The Spice is Right

Last summer, over the serenading crush of emerald Gulf waves, Alys Beach homeowners dining at The Beach Club devoured something new — a sweetheat cornbread concoction called Perique Creole Handshake Corn Beignets. The name is whimsical, but the spice kicking into those welcome newcomers to the restaurant’s late summer menu was a bold find by former Galatoire’s Executive Chef Michael Sichel.

He and his wife, Lisa Tudor, now live near 30A, but on a trip back to the Crescent City she had picked up something she’d never noticed before: a bottle of Perique Green Pepper Sauce, at long-time Metairie family grocery Dorignac’s.

Soon her husband, lead chef at The Beach Club, was using that bottle of sauce, and a full run of Perique products, too, for their home-cooked favorites.

Think crispy Cajun fried chicken, tangy blackened shrimp salad and smokey grilled boudin.

For Sichel, a French-trained fine dining specialist and cancer survivor who rose to fame competing on “Top Chef,” it was only a matter of time before Perique made its way into dishes he served at the Alys Beach restaurant.

“Perique uniquely enhances flavors without having a specific, recognizable profile itself,” says Sichel, who led the kitchen at Galatoire’s for nearly a decade in the 2010s. “So it contributes the acid and the heat element in a new way that also feels connected to the past. I believe in the classics when it comes to cuisine, and that’s why I connect with Perique.”

Most ambassadors are appointed, but Perique founder Matt Nichols became one for Creole cuisine and culture by choice — and long before he launched his suite of hot sauces and spices in 2018.

Born in Chicago and arriving in late 1970s New Orleans when his surgeon father took a position with Tulane, Nichols talks about his first king cake as a child like a proud cardinal might refer to his first communion. He was served a slice in his kindergarten class, where he had already earned the nickname “Yankee.” Nichols will never forget the gleam of that colorful sugar, or the timid feeling of not wanting to stand out. Completely unfamiliar with Mardi Gras tradition, when he found the plastic baby buried in his brioche, he shoved it deep in his pocket and didn’t say a word.

“That was my introduction to the mystique of New Orleans,” Nichols says.

A natural storyteller steeped in the anthropology and ethnobotany — particularly Amazonian plant use — he studied at Tulane University, Nichols is speaking up plenty, now. The creative force behind Perique Pepper Sauces and Creole Handshake and Cajun Handshake spice blends has his Louisiana-made, classic-leaning brands in Rouses Markets across the state, and in a string of smaller, locally owned grocers in the New Orleans area.

Inspired by perique tobacco, a unique strand born in St. James Parish, nursed by Mississippi Delta soil and aged in oak whiskey barrels, Perique Pepper Sauce leans into its Louisiana cane vinegar for a smooth heat without any regrettable bite.

“It’s all about the balance,” says the 53-year-old entrepreneur who co-owns Perique with his father Dr. Ronald Nichols. “From the beginning, I said that this was more or less like an art project becoming real. I wanted to make a healthy, alluring, beautiful sauce that is emblematic of Louisiana.”

And that balance means hotter isn’t always better. Drawing from his laboratory experience and botanical studies, Nichols approaches recipes like an apothecary more than a backyard cook. Both Creole Handshake powders — Dry Spice and Caribbean Jerk — are low sodium.

“I shrug my shoulders when people ask me about the Scoville scale ratings of our sauces,” he says. “Because I simply do not know.”

Perique may be a David in a field of generations-old hot sauce Goliaths in the Deep South, but success for Nichols’ sauces and spices will come through the word Sichel uses to describe the products and something Nichols has proven skilled in doing — whether it’s dining with Dickie Brennan at Pascal’s Manale, or bantering with the clerks at the French Quarter gift shops stocking his sauces for tourists to take home. Nichols loves to connect.

If the spice isn’t right, the people will let it be known, with their dollars — and their reviews. Few understand this better than Sichel.

“My years at the helm of Galatoire’s were the most influential of my career because those customers in New Orleans were both so appreciative and had such high expectations, too,” he says. “Galatoire’s is a legendary institution because it embodies Creole cuisine, and so does Perique.”

That comparison touches on a purpose beyond the plate, a worthwhile intention. Nichols holds his brands to strict standards, because he views Perique as not just a pepper sauce, but an elixir, and an ambassador.

“Food is an essential part of life,” Nichols says. “But I hope Perique is a reminder that in New Orleans, in Louisiana, we take a lot of pride in it, and we bring food to a whole different level.”

MATT NICHOLS

Occupation: Co-owner and brand manager, Perique Pepper Sauce

Social Media: @periquepeppersauce

Website: periquepeppersauce.com

Q&A

If you could share a New Orleans meal using Perique with anyone, who would it be? Emily Poitevent Hayne Walker, who was the first woman to serve as Queen of Comus and Queen of Rex in the 1920s. I grew up in a house in the Garden District where she lived for decades. The majority of our brands and products were conceived in the kitchen there. I’d love a meal with her on the front porch at the Columns. Raw oysters with our red, seafood gumbo with our green, some maque choux with our Creole Handshake, and rack of lamb with our I Want My Farm Back herbes de Provence.

Is there a cookbook you have a particular love for? I love “River Road Recipes” — published by the Junior League of Baton Rouge in 1959. We used that when I was growing up, and I still love it now. That’s been my go-to cookbook for a long time.

Have you heard of any surprising uses for your spices or sauces? A lot of people mix the Caribbean spice with sour cream for a quick potato chip dip, which is creative. I’ve even heard some people add a little of our red in their cup of coffee. Now, I never thought of that one!