Gourmet sauce in everyday clothing
By Dan Sheridan
Woburn Advocate, April 20, 1995
The sauce is delicious. The business is growing.
It had better.
Sauceman Glenn Cormier of Stoneham has staked his daughters' college money and more of his own on the success of his fat-free, oil-free Black Gold cooking sauce. That cash funded the startup of the business.
Cormier, who at 41 has been in the restaurant and food-service business since he was 15, believes in his Black Gold sauce.
"I had to cash in some of my kids' savings bonds that I put aside for their schooling," he said at the Woburn plant where his soy-based sauce is produced and bottled.
"Was it worth it? Yes. I know the product. It's such a good product and I have fun doing it. It's my little 401K that I'm trying to build. It's the American dream, your own business.
 "I've worked kitchens since I was 15 and I'm still working for somebody else. I'm doing this on the side for me and my family. It's something I want to do," he said.
Cormier works full-time for a national vending company as a chef and manager. On his own time, he works on the sauce with the support of wife, Nancy, and daughters Meghan, 7, and Hannah, 4.
The concentrated sauce - at 40 calories per serving - is available in meat markets and delicatessens - places like the Century House restaurant and epicurean shop in Peabody, Butcher's Pride on Cambridge Street in Burlington, the New England Meat Market in Cambridge and Peabody and Farm Land on Main Street in Wakefield. It is available at a recommended $2.99 a bottle in three flavors: double garlic, garlic and ginger, and garlic and jalapeno.
"It's sort of a gourmet sauce in everyday clothing, priced like other sauces but better. The price/value ratio is better, the flavor is much better. It's a more robust sauce. The flavor is there and it's intense," he said.
"This is an instant marinade sauce. You can marinate meats with this in 15 minutes. People think you have to marinate meat for eight hours or overnight. You don't have to do that. This is not cut with water; it's concentrated. The flavor gets right into the meats," he said.
"Take a piece of steak or chicken, put the sauce on it, flip it over and leave it on for 10 or 15 minutes. Cook it up or grill it up. Baste it with the sauce. Man, it's going to give you a happy mouth."
Sauce with a history
The sauce, which came from a recipe his sister gave him about 10 years ago, was developed and refined on the white gas stove in Cormier's Stoneham kitchen. The kitchen is small, being part of a house built in 1812.
"I played with it and jazzed it up. I used to do chicken wings and pan frying and stir frying.
People came to the house with empty containers for the sauce, neighbors and friends, so I knew I was doing something right," he said.
Cormier said the soy-based sauce contains some sugar and different herbs and garlic. He would not, of course, disclose the mix.
Cormier, a 1971 Beverly High School graduate who studied culinary arts at Newbury College, worked for Legal Seafoods for eight years and learned a valuable lesson.
"One thing I learned there is 'never compromise on quality.'"
Sales volume is increasing, with some 150 cases of Black Gold going out the door every two or three weeks.
"I'm looking for expansion in so many markets, for regional expansion out of New England, into the supermarkets and chains. It will be a real success when I can generate enough income that I can start putting away some money for my kids so they can go to school," he said.
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