a small sauce company
with big shelf dreams.
hi, i’m ash - the tastebuds behind not bad cooks.
not bad cooks officially became a sauce company in 2021, but before that it was just a food instagram account i started in 2020 during covid.
i was cooking a lot, sharing meals, & slowly repairing a lifelong love-hate relationship with food.
teenage ash would never believe i’d one day own a sauce business in denver, colorado - it still feels a little unreal in the best way.
when i go out to eat, i’m always like “what was that sauce?!” not “how was that meat cooked?” sauce is a shortcut to better cooking & that’s my focus.
long story shorter: we’re not bad cooks. we make not bad sauces.
our goal is to get more not bad cooks in the kitchen with our sauces. i want to teach more people to cook at home. follow our instagram @notbadcooks for more of a cooking education & check out our blog for recipes using our sauces.
not bad cooks deserve not bad sauces.
i made these sauces for me first.
i didn’t plan to start a sauce company.
i grew up reading every single ingredient on every label, with a mental list of foods i avoided because they didn’t make me feel good, could cause migraines, or i was allergic to them.
now that i have been diagnosed with late stage lyme disease, what i eat matters more than ever before.
this is the sauce company i always wished i could find on the shelf - one you trust & you don’t have to overthink what’s inside.
we produce small batch sauces using only organic extra virgin olive oil. we source locally in colorado first & focus on not bad, all good ingredients & we mean that. none of our sauces have fillers, artificial ingredients, seed oils, gluten, lecithin, dyes, additives, or preservatives.
if you know me, you know
my family is my everything.
not bad cooks would
not exist without them.
all of our not bad sauces are named after - or inspired by - my family.
jimichurri - chimichurri named after my dad jim. he deserves his own sauce
peter’s pesto - a garlicky lemony pesto named after my cute goldendoodle named peter who was always by my side in the kitchen
you’re hot - you’re hot, it’s mild. meet our roasted garlic buffalo
happy days - vodka sauce - we say “happy days” instead of cheers when we clink our vodka drinks in my family.
crispy italian - my take on a chili crisp - but we’re italian. so i made a chili oil to fit how we cook
no strawblems - strawberry lemon - a nod to the strawberry sauce i grew up with & a little “no problems” energy. plus strawberry & lemon combined is “strawblem”
them apples - apple butter - how do you like them apples!?
i’m building a sauce company you can trust & one where you can taste the difference.
follow along with us @notbadcooks
