One August night in 2013, while the setting sun lit up pink and orange contrails across the sky above Tennessee鈥檚 Mount聽LeConte, Allyson Virden fired up her pizza oven. As the cook at , a hike-to cluster of mountaintop cabins in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, she had聽already served guests their evening meal of beef with gravy, green beans, and mashed potatoes. But as the hikers walked their weary legs to bed, Allyson聽still needed to prepare the shift meal for the lodge鈥檚 crew.
She and her husband, Chris, had聽worked as LeConte鈥檚 resident managers since 2003.聽Chris cared聽for the grounds, and Allyson cooked. But during their winters off, they chased聽good food around the world, visiting countries such as Laos, Panama, and Cambodia and later聽recreating those flavors for LeConte鈥檚 ten-person crew. On that particular pizza night, the jar of red pepper flakes that everyone shook over their slices seemed disappointingly generic.
鈥淲e always had at least ten聽open bottles of different hot sauces, and it became a kind of running joke at the lodge to argue about which hot sauce paired best with that particular dish,鈥 Allyson explains. Chris wondered why there was no such variety in crushed red pepper. 鈥淭here are聽a million bottled hot sauces out there, but with red pepper flakes, there鈥檚 just one,鈥 he says.
So the couple began tinkering with their own chile blends. In 2014, they聽started coming down the mountain to sell their at the Gatlinburg farmers鈥櫬爉arket. The spice was an instant hit. By the end of that summer, the couple quit as resident managers to launch Olde Virden鈥檚 full-time.
Today聽their pepper mix is sold online and at 170 locations across the South. Some local聽pizza parlors have swapped out standard pepper flakes for Olde Virden鈥檚 Red Hot鈥攂ut it has an irritating tendency to disappear. 鈥淧eople steal it, so we鈥檝e got to find a way to get them to leave it on the table,鈥 Allyson says.
What makes their mix so great is the freshness of its peppers. The Virdens source all their chiles from a local farmer in Grainger City, Tennessee. 鈥淲e pick them up the day they鈥檙e harvested, and within 24 hours we鈥檝e got them all dehydrated,鈥 Allyson says. The original Red Hot blend combines serrano, habanero, jalape帽o, long hot cayenne, and Thai chiles. The couple has also launched a Spicy Verde Southwestern mix of Anaheim, poblano, jalape帽o, serrano, and habanero peppers.
Allyson likes to sprinkle it on watermelon, and it鈥檚 certainly delicious on pizza, but she says the mixes have also transformed her backpacking spice kit.聽鈥淚t really helps to elevate your typical Mountain House pouch meal,鈥 she says.
And if you鈥檙e a gram-counting ultralight junky, there鈥檚 no need to worry: Olde Virden鈥檚聽comes in easily packed one-ounce containers.