On Tuesday, February 21, 2023, Hyatt Regency Savannah’s Executive Chef, Hector Pabon and Chef Clyde Campbell, owner of Clyde’s Big Daddy’s Sauce gave a presentation and food demonstration at H.V. Jenkins High School.  Ms. Natatia VanEllison and her Marketing Principles students, along with Ms. Kaney Ballance and her Family & Consumer Science/FCCLA students hosted this career presentation and food demonstration in honor of CTAE (Career, Technical and Agricultural Education) Month.  Ms. VanEllison said, “This was an excellent opportunity for our students to connect with local business leaders, hear their stories and be encouraged to pursue their own dreams.”
 
Chef Campbell began by sharing the story of how he developed his own line of barbeque sauces. “Growing up as a kid in Savannah, Georgia, I began experimenting with sauces by adding ingredients to Kraft BBQ sauce to make it taste better. I would share my own sauce at family cookouts and get everyone’s feedback. As the years passed, a relative said to me, “If you can make Kraft taste this good, you should make your own sauce.”  This inspired me to take the next step and develop my very own recipe from scratch. After fifteen years of refining and testing my recipes and including all the ingredients that people told me they liked, Big Daddy’s Sauce was born. Then I began the same process of developing a honey mustard version and twelve years ago, we gave birth to Big Daddy’s Spicy Honey Mustard Sauce. After marketing my sauces to stores and restaurants throughout the southeast, we now have over 80 locations carrying Big Daddy’s Sauces, plus an online store.”
 
Hyatt Regency Savannah’s Chef Pabon shared with the students the story of how the partnership developed between Hyatt Regency Savannah and Clyde’s Big Daddy’s Sauce,  “In 2021, Clyde dropped off a couple of bottles of his BBQ sauce for us to try. We liked it and added to the shelves in our Corner Market. I began looking for ways to incorporate some of our small business partner’s products into our food.  We decided to start with Big Daddy’s Sauce, featuring it on a trial basis at first. We are now offering it on all the BBQ items in our colleague cafeteria, plus the pork items on the banquet menu and on the pork sandwich and chicken wings in our Moss + Oak Savannah Eatery Restaurant.  His sauce is now a regular feature on both the banquet and restaurant menus. Clyde is a great partner and is a perfect example of the mutual success of our efforts.”  This local partnership has extended into regular community outreach presentations in the local public high schools through the Exploring career exploration program. Chef Hector and Reverend Campbell have teamed up to make several presentations this year at Savannah Chatham Public High Schools to share their stories and to encourage students to consider career opportunities in Hospitality, Culinary Arts and Entrepreneurship.