Have you ever wondered why there’s not more African food at the grocery store? While Latin American, Indian, Asian, Italian and other European specialty staples line the shelves, there’s often little to no African items available at most major grocers. Pennsylvania is home to over 1.4 million African Americans (over 11%), a fact which makes this this inventory gap feel all the more stark. Nonetheless, a Pennsylvania couple is making waves with their line of African sauces and spice blends that are popping up on grocery shelves and making it easy to cook rich and flavorful African meals at home.
Pediatrician Dr. Janet Digber-Williams completed her medical residency in Allentown before moving to Pittsburgh. During those famously intense years of long, demanding hours, Digber-Williams began making sauces ahead of time, putting in the hours of chopping, sautéing and blending ingredients and popping the ready-to-eat sauces in the freezer. “That way, if I needed to make meals, I wasn’t starting from scratch,” she says. She also frequently made food for her church’s gatherings. “People were surprised at how I was able to make big meals on short notice. A lot of that had to do with the fact that I made these sauces on my days off and had them in the freezer.”
Her meal prep routine quickly evolved into a business, one that met the growing local interest in her rich, savory West African sauces while filling a gap in the market. She and he husband, James Digber, explored ways of making the sauces more accessible to people, and officially incorporated The Saucy African in 2024. Since then, business has taken off.
“So far, we have 22 retail accounts across eight states,” says Digber-Williams. “We’re also doing six farmers markets throughout the year and we sell online on Amazon, Walmart and through our website.” Their farmers market presence includes Bloomfield Saturday Market, Greensburg Night Market, Bellevue Farmers Market and Main Street Farmers Market in the Greater Pittsburgh area.
The appeal is multifaceted. For one, the sauces and seasoning blend make meal time easy. The expensive, time-intensive task of procuring tomatoes, onions, garlic, peppers and seasoning to chop, simmer and store is all done for you. The tomato-centric sauces are also highly versatile, working beautifully in anything from a traditional African Jollof rice dish to a pizza, pasta, stir-fry, soup or vinaigrette. They act as a concentrated cooking base, containing about three nutritional servings per jar and capable of flavoring up to six meals – easy and accessible by design. As Digber-Williams explains, “Our goal is not for people to change what they do or cook African meals, but to just enjoy the flavors we grew up with without all the time and nitty gritty details you have to put into making it. We’re hoping to make African flavors accessible to every American kitchen.”
Did we mention these products are absolutely delicious? Rich, savory and aromatic, the sauces are similar to marinara, but more complex with deep, full-bodied flavor. They’re made with “warming African spices,” a proprietary blend that Digber-Williams developed, drawing from her own Ghanian heritage. “The goal is not to be spicy hot, but for the spice to remind you of Mother Earth. It warms your heart and warms your soul. The goal is to be connected back down to earth, which is the goal of a lot of African meals.”
There’s a chicken tomato simmer sauce, a lovely base for Jollof rice, stews and meat dishes, a vegetarian simmer sauce that adds depth and gentle heat to vegetables, grains and tofu, and a pepper heat blend, which offers a bold fusion of African chili peppers and spice to nearly any dish. Digber-Williams offers recipes on her website, including rice, pasta, meat-based and vegetarian meals, soups, stews, dips and dressings. People love the bold, creamy marry me chicken and the stove top Jollof rice is really a must-try.
The Saucy African Jollof rice
As Digby-Williams looks ahead to the future of her growing business, accessibility remains central to her vision. “You don’t have to be African to enjoy African meals, and you don’t even have to know how to cook it. We just want African flavors to be at the forefront and incorporated like other American staples. We’ve come to embrace Mexican food, Italian food and other global cuisine. I think African flavors deserve a seat at the table as well.”
To try The Saucy African sauces and seasoning yourself, head to its website, a growing number of retail grocers throughout the country, and at farmers markets throughout the Greater Pittsburgh region. Follow The Saucy African on Facebook and Instagram for news and special events! 83 Dutilh Rd., Ste. L1, Cranberry Twp.; (973) 418-4200.
- Photos: The Saucy African
