From Big Guns to Big Flavour: The Journey from the Royal Artillery to Hot Sauce

After serving 21 years in the Royal Artillery, I never imagined that one day I would swap military exercises, cameras, and observation posts for chilli peppers, vinegar, and hot sauce bottles. Life, however, has a habit of taking you in completely unexpected directions, and today I run a veteran-owned hot sauce and seasoning business built on hard work, creativity, and a genuine obsession with creating bold flavours that people actually enjoy eating.

Looking back, the journey from military life to food production makes far more sense than I ever expected.

From Observation Posts to Photography

I began my Army career as an Observation Post Assistant in the Royal Artillery before later becoming a military photographer for the final 12 years of my service. Although the two roles were very different, both taught me skills that continue to shape the way I work today.

As an OP Assistant, whether travelling in a Warrior armoured vehicle or tabbing across training areas on patrol, you quickly learn the importance of discipline, resilience, and staying calm under pressure. You understand very early on that preparation matters and that attention to detail can often make the difference between success and failure.

Photography developed a completely different side of me. It taught me patience, creativity, and precision, because whether you are photographing members of the Royal Family, capturing front-page magazine images, or balancing ingredients in a hot sauce recipe, the smallest adjustments can completely transform the final result.

More than anything else, the military teaches adaptability. You learn how to solve problems quickly, work alongside people from every possible background, and continue moving forward even when things do not go to plan. Those lessons have proven invaluable in business.

The Real Inspiration? Bland Military Food

Like many veterans, I spent years eating food in cookhouses, on exercises, and during operations where flavour was very much a secondary consideration. The meals were functional and designed to fuel you, but they were not exactly memorable for the right reasons.

Over time, hot sauce became the answer to improving almost anything on the menu, and eventually I found myself wondering why I did not simply start making my own.

What began as experimenting with ingredients in the kitchen gradually turned into a genuine passion for creating flavour combinations that were bold, balanced, and exciting to eat. I never wanted to make sauces that relied purely on extreme heat for attention. For me, the flavour has always mattered just as much as the fire.

Discovering a Passion for Cooking

Cooking was not something I was particularly interested in during most of my military career. Ironically, my wife is a head chef, which means after spending all day cooking professionally, the last thing she usually wants to do at home is spend more time in the kitchen. Naturally, that role fell to me, and before long I became completely hooked on experimenting with different ingredients and techniques.

I started playing around with different chillies, vinegars, spices, and ways of building heat without overpowering flavour. There is a genuine buzz that comes from creating something new that actually works, especially when a recipe suddenly comes together exactly as you imagined it would. Of course, not every attempt is successful, and there have been plenty of batches that were either disappointing or completely disastrous, but every single one teaches you something useful.

That constant process of trial and error is part of what makes it so addictive.

The Military Mindset Never Leaves You

People often assume that running a food business is completely different from military life, but in reality there are far more similarities than most people realise.

Building a business requires discipline, resilience, adaptability, attention to detail, and the ability to solve problems under pressure, which are exactly the qualities the Army drills into you from day one. There are long days, setbacks, frustrations, and moments where you genuinely question whether things are ever going to work out, but the military mindset teaches you to keep moving forward regardless.

That mentality never really leaves you after service.

The EHO Challenge

One of the biggest challenges so far has actually been navigating Environmental Health requirements. At times, it has honestly felt like my local EHO was determined to test my patience with endless questions about pH levels, shelf-life testing, documentation, food safety procedures, and verification processes.

However, as frustrating as that process can sometimes be, the scrutiny exists for a very good reason. Food safety matters, and consumers deserve products they can trust. Going through that process has forced me to improve systems, tighten procedures, and develop a far deeper understanding of food production and safety standards than I ever expected when I first started making sauces.

In the long run, it has made the business much stronger.

The Most Rewarding Part

Without question, the best part of the journey is watching people try the products for the first time and seeing their reactions when they realise the sauces are about far more than just heat. There is something genuinely satisfying about watching people go back for another taste or hearing someone say, “That’s incredible.”

The ultimate test, however, is always my wife’s opinion. When a professional chef approves one of my sauces, I know I am probably heading in the right direction.

More Than Just Hot Sauce

For me, this business has become about far more than simply selling bottles. It is about building something meaningful after military life and creating something entirely from scratch using the lessons, discipline, and experiences I gained during my service.

Every bottle represents experimentation, setbacks, learning curves, frustration, creativity, and passion, usually accompanied by at least a few chilli burns along the way. There is also something incredibly satisfying about seeing people genuinely enjoy something you have created with your own hands.

Not my first Rodeo

This isn't my first business, I developed a very successful Coffee Brand long before every veteran and his mate jumped on the 'Coffee Band Wagon' I sold coffee and merchandise all over the world, I was featured in mainstream and military publications and won countless awards for my endeavours but the S**T SHOW that we called Covid reared its ugly head. I lost my coffee shop in Birmingham and couldn't attend any outdoor events that I have planned which was very frustrating.

I sold the business to a fellow veteran who is still running it to this very day, and very successfully I will add. 

What Comes Next?

The exciting thing about running a hot sauce business is that there is always another idea waiting around the corner, whether that is a new flavour combination, a different seasoning blend, or a sauce that could potentially become the next customer favourite.

After 21 years in the Army, I never expected this would be the direction life would take me, but looking back now, moving from the Royal Artillery to hot sauce somehow feels like a surprisingly natural progression.

Just with fewer explosions.

Usually.