Christian Landry began his career in the food industry by running his sushi restaurant. Then, in the late 90s, he took a career shift and launched an audio-visual company, Sono Clefs, that organized corporate events, cultural fests and conferences.
Two decades later, he took again a new position as a part-time teacher at Collège communautaire du Nouveau-Brunswick, handling courses in marketing, social media and food and wine service.
When the pandemic hit and restrictions began, Sono Clefs’ business dropped by 70 percent as people started to call off, cancel or postpone their events. However, the inconsistency and slowness were a blessing in disguise, as Landry got ample time to focus on his passion for barbecue sauces. He calls himself an ‘avid barbecuer’ and owns 15 to 20 jars of sauce.
Taking Opportunities Out of Challenges
Landry took his chances and opportunity and decided to prepare barbecue sauce using local beer as a base. He approached breweries in his hometown for collaborations and received positive responses. Hence started his experimentation with making his signature barbecue sauces. The road was not always smooth and free of blunders and errors, but he had fun with all ups and downs.
In January 2021, he started working in a kitchen incubator in Riverview, New Brunswick, to make more sauce bottles. A few months later, he launched his first barbecue sauce at an event at Les Brasseurs du Petit-Sault.
It was met with great success as he sold 150 bottles that day. Step by step, he increased the number of sauce varieties and currently owns nine sauces on rotation. He named his barbecue sauce company Mad Q Sauce.
Sauces Unique To Their Regions
Christian Landry created MadQ as a mouth-watering sauce with artisanal culinary products born from a passion for cooking, BBQ and mutual aid. He is the craftsman of flavors and has created local beer-infused sauces that are as unique as the regions they represent.
They come in various flavors, including slightly sweet, with smoky aromas, others of mustard, caramel, chocolate, and coffee, and some are even slightly spicy while keeping in the foreground the distinctive aromas of each of the meticulously chosen beers to infuse the BBQ sauces.
MadQ sauce is the first regionally marketed artisanal sauce made in New Brunswick. A series of MadQ sauces infused with beers from New Brunswick microbreweries have been created along with the classic version. Then, in the process, maple groves were added to the adventure, including the Shack à Sucre, Maple Cure, Château Scoudouc and Briggs Maple.
Owing to the huge success with which it was received from day one of its launches, MadQ continues to partner with other microbreweries across the province of New Brunswick.
Christian Landry’s vision is to develop and offer exceptional products from local collaborations, highlighting New Brunswick foods and flavors. This way, everyone will have Mad Q products on their tables representing their corner of the province, made with their preferred ingredients.
MadQ sauces make you want to invite your little ones over for a meal and, of course, to cheer. To know more about their products, visit their website at https://www.madq.ca/en.
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