A west Louisville chef and entrepreneur takes leap of faith with a hot sauce business

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A west Louisville chef quit her 9-to-5 job in hopes of making it as a small business owner.

While Eneitra Beattie wants her business Greenz N Tingz to be successful, success for her is also about creating a healthy community.

"My thing is organic, fresh and organic, no salt, no sugar," she said.

And as a chef that's quite the challenge, but she knew she was on to something when the kids in her neighborhood were eating the vegetables she made.

"They would smell me outside cooking and they will come up and be like 'What's that you're making' and it would be something simple like a kale green or something with a little bit of garlic, and they're like 'Ah, I don't like that.' And I said 'Just try it,' and it took off from there," Beattie said.

Miss E grew up working in fast food, later finding herself in Catholic Charities of Louisville's Common Table training, quickly getting a sous chef role after her graduation.

When that ran its course, she ended up back in corporate life for the stability.

But, she felt the food industry has been calling her back ever since.

"I've been in that industry for years. And I just said, 'You know, I need to do something, step outside of the corporate chef thing and do my own thing.'" she said.

Greenz N Tingz was born with her signature hot sauce as the first product in February of 2020.

"And then the pandemic. So then I was like, 'Okay, what am I gonna do," Beattie said.

She stuck to consistency yet again, putting her business on the back burner. Then at the end of January 2022 she felt it was time.

"God was just throwing signs at me, 'like get out of here.' And that Friday, I said I'm done. I'm literally done," Beattie said.

Now, you'll find her in her west Louisville home, bottling her hot sauce, making fresh salsa, selling vinaigrettes and whipping up salads.

"That's that's my number one goal. I want my sauces everywhere, not just in America. And I want to be a household name. I want to be in everybody's cabinets on everybody's kitchen table," Beattie said.

In the meantime, she's leaning into being a resource right where she's at, delivering food and setting up at local farmers' markets.

"To get food in west Louisville, is pertinent because there's so many people here who don't have access to fresh food," she said.

And if Miss E had her way, her food would also heal hearts and slow gun violence.

"And that's where a lot of of hate and violence come from because you're unhealthy inside. So you're gonna put out unhealthy things when you're unhealthy on the inside," she said. "It's very important that we feed people with healthy food so their brains can remain healthy."

She said next you'll find her looking for a place to expand out of her house.

As for tasting her food, she posts on Greenz N Tingz social media pages where she's set up for weekend markets and has her hot sauce and vinaigrettes listed on her online store.