Captain Cooks Food

Writing by Kayla Schmidt

Photography by Jonathan Baskin

Perfectly enhancing the flavor of a dish so it can reach its full potential isn’t easy. But Chris Busone, creator and owner of Captain Cooks Food, has become an expert in that department, and he’s shared his tips and tricks since 2016.

How long have you been in business? 

I’ve been in business “officially” since 2019, but I’ve had the name and the Instagram since 2016.

Why did you start your business? 

I’ve always loved cooking, so I started by posting recipes to Instagram and making hot sauce. Then I incorporated the business so I could legally produce and sell hot sauce.

Is hot sauce your main focus?

No, but it was for a while. I’m still very much involved in the hot sauce community; this year I was a judge for the 2024 Philadelphia and Boston hot sauce festivals. I still make spicy products, like spicy candy, and I do occasionally make some hot sauce. But I’ve moved more into online social media content creation for brands, as well as catering.

What makes your business different? 

I like to incorporate spice into a lot of my products, especially for people who don’t usually eat spicy food, which, I’ve found, is often because they haven’t tried spice in enough ways to find one that works for them. I think everyone hears that something is spicy, and they’re immediately against it, but if you change the delivery system, it’s a little easier for people to enjoy it and be willing to try it. 

How do you do that? 

It depends on what you combine it with. We forget that certain foods kind of cancel out certain spices; cheese, dairy and fat actually reduce spice. If you eat something spicy, you can eat a whole bunch of full-fat cheese to stop the spice from taking over your mouth. This helps people take in the flavor profiles. The same goes for hot sauce—most people just think of Tabasco, but I like to be a little bit creative with my recipes, especially for catering, which is something you may not see a lot.

Do you often work with flavor profiles when creating a recipe? 

Yes, absolutely. There’s a famous book-turned-show called “Salt Fat Acid Heat,” and the basic concept is any dish you serve should have those four elements. It’s a rule I try to follow because I’ve found people really love it; it hits all the different sensory points in their mouth, so they really taste everything. 

Can you give an example? 

I make a brulee egg, which is basically a deviled egg topped with hard caramel, salt, basil and a little bit of fig glaze. It hits all the sensory points.

What have you learned as a chef? 

You’re never going to please people all the time, so learning your demographic is important. However, there is a happy medium between knowing your audience and trying to branch out as your next step. 

Also, as I’ve entered the catering world, I’ve learned how to sit down and genuinely talk with somebody to find out what they want. I ask, ‘How do you see your party? What do you envision, as far as the food?’ Communicating with others is a huge part of catering; the business is hospitality, after all.

How did you get into the food business? 

I’ve been cooking since I was about nine, and I really love it. In 2016, I was posting so much of my food that I decided to make a separate Instagram account. I called it Captain Cooks Food because I love pirates and am kind of obsessed with that theme. Then, a few years down the road, I started developing my own recipes for actual products; hot sauce was one of the first ones. I had people try my hot sauces, and the next thing I knew I had started an Indiegogo so people could help me get the licenses I needed to become a hot sauce producer. My way of thanking them was giving them a bottle of my hot sauce, and I quickly made this a business by working with other small businesses, selling them my hot sauce, and even developing hot sauces with them. That led to catering, which is what I mostly do now. 

So, my entrance to the food world was pretty different from most. Stepping away from the classic avenues that a lot of people use to enter the food world was a big part of my success. I saw everything from the outside; it’s a rare luxury to be able to do that with a business you love. Instead of just diving in headfirst, I started by dipping my toes in the water to find the avenue that was best for me.

When did you first fall in love with cooking and spices? 

Spices came a bit later, but I first fell in love with cooking when I was young. I would cook at home a lot, and my dad even taught me how to use a chef’s knife when I was nine or ten. By the time I was a teenager, I was cooking full meals every now and then. I started cooking with a lot of chilies, and I realized that heat and spice, if used properly in cooking, can elevate all the other flavors, not just blast it with heat. That’s always what I try to do—elevate all the flavors and additions. I really dove into spices as I got closer to my 30s, and that’s when my hot sauce really started to take off. 

How has your community supported you? 

Instagram, and obviously my wife, have been my biggest supporters. Instagram has detailed my journey; I’ve been my honest and true self there, which has allowed me to build such a great community. The community I’ve built on Instagram has been supportive, amazing and engaging with me because I am relentlessly myself on my cooking page. And I have a horrible mouth, which I don’t mind showing anybody. But I also show when I mess up. I have a whole highlight reel of outtakes of me trying to make videos and just messing up, which really gives people a behind-the-scenes look so they’re able to connect with me. As for my wife, she has always encouraged and helped me, whether it’s with the business and creative strategies, testing my food, or anything else. I owe her everything.

How has your business impacted the community? 

I feel like I’ve been able to create a smaller community where people can reach out to me on Instagram or I can see them try my recipes. I try not to gatekeep anything, which I think a lot of chefs do; I tell people where to shop for this, or, when you’re preserving this, make sure you do that. It’s small things that really make the impact. My whole thing is connection—I’m not looking to be the number one chef in the entire country or world; I’m not striving for some unrealistic dream. I enjoy the small connections. Even just getting a message that someone used one of my recipes makes my day, and that happens a lot. Those have a greater impact for me.

What’s one mistake you’ve made? 

Anyone who’s ever started a business, especially in food, has made mistakes—and I’m definitely no exception. My mistake in the beginning was trying to make a profit with hot sauce but buying really expensive ingredients and supplies. I would find the exact kind of glass I wanted to use for a bottle, or the exact kind of mango, and it made the profit margins very thin, which ate into producing more for a while. When I finally started buying things in larger batches, shopping in different places and sourcing from the right places, suddenly I had more money to work with. 

Where do you see your business in the future?

 I’d really love to have a steady catering business and also focus on producing spice products again. Now that I’ve built a community with catering, and I’ve gotten some notice for that, I feel like I will be able to focus on spices a bit more. I would love to be a bigger part of that community; I make some unique spice products. I also would love to work with businesses and make customized products for them again. 

What tips/advice would you give to someone who wants to start a food business? 

The best advice I could give is to zero in on what you actually like; zero in on something that you could see yourself doing for free. Like, I could cook for people and make spice products and not get paid, which is what happened in the beginning, and that’s how I knew. If you can see yourself doing that, then pursue it, because there are usually ways to make money doing it. It’s a lot of work, but it’s a great place to start.

What is your dream? 

I would love to have an entire line of products, ranging from hot sauce and spicy candy to sauces and aiolis—everything I love. I think testing the waters with different products over the years to see what works and what doesn’t will give me a better idea of how to approach that. As much as I love catering, that’s my whole thing now; down the line, I would enjoy a life of creating new spice avenues. That would be a dream.

This article was published in the November/December 2024 edition of Connect to Northern Westchester.