McIlhenny's Gold: How a Louisiana Family Built the Tabasco Empire

Jeffrey Rothfeder

Nov 2007 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Norman Dietz

About this audiobook

After the Civil War ended, Edmund McIlhenny, an ambitious and tenacious Louisiana businessman, found himself with few prospects. The South's economy in ruins and his millions of dollars in Confederacy currency worthless, he had no choice but to return with his wife, Mary, to her family home in Avery Island, a former sugar plantation destroyed by Union soldiers. To McIlhenny's surprise, however, the hot peppers he had planted before being forced off the island had flourished. Desperate for money, he chopped up the peppers, combined them with salt and vinegar, and produced the first batch of hot pepper sauce. He called it Tabasco. Former BusinessWeek editor Jeffrey Rothfeder tells how, from a simple idea-the outgrowth of three peppers planted on an isolated island on the Gulf of Mexico-a secretive family business emerged that would produce one of the best-known brands in the world. In short order, McIlhenny's descendants would turn Tabasco into a gold mine, making it as ubiquitous as Coke, Kodak, and Kleenex: an icon of pop culture. The McIlhenny Company, still run by a family of matchless characters who believe in a rigid code of family loyalty, clings to tradition and the old ways of doing business.

About the author

Jeffrey Rothfeder is a former editor for BusinessWeek and a national news editor at Bloomberg News.

Norman Dietz is a writer, an actor, and a solo performer. He has also performed frequently on radio and television, and he has recorded over 150 audiobooks, many of which have earned him awards from AudioFile magazine, the ALA, and Publishers Weekly. Additionally, AudioFile named Norman one of the Best Voices of the Century.