Name Greg Brooks | ||
Greg Brooks (born January 29, 1954) is a Canadian chef, peppermaster, published cookery book author and restaurateur. He is the owner, executive chef and peppermaster of Brooks Pepperfire Foods Inc., a Canadian hot sauce manufacturer.
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Career
Brooks was a fledgling peppermaster at the age of 8 when he made his first hot sauce in Nassau, Bahamas. Brooks graduated from Acadia University, in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada, with a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology. While at Acadia, Brooks was forced to shut down a fast food operation that he had been operating from his dormitory room. He later opened the Apple Tree Landing Restaurant in nearby Canning. Brooks incorporated his culinary style into a line of cooking and dessert sauces for Constant Creation Gourmet Cuisine, a specialty food manufacturing and online ordering company specializing in condiments, sauces and glazes ranging from a raspberry ketchup to an award-winning maple cream coulis.
Though he has earned awards from both the Nova Scotia Restaurateurs' Association and the Canadian Specialty Foods Association, Brooks has not received any formal culinary education. With an ability to distinguish the flavours of extreme heat chilis, he developed a line of extreme heat global fusion hot sauces incorporating ingredients specifically combined to show off the flavours of chili peppers. His flagship sauce, a combination of eight different peppers is marketed under the trade name Fusion Fire; Everyday Hot Sauce. Constant Creation ceased operations in 1995.
In 2003, Brooks opened a company called Pepperfire and launched a line of hot sauces. After legal and financial challenges experienced in December, 2003, Brooks moved on to incorporate Brooks Pepperfire Foods Inc. on March 15, 2004. Brooks sells his sauces at various juried craft shows, including the One of a Kind Craft Shows, the Nova Scotia Designer Craft Council (NSDCC) shows and the Salon des metiers d'art.
In 2008, Brooks was named to the list of Top Ten Food Innovators in Canada by Food in Canada magazine.
Publicity
Brooks wrote the Canadian best-selling cookbooks: World Wind Tour for Two and Book of Feasts.
Personal Life
Brooks' father is Canadian and his mother is Bahamian. Brooks won gold medals in individual medley and backstroke at the 1971 Bahamian Swimming Championships. Brooks is an accomplished sailor winning several awards in the sailfish category. Of note, Brooks accomplishments include winning the Nassau Sailing Club Regatta in 1965. Brooks was crew for Skipper Biff Vincent. Brooks also won the crew's race with Vincent as his crew.
Brooks was once married to Lila Hope-Simpson, the Canadian author of Fiddles and Spoons: Journey of an Acadian Mouse, (published by Dery Publishing Group, Montreal, 2004). Hope-Simpson was also the recipient of the Canadian Prime Minister's Certificate of Excellence for Teaching Excellence for her exemplary practices in the area of early childhood development. Hope-Simpson is the mother of two of Brooks' six children.