Meet David Krueger | Owner, Chef & Former Pro Athlete + Coach

I have always been involved in community organizations for youth development, blind programs, disabled, cancer patients and survivors, and more. From a young age I was always interested in nutrition and learned a lot over the years about the importance of quality ingredients. This brought me to sourcing ingredients for my products from my own gardens as well as local family farms. My knowledge of agriculture and geography has played a huge role in setting my quality standards for products and led me to identifying the best products and ingredientes by region. Spices that I use are purchased in their whole form and ground by hand myself to ensure maximum freshness. I set up at many nonprofit events and give back a good portion of my proceeds. The first hand experience that I have had with these programs shows me how impactful they are for these people’s lives and that is motivation and good reason for me to continue to help. Culture Hot Sauce is a product for the community.

Other than sports, food and cooking has always been passion of mine and I find it only natural that I have fallen into owning a food business. With the Culture, it was like I had a chance to blend what I learned in studying geography, what I lived in traveling the world to compete against all other counties and cultures, and what I wanted to do, which was create a product that brought people together for the love of food.

The company is small, and all of my products are made small batch by hand, by me. Its important to me to keep the quality and flavor standards set high. There have been many days that I have felt like I ran a marathon after being in the kitchen all day. As an athelte, there have been many days I didn’t want to wake up and go to practice but I did and every time, wether its on the water or leaving work in the kitchen, I am always thankful that I got up and made it happen. Today, all of the positive feedback from my customers is motivation for me to keep running those marathons and putting the work in so that they can remain happy.

I want to set an example of quality and standards in the food industry and see a change with more and more people using cleaner and healthier ingredients. It may not happen overnight but day by day, we can make progress to head in the right direction and achieve that goal.

If I am to show a friend my town and community I will always have time on the water to show them my world. Otherwise it really depends if they have interests and I would cater to that. I know all the good food spots around, hole in the wall local places, hiking, events, etc. If they’ve always wanted to surf I would take them surfing. When I travel I want to see how people live in that place so I would show them how I live in my home base.

The main people that have helped Culture Hot Sauce be where it is today is my amazing fiancé, my family and especially my mentor and brother Mike Pearson. My first original sauce is named after Mike’s boats name The Don which in many cultures is a figure you look up to and we are pictured on the label together paddling in an outrigger canoe.