Local chef grows a regional business

Jill’s Kitchen Open Sesame sauce celebrates 10,000th bottle NARROWSBURG, N.Y. — Valley native, Jill Padua recently bottled her ten-thousandth bottle of Open Sesame sauce, a peanut-free, all natural sesame sauce. Her business, Jill’s Kitchen, is celebrating the milestone and the sauce’s first retail year with gusto. Together with Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, Jill’s Kitchen is giving away two tickets to a select concert at Bethel Woods plus a case of Open Sesame sauce from Jill’s Kitchen to the lucky purchaser of that ten-thousandth bottle. Known locally for her cooking skills for years earlier, Padua got her first commercial experience when she began The Chatterbox Cafe in Narrowsburg in 1988. In 2001 she devised Jill’s Kitchen, then a restaurant-catering business. After eight years of rave reviews as a caterer, the idea of bottling her special sauce came into being. It’s now featured in several local restaurants and available at more 40 stores in N.Y and Pa. “I would like to thank our customers at Bethel Woods and Jill’s Kitchen Catering who helped to make Jill’s Kitchen Open Sesame Sauce so popular, encouraging me to bottle the sauce,” Padua said. About her sauce Open Sesame sauce is not just for noodles anymore. This tasty, tangy topper, dipper and marinade is so versatile it’s becoming the new condiment as well as the best sesame sauce you’ll ever taste for noodles, Padua says New and improved, Open Sesame sauces now has less separation - naturally - and is being produced with a non-GMO oil. And, coming soon - a gluten-free variety. When you try a bottle of Open Sesame sauce you will get your chance to win the two tickets to a select Bethel Woods concert plus a case of the magical Open Sesame sauce from Jill’s Kitchen. How will you know if you’ve won? When you open it, you’ll know. As one critic said, “Open Sesame is the perfect balance of savory and sweet in a silky suspension of deliciousness!” For recipes, raves and other retailers, go to jillskitchen.com .