meet
Tubby Tom's
What started out as a one-man band, created by founder Tom Hughes, has rapidly grown into a full-on crew who know how to spice up your life! Tubby Tom’s sauces, marinades and rubs are just the thing for your BBQ this summer… give them a go – if you dare…
It all started with one batch of homemade BBQ sauce. I gave it out to friends and family and branded it all up with ‘Tubby Tom’s’ as a laugh. Seven years later we’re a fully-fledged brand making over 40 different products with a crew of eight.
The highlight of my journey so far is being able to employ amazing people and provide them with awesome jobs that give them great satisfaction while creating a really strong workforce. We’re all friends in and out of work.
Our best-selling product is Pablo Diablo which is our award-winning jalapeno and lime hot sauce – we make out 800-1000 bottle at a time, every couple of weeks.
But we’ve got some other contenders these days too. Our Buffalo Hot Sauce is really popular as it’s spicy enough to give you a tingle but mild enough you could probably drink a bottle. Our Dragon Salt is our Chinese takeaway-style seasoning which people add to fried rice or stir fries.
I started making sauces with milder chillies and have just chased the dragon up the heat scale. Now I’m a little bit more cautious as I’ve had some outer-body experiences from the result of eating super hot chillies and I still even get nightmares!
My all-time favourite product is our Black Coffee Rub which is also known as Espresso Yourself or Wake the Dead. It’s had a few different names but the recipe has always been the same. It’s the ultimate beef rub and makes epic short ribs, brisket and even tastes awesome on a ribeye steak on the flame grill!
I literally dream about food, I’m so greedy. I’m also lucky enough to be able to grill in my back garden (after 7 years of living in a flat with no outside space!) so it’s nice to try all sorts of cooking techniques with different ingredients, rubs and sauces.
I’m also influenced by the ingredients themselves, for example we’re currently looking at making a product which Chuckleberries which are a really tasty hybrid fruit that could pair really nicely with some fiery chillies.
One of the lessons I’ve learnt as a local food brand is to believe in community. We have such a bustling hub of passionate food producers in Gloucestershire. It’s a great network and a lot of us work together and learn from each other.
When we move to our new premises, we want to do more events at Tubby HQ, such as wing competitions, regular farmers’ markets and possibly our own BBQ School.
