Starr Edwards's guest appearances

Starr Edwards

San Diego Magazine's Happy Half Hour

Back Label Branding

SheEO Lead-In

David Warner

Anthony Bourdain

Daniel Boulud

Erick Castro

Javier Plascencia

Andrew Weil

Eric Greenspan

Richard Blais

Michael Mina

Claudette Zepeda-Wilkins

Jeff Fenster

Steve Brown

Phillip Esteban

Matt Gordon

Lee Chase

OwlTail

Join Rebecca Jones in this week’s episode as she is joined by Starr Edwards, the CEO and founder of Bitchin’ Sauce. An almond based dip company, Bitchin’ Sauce has been finding its way into people’s homes for the last 10 years. Originally from Oregon, Edwards attributes her favorite childhood memories to spending much of her time outdoors. The women brainstorm on words to describe Starr, finally landing on authentic, thankful, and inclusive. Edwards measures success by how content she feels throughout the entirety of the process. When asked to give advice to young women following in her footsteps, Edwards encourages women to be comfortable delegating, surround themselves with people who will push them, don’t be afraid, and to have grace for themselves. Thank you for listening and joining the SheEO Lead-In community!

Join Rebecca Jones in this week’s episode as she is joined by Starr Edwards, the CEO and founder of Bitchin’ Sauce. An almond based dip company, Bitchin’ Sauce has been finding its way into people’s homes for the last 10 years. Originally from Oregon, Edwards attributes her favorite childhood memories to spending much of her time outdoors. The women brainstorm on words to describe Starr, finally landing on authentic, thankful, and inclusive. Edwards measures success by how content she feels throughout the entirety of the process. When asked to give advice to young women following in her footsteps, Edwards encourages women to be comfortable delegating, surround themselves with people who will push them, don’t be afraid, and to have grace for themselves. Thank you for listening and joining the SheEO Lead-In community!

E 74 | Starr Edwards Falls Into Bitchin’ Sauce

Welcome back to the Happy Half Hour! This week, we chat with Starr Edwards, founder of Bitchin’ Sauce, a popular almond dip that is vegan-friendly. You may have it seen at local farmers’ markets (and mistaken it for hummus) or at the grocery store. The company started in Carlsbad and is still headquartered there, but has increased distribution to nearly 7,000 stores nationwide, including Costco, Target, and Whole Foods. In episode 210, William Bradley, executive chef at Michelin-starred restaurant Addison, said that Bitchin’s chipotle flavor is one of his favorite things to eat. Starr explained that the almond dip started with three flavors and is now available in 13; she highly recommends trying it as a sauce on fish tacos. Starr moved to San Diego from Oregon with her family when she was 15, and her parents were hippies—there were always ingredients like Bragg’s liquid aminos and almonds in the kitchen, at a time when they weren’t mainstream. She graduated high school early; at 16 she started working at a mortgage company and took night classes at a local college—that same year she came up with the recipe for Bitchin’ Sauce. Years later, when Starr met her husband, musician L. A. Edwards, got married, and had their first child, Skip, she went into business as a personal chef and promoted it with a stand at a local farmers’ market. She used Bitchin’ Sauce to attract visitors to the stand—and the sauce became so popular she decided to rethink her business plan. She says with just $200 and a blender, she started making more of it to sell at the farmers’ markets, and the company grew to the point where she needed to secure a commercial kitchen. A buyer for Costco discovered the brand, which opened the door for national distribution.Starr says ramping up production for Bitchin’ Sauce to this level meant she had to figure out a new world of regulations for packaging, labeling, and UPCs, and she credits local stores Cardiff Seaside Market and Cream of the Crop for helping her. We also learned who inspired the logo, how she grew the company to nearly 80 employees, and most importantly, how she came up with the name—listen to find out! To this day, the company hasn’t received any outside funding, and during the pandemic, they launched a music label and a charity. They even have the Bitchin’ Beach Club at Carlsbad Lagoon. The company doesn’t ship their sauce directly, but it’s available through Amazon Fresh. In Hot Plates, we talked about Governor Newsom lifting the regional stay-home order and returning all counties in California to the colored tier system, allowing for outdoor dining at restaurants. Puesto, which temporarily had to close all of their restaurants last week and furlough a majority of their staff, announced their plans to reopen soon. More details are in about celebrity chef Richard Blais’s new restaurant, Ember &amp; Rye, that will open at the Park Hyatt Aviara in Carlsbad. We end on some good news: A new Italian restaurant, Allegro, will open in Little Italy, where Indigo Grill had been for more than 20 years before closing last year. In Two People for Takeout / Two People for $50, Starr’s pick is Sushi Ota in Mission Bay, which was also the Readers’ Choice in our 2020 Best Restaurants feature. Troy’s pick is the Vaquero hot dog from Barrio Dogg in Barrio Logan, and David likes the cold vegetable sandwich from Clem’s Bottle House in Kensington. My pick is the chicken-fried steak biscuit at Sonnyboy Biscuit Co. in University Heights. Thank you for listening and starting the new year with us! As always, we want to hear from our listeners. Do you have a question for Troy? Need a recommendation for takeout? Is there a guest you want us to book on the show? Let us know! You can call us at 619-744-0535 and leave a voicemail, or if you’re too shy, you can email us at happyhalfhour@sdmag.com. See you next week!

Welcome back to the Happy Half Hour! This week, we chat with Starr Edwards, founder of Bitchin’ Sauce, a popular almond dip that is vegan-friendly. You may have it seen at local farmers’ markets (and mistaken it for hummus) or at the grocery store. The company started in Carlsbad and is still headquartered there, but has increased distribution to nearly 7,000 stores nationwide, including Costco, Target, and Whole Foods. In episode 210, William Bradley, executive chef at Michelin-starred restaurant Addison, said that Bitchin’s chipotle flavor is one of his favorite things to eat. Starr explained that the almond dip started with three flavors and is now available in 13; she highly recommends trying it as a sauce on fish tacos. Starr moved to San Diego from Oregon with her family when she was 15, and her parents were hippies—there were always ingredients like Bragg’s liquid aminos and almonds in the kitchen, at a time when they weren’t mainstream. She graduated high school early; at 16 she started working at a mortgage company and took night classes at a local college—that same year she came up with the recipe for Bitchin’ Sauce. Years later, when Starr met her husband, musician L. A. Edwards, got married, and had their first child, Skip, she went into business as a personal chef and promoted it with a stand at a local farmers’ market. She used Bitchin’ Sauce to attract visitors to the stand—and the sauce became so popular she decided to rethink her business plan. She says with just $200 and a blender, she started making more of it to sell at the farmers’ markets, and the company grew to the point where she needed to secure a commercial kitchen. A buyer for Costco discovered the brand, which opened the door for national distribution. Starr says ramping up production for Bitchin’ Sauce to this level meant she had to figure out a new world of regulations for packaging, labeling, and UPCs, and she credits local stores Cardiff Seaside Market and Cream of the Crop for helping her. We also learned who inspired the logo, how she grew the company to nearly 80 employees, and most importantly, how she came up with the name—listen to find out! To this day, the company hasn’t received any outside funding, and during the pandemic, they launched a music label and a charity. They even have the Bitchin’ Beach Club at Carlsbad Lagoon. The company doesn’t ship their sauce directly, but it’s available through Amazon Fresh. In Hot Plates, we talked about Governor Newsom lifting the regional stay-home order and returning all counties in California to the colored tier system, allowing for outdoor dining at restaurants. Puesto, which temporarily had to close all of their restaurants last week and furlough a majority of their staff, announced their plans to reopen soon. More details are in about celebrity chef Richard Blais’s new restaurant, Ember &amp; Rye, that will open at the Park Hyatt Aviara in Carlsbad. We end on some good news: A new Italian restaurant, Allegro, will open in Little Italy, where Indigo Grill had been for more than 20 years before closing last year. In Two People for Takeout / Two People for $50, Starr’s pick is Sushi Ota in Mission Bay, which was also the Readers’ Choice in our 2020 Best Restaurants feature. Troy’s pick is the Vaquero hot dog from Barrio Dogg in Barrio Logan, and David likes the cold vegetable sandwich from Clem’s Bottle House in Kensington. My pick is the chicken-fried steak biscuit at Sonnyboy Biscuit Co. in University Heights. Thank you for listening and starting the new year with us! As always, we want to hear from our listeners. Do you have a question for Troy? Need a recommendation for takeout? Is there a guest you want us to book on the show? Let us know! You can call us at 619-744-0535 and leave a voicemail, or if you’re too shy, you can email us at happyhalfhour@sdmag.com. See you next week!

Meet Starr Edwards, the Founder of Bitchin’ Sauce

Starr Edwards is the Founder and CEO of Bitchin' Sauce, a plant-based almond dip that has started as a teenager's kitchen experiment. Starr began making Bitchin’ Sauce in 2004, prompted by a newly acquired vegan diet as a sparky sixteen-year-old. At the time, there was a growing raw foods movement, but the vegan-friendly options were either highly-processed or high priced. So she created something herself! Starr's sauce quickly became  a family staple and flagship recipe that she used in her budding personal chef business. She did spend a few years working as a home chef but realized that what she really wanted was consistent, flexible work so that  she could care for her one-year-old son and be with her family. Starr started selling Bitchin sauce at local farmers' markets. And then to local grocers. And then, as we’ll talk about in this episode, she was able to get distribution at Whole Foods. And then Costco came a-knockin! We also dive into the Bitchin brand… how it was an alternative to “Awesome Sauce” which she originally googled. But the Bitchin name has since become fundamental in creating a brand identity and an internal culture. Find Bitchin' Sauce at a retailer nearest you at bitchinsauce.com Check out the new Bitchin' Blog to see what Starr is up to and watch their new recipe reels on Instagram @bitchinsauce

Starr Edwards is the Founder and CEO of Bitchin' Sauce, a plant-based almond dip that has started as a teenager's kitchen experiment. Starr began making Bitchin’ Sauce in 2004, prompted by a newly acquired vegan diet as a sparky sixteen-year-old. At the time, there was a growing raw foods movement, but the vegan-friendly options were either highly-processed or high priced. So she created something herself! Starr's sauce quickly became  a family staple and flagship recipe that she used in her budding personal chef business. She did spend a few years working as a home chef but realized that what she really wanted was consistent, flexible work so that  she could care for her one-year-old son and be with her family. Starr started selling Bitchin sauce at local farmers' markets. And then to local grocers. And then, as we’ll talk about in this episode, she was able to get distribution at Whole Foods. And then Costco came a-knockin! We also dive into the Bitchin brand… how it was an alternative to “Awesome Sauce” which she originally googled. But the Bitchin name has since become fundamental in creating a brand identity and an internal culture. Find Bitchin' Sauce at a retailer nearest you at <a href="https://bitchinsauce.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">bitchinsauce.com</a> Check out the new <a href="https://bitchinsauce.com/blog" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Bitchin' Blog</a> to see what Starr is up to and watch their new recipe reels on Instagram <a href="https://www.instagram.com/bitchinsauce/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@bitchinsauce</a>

Bitchin Sauce - Starr Edwards on building a brand through local Farmers Markets and grocers