HSB Readers - Please welcome Steve M to the HSB reviewer ranks. Steve is one of the many new reviewers added to the HSB recently (those intros are coming soon) and we’re excited to add his kitchen skills to the mix. Please give Steve a warm HSB welcome! More about Steve here and his first HSB review can be found here.

I’m SteveM and it’s a thrill to be joining the reviewers at HSB! I’m writing to you from just outside the nation’s Capitol in Northern Virginia. I’m a self-taught cook and wine enthusiast, but the thing that really gets me going is a good hot sauce.

Mind you, I wasn’t born with a hot pepper in my mouth. In fact, my first experience with the capsicum as a youngster was not unlike someone being attacked by a pack of wild dogs and fearing them for the rest of their life. As a teenager, I inadvertently ate a whole piri-piri that was hidden inside a sardine. I swore off anything hot for the next 15 years. But when I moved to Virginia from my home town of Boston in 1984, I worked with a guy from Texas who introduced me to hot sauces. Twenty or so years later, my annual hot sauce consumption quite likely generates enough endorphins to power a small city.

My taste in hot sauces generally runs more in the direction of enjoying the flavors, rather than striving for such a degree of olfactory punishment that the subtleties are lost in the blast of heat. That orientation toward flavor will hopefully be reflected in my reviews. That’s not to say that I can’t take the hot stuff, and I look forward to tasting whatever Nick wants to throw at me.

I am constantly looking for the best pairings of food and wine. Similarly, I like certain types of hot sauces with certain types of foods, but I’m always willing to break with convention and try some outlandish combination. Variety truly is the spice of life and I try to practice that every time I fire it up in the kitchen. Look for some of my recipes in future reviews.

Well, it’s back to the tasting room. I’m hot to get started!

Warmly,

SteveM