Patrick Ford

It’s a family affair at Ford’s Gourmet Foods, a fourth-generation Raleigh, N.C.-based business. It began as a produce company in 1946 and was expanded 40 years later when Lynn Ford (whose grandfather, father and uncle started the business) and his wife, Sandi, branched out with Ford’s Fancy Fruits & Gourmet Foods—a fruit basket business that sold more than 400 gourmet food products made in North Carolina from two retail outlets.

The backbone of the business—the original Bone Suckin’ Sauce—was developed in 1987 by Phil Ford, Lynn’s brother, while trying to copy his mother’s recipe for a western North Carolina-style barbecue sauce. It was so good that Lynn and Sandi decided to take it to market. The name was a no-brainer. While driving their youngest son, Patrick, to college in Charleston, S.C., Sandi thought about how good the sauce was and how it made her do something she’d never done before—suck on the bones to get the last little bit of flavor. Bone Suckin’ Sauce was born and is today an international award winner. It’s sentimental too—it reminds Sandi of her mom, Grandma Mae, who works the booths at every trade show and is Ford’s credit manager.

Son Patrick, who officially joined the company in 1996, remembers the early days: “My dad took care of the bottling process, mom started to sell it in her stores and elsewhere and I began selling it out of my car in college door to door.” Since then, they’ve closed the retail stores to focus on wholesale, currently selling the products in more than 50 countries worldwide. The company is a full-fledged family operation: In addition to Patrick, Lynn and Sandi’s eldest son Vaughn came on board in 1993.

Today, the produce operation, Fords Produce Company, is run by Lynn and Vaughn, while Sandi and Patrick run Ford’s Gourmet Foods, which has expanded its offerings with clean, all-natural, gluten-free lines, like Wine Nuts and Fire Dancer Jalapeño Peanuts, Earth Family Organics and Naturals and A’Lese Tois chocolates.

We talked to Patrick Ford about his experience working in his family business.

What is your favorite way to use your BBQ sauces?

I use the Original Bone Suckin’ Sauce mixed with orange juice and put on slow cooked ribs. It’s absolutely the best. This is my dad’s recipe and it is my go-to recipe for gatherings.

If someone shadowed you for one day at your job, what would surprise them the most?

The time of day I get to work: 4 a.m.

How do you feel about working in a family business?

My parents run it and I tell them when they leave I am going out the door with them!

When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I wanted to work in the family business and be like my parents.

Aside from your products, what food can you always find in your kitchen?

Wild Thymes salad dressing.  I always have all kinds of different flavors of their dressing. And for all the barbecues and get-togethers, I always have Mary Phillips Designs Cocktail Napkins on hand. Everyone gets a kick out of them.—Denise Shoukas

Denise Shoukas is a regular foodspring.com contributor and is the author of foodspring’s food forager blog.