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Manufactured by
Krista's Kitchen, Inc.
647 Ridge Road
Lackawanna, NY 14218
716.825.0619
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Now In: Reviews
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Restaurant Review: Janice Okun, Buffalo News 1994
The menu reflects that both Kirk & Krista Van Wagner are graduates of the
Culinary Institute of America and have cooked extensively in Europe and
Caribbean. You can find plenty of interesting things to eat.
One appetizer, Jamaican Jerk Chicken Wings was especially memorable. These were big wings with a half-sweet/half-zippy glaze.
The Grilled Shrimp Coco Cay was delightful too. The marinated shrimp were served up with a refreshing fruit salsa and a heap of black beans.
You couldn't - no matter how hard you tried - find a healthier entree choice than "Low Cal" Fish in a Bag, in which fresh haddock and mushrooms, onions and carrots are wrapped and baked in parchment paper. It's a colorless preparation, true, but cooked this way, the fish stays incredibly moist and forms its own gently flavored, almost sweet sauce.
While we're talking healthy entrees, let
us not forget the Chicken Beijing - Jamaican Jerk marinated chicken breast
stir-fried with fresh vegetables. This was a colorful, well-balanced entree.
We threw caution to the wind and ordered dessert. It was an extravaganza if ever there was one: Chocolate Mousse in a Bag.
The "bag" was made from white chocolate,
and it was filled with a light bittersweet chocolate mixture. It rested
on a puree of fresh strawberries. Need we say more?
Hot Stuff: Turning up the heat on Buffalo cuisine by Charity Vogel, Buffalo News 1995
When you think about it, Buffalo-made hot sauce makes sense. After all, we love chicken wings and Mexican food - and we need something to warm up the winter, right?
It all the more surprising then, that this locally owned hot sauce company - Krista's Kitchen of Lackawanna - has been started only within the last five years.
Up till then, it was pretty much the New Jersey
manufactured Frank's RedHot or nothing.
For those who favor heat, the change has been good - this bottled sauce makes use of the fiery habanero pepper (Redhot, on the other hand is made from the milder cayenne).
In the stratosphere of pepper heat, the burn is measured in Scoville units, named after early pepper researcher Wilbur Scoville; and compared with even the jalapeno, at about 4000 units, the habanero is in a league of its own, measuring a whopping 300,000 units, according to pepper expert Amal Naj, author of the book "peppers: a Story of hot Pursuits."
Krista Warthling VanWagner, 33, head of Krista's Kitchen and co-owner of Curly's restaurant in Lackawanna, grew up concocting chicken wing sauces for the bar at Curly's, during the years it was managed by her father, Paul (the business has been in the family since 1934).
She became a chef and traveled the world,
ending up, at one point in the little settlement of Hell, Grand Caymen.
There she first made a hot sauce, bottled and sold at souvenir stands
under the label of Hell Sauce.
But Buffalo was calling Ms. VanWagner - so she returned to her roots, and brought her new passion for hot sauce with her. The result: Krista's Jamaican Hot Sauce.
"I was so proud to come back to Buffalo with my hot sauce for my wings - I could never make a sauce hot enough before," she says with a look around Curly's Caribbean-themed dining room.
"I was the first one to start using a habanero pepper (in Buffalo)." she continues, then laughs. "The hardest thing for me was to get my dad to get the Tabasco sauce out of here."
Ms. VanWagner's sauce evidences her chef's
background: the label lists onion, thyme, garlic, and tomato in addition
to the pepper. "My product has about 75% pepper in it," Ms. VanWagner
explains. "It's not just marinated in vinegar - it's a cooked product.
It's hot, with flavor . . . and it's thick, almost like a salsa," she
adds.
Ms. VanWagner - married to Kirk, also a chef, and mother of three children - calls her 7 year old hot sauce company a hobby, a mere side job to her work at Curly's.
But what a hobby; her hot sauce - as well as her bottled Jamaican Jerk Sauce - is sold at local food outlets Tops, Wegman's, Jubilee, Quality Markets and area specialty stores, as well as through mail order: it's on the tables at local restaurants; and now she is sending it to stores and restaurants in places as far flung as new York City, London and Austria.
"My sales went from $6,000 to 30,000 in 1995," Ms. VanWagner says. She's now working on establishing a line of Krista's kitchen products, including a bottled Jerkonaise (mayonnaise with jerk spices), a mango Tango Vinaigrette salad dressing, and a packaged black bean soup.
"Our goal is to retire on the hot sauce," Ms. VanWagner says. "This is for my children." |
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