Meet Natalie Keng | Food & Culture Expert & Bestselling Author

We had the good fortune of connecting with Natalie Keng and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Natalie, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?

From Fortune 500 to government and nonprofit, I have seen firsthand how the power of food and culture builds connection and bridges divides. When we learn to love the food, we are more open to the people. Eating and cooking together not only opens gateways to friendship and connection, but more importantly for companies and communities, develops leaders. The Cooking Up a Better World™ platform of inspiring, interactive, and impactful presentations, tours, and events is custom designed to develop leaders, promote team excellence and organizational success in a changing world. Team-building and inclusive leadership development aren’t only about businesses doing good. It is simply good business.

How I became the Sauce Maven? My refrigerator door was lined with sauces. Yet, none captured the flavors of my childhood growing up in the Deep South–juicy peaches, honeysuckle nectar, Vidalia Sweet Onion, and tomato wedges marinated in sugar-vinegar brine. Using my own taste buds as a litmus test, I set out to fill the gap. Thus began the entrepreneurial journey that would earn me the nickname Sauce Maven.

To my delight, my sauces have earned many enthusiastic fans, from ages one to one hundred and from many different backgrounds. And apparently, the fans are sometimes more innovative than I am when using my sauces. Bloody Sweet Hottie Cocktail is My Sweet Hottie™ Sweet Chili Peach Dressing & Marinade with a shot of vodka. Indian neighbors drizzle Wild Wild East™ Asian BBQ Teriyaki Pineapple sauce onto their samosas, pakoras–and hot dogs! There is a chapter dedicated to Sauces in my new coffee-table cookbook, “Egg Rolls & Sweet Tea,” which was featured in PEOPLE Magazine, Garden & Gun, Southern Living, AAA Travel, and on NPR.

What should our readers know about your business?

While many of my Harvard Kennedy School classmates headed to Capitol Hill, I joined a national non-profit to spearhead a groundbreaking program that would redefine the tenets of resilient and inclusive leadership development for years to come and would eventually prove to be game-changing. Several years later, from my office in the headquarters of a Fortune 100 conglomerate, I felt a calling to pivot, to work for purpose–rather than just for profit. I returned to my hometown of Atlanta, Georgia and started a small business with the lofty goal of making a palatable difference (pun intended): to break down barriers and dissipate negative stereotypes by facilitating positive interactions and impactful experiences through food. My new title? CEO, or, Chief Eating Officer. My mission: “Opening Minds, One Mouth at a Time”®. And that has been my life’s work ever since.”

As the Sauce Maven, even though upholding high standards of quality, like being all-natural, using fresh rather than powdered ingredients, and avoiding cheap fillers like high-fructose corn syrup, posed challenges from higher small-batch production costs to shelf-life concerns, all of the sauces must pass the grandma test and, after taste testing in the school district cafeterias, also be kid approved!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Most Americans are familiar or have visited a Chinatown, Koreatown or Little Italy—from New York City to San Francisco. Buford Highway is a unique 7-mile stretch where you’ll find culinary diversity and delights, and locally run small businesses, side by side. The area has come a long way. When I led the first food and culture tour on Buford Highway over ten years ago, it was an overlooked, non-descript corridor of small immigrant eateries, and considered by most locals to be exotic, foreign and downright scary. It’s evolving but a few of my favorite spots are Salvadorean pupusas at Pupuseria Mi Tierra, Korean hotpots at So Kong Dong, and comfort food at Dagu Rice Noodle. Buford Highway has now been featured on the Food Network and is considered a must-visit foodie destination. For an urban art stroll in between meals, check out the murals along the Atlanta Beltline. For a poignant reminder of Southern history and eats, visit the Sweet Auburn Historic District, APEX Museum, MLK National Park Historic Site, King Memorial Center, Ebenezer Baptist Church, Odd Fellows Building, Sweet Auburn Curb Market, and Sweet Auburn Bakery, respectively. 

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?

My book, Egg Rolls & Sweet Tea, is a “love letter to the American South”, and a tribute to the local growers, diverse suppliers, and community champions whose hard work and resilience fuel my life’s work, “opening minds, one mouth at a time.” For centuries, mothers, grandmothers, and daughters—invisible home chefs—spent much of their lives laboring in the kitchen, making use of whatever was available (or was affordable) to fill big and little tummies, out of filial responsibility or just for survival. I now have a profound appreciation for my heritage and the women whose flavors and umami I try to recreate.

Corporate clients and community partners like Deloitte, Delta Airlines, Leadership Atlanta deserve recognition for their commitment to the values of inclusion, innovation and leadership development.

There are many individuals and organizations who have inspired me and advanced the movement for civil and human rights; sustainability; and clean, good, fair food, such as:

• Les Dames d’Escoffier International (ldei.org)
• Community Farmers Markets (cfmatl.org)
• Georgia Organics (www.georgiaorganics.org)
• Giving Kitchen (thegivingkitchen.org)
• Global Growers (globalgrowers.org)
• Leadership Atlanta (leadershipatlanta.org)
• The National Center for Civil and Human Rights (civilandhumanrights.org)
• Slow Food Movement (www.slowfood.com)
• Asian Americans Advancing Justice (www.advancingjustice-aajc.org)
• CivilEats.com (civileats.com)

Website: https://globalhearth.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesaucemaven/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nataliekeng/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thesaucemaven

Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/global-hearth-atlanta

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@GlobalHearth/videos

Other: https://linktr.ee/nataliekeng https://www.pinterest.com/globalhearthUSA/