It all started with a high-speed pursuit. In 2007, Freddie Lee James—a self-taught saucemaster known for whipping up batches of flavor for friends, family, and anyone lucky enough to snag a sample—was sitting on the porch with his wife, Deborah, in St. Louis. Out of nowhere, in a blur of red and blue lights, a car and a police car hot on its tail sped past their house.
As the sirens faded, Freddie turned to Deborah and said, “Baby, one day, God is going to bless us and get us out of the ghetto.”
The month before the police chase, Freddie had cooked up an all-purpose sauce that tasted different in a way he couldn’t put his finger on. Deborah took one bite and declared it the best he’d ever made.
After Freddie mentioned leaving the ghetto, Deborah had an epiphany: “That’s what you should call it—Ghetto Sauce!”
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Freddie laughed. “I thought she was kidding,” he says. She wasn’t. That offhand comment was later printed onto the labels for the sauce bottles, and Freddie Lee’s Ghetto Sauce was born.
What started as a kitchen experiment became a bottle-worthy recipe. After naming the sauce, Freddie set out to package it and pitch it to local stores. He walked in with samples and smiles. Most doors closed. But one opened. It took one “yes” for the condiment to propel into a small empire.
A manager at Schnucks passed the sauce up to corporate. Not long after, Freddie got a call: the higher-ups loved it and wanted to get it on the shelves.
Today, Freddie Lee’s Ghetto Sauce is sold in over 1,200 stores nationwide, including Fresh Thyme and Hy-Vee. Each week, Freddie and his five-person team—a mix of family and other employees—wake before dawn to cook and bottle fresh batches at their small St. Louis manufacturing center. Freddie and Deborah are co-owners of the business; while Freddie makes the sauce, Deborah takes care of the clerical side and the paperwork.
Freddie describes the sauce as all-purpose.
“I put it on everything,” he says. “My favorite is spaghetti.”
But the options for the Lee family’s sauce know no bounds. They put it in lasagna, meat, barbecue, shrimp cocktails, and even Bloody Marys. The sauces come in mild and spicy and have a balance of sweet and tangy flavors. All of Freddie Lee’s sauces are gluten-free and vegan and contain no high-fructose corn syrup or MSG.
Freddie says it’s his personal passion for the sauce that makes his company special.
“Yeah, I definitely have to put love in my sauce,” he says. “I love what I do. I will not give you something that I don’t want. I’ve got to have pride and love in what I do.”
Ultimately, Freddie doesn’t take credit for the growth of his business. He attributes its success to God. “This is God’s business,” he says. “He made it possible.”
•Adeleine Halsey
For more information, visit FreddieLeesGourmetSauces.com
This article was originally published in the September 2025 edition of Missouri Life.
