third generation Crystal hot sauce CEO, Alvin Baumer, III. He is known to family and friends as Pepper. We talk food dynasties, the ups and downs of the food industry, and all the quirky, but important food things that people in New Orleans consider important. Listen. It’s on Tip of the Tongue.

The company began in 1923, founded by Pepper’s grandfather, Alvin Baumer, Sr. He reincarnated the company from its beginnings making snoball syrup. After Hurricane Kathrina, as well as previous catastrophes, the company has emerged with its strong base as hot sauce with its eyes on the future. Now the company is sold in countries around the world.

Alvin “Pepper” Baumer, III

My friend, Micheline (Micki) Maynard, who writes the CulinaryWoman Newsletter on Substack, joins me as we talk about 300 episodes of Tip of the Tongue and my first video podcast! Listen. It’s on Tip of the Tongue.

Micheline Maynard is is an author, reporter and a podcaster.

She publishes the CulinaryWoman Newsletter, which comes out every Sunday.

Her expertise is the restaurant business, and she writes for Food & Wine, Time Magazine, the Boston Globe, and the Ann Arbor Observer in her hometown in Michigan. Most recently, she published Satisfaction Guaranteed, the story of Zingerman’s famous Deli. Micki and I got to know each other when she lived in New Orleans for a year and she’s been a guest several times on Tip of the Tongue.

What a pleasure to speak to 98 year old Betty Fussell! She praised her Scottish genes. Her book, How to Cook a Coyote: The Joy of Old Age, is a nod to M.F.K. Fisher and her book, How to Cook a Wolf. But the wily coyote is a trickster and shape shifter, always there for both good and bad. Listen to our conversation. Betty lays out her current project and the pains of finding a story line in her book. All writers will be able to identify with the struggle, which Betty faces with humor despite blindness and the limits of age. Listen. It’s on Tip of the Tongue.