After Surviving COVID-19, Queens Hot Sauce Maker Turns To Masks

QUEENS, NY — A Queens fashion executive-turned-hot sauce purveyor is combining her passions for style and spice with a new line of face masks adorned with hand-painted chili peppers.

Sufia Hossain, a Bangladeshi immigrant living in Jamaica, started making her own hot sauce at home five years ago.

After months of practice whipping up hot sauce in her food processor, she quit her job at The Gap and launched Silly Chilly Hot Sauce, which is now sold in more than 100 stores in the tri-state area and as far as Los Angeles.

Now, Hossain is returning to her roots in the fashion industry by producing her own face masks emblazoned with chili peppers.

The two-ply cotton masks she uses come from Artisan Sewing & Fashion NY Inc., a Jamaica-based co-op of Bangladeshi women who produce hats, masks and tote bags, among other items.

“At the end of the day, business is for the people, you know,” Hossain said. “I started Silly Chilly Hot Sauce because I wanted to help the farmers. It’s the same thing with the masks.

The peppers she paints on each mask correspond to her hot sauces: A red chili pepper represents her Habanero Super Duper Hot and Serrano & Chipotle Pepper Smoky sauces, while a yellow one matches her Fresh Mango & Sweet Peppers sauce, and a green chili pepper is a nod to an upcoming sauce called Bangla City.

And, as a COVID-19 survivor herself, the mask-making venture is more than just a business — it's personal.

“I think I’ll continue to wear masks for a long time,” she said.