Staff Reports
As southerners say, Chef Hunter Lee was “born and bred in Louisiana.” He spent much of his youth hunting, fishing and enjoying a life filled with family, great food and entertaining.
As a young man, he spent 15 years as a professional chef before cultivating the Benwood’s Surely Southern product line of seasonings, sauces, pickles and cookbooks.
The Benwood’s brand started as one seasoning honoring the original creation of Chef Hunter Lee’s father “Benny.” Back in his day, Benny was well known around Mansfield, Louisiana for his cooking, hunting and storytelling skills. The first seasoning received rave reviews inspiring Chef Lee to produce four more tasty variations and ultimately a line of sauces, each with a blend of his late father’s influence and unique Louisiana flavors.
Chef Hunter Lee has also worked tirelessly to perfect a diverse line of sauces, each recipe designed to WOW and excite your tastebuds! There is truly a sauce to compliment every meal and a seasoning for every meat AND many vegetables. But he didn’t stop there, he has also revamped an age-old recipe to bring you his famous Sweet Hot’s: Louisiana Style Pickles.
Chef Lee, who also has family roots in East Texas, now splits his time between Desoto Parish and Jefferson Texas. Not only can you find his products in Jefferson stores, like LaFleur Couture Self Care Boutique and River Rose, (with more to follow) but he is shooting his TV cooking show, “Livin’ Large with Chef Hunter Lee” in the heart of downtown Jefferson.
The show airs every Monday morning at 9:30a on KSLA News 12.
Chef Lee feels at home in Jefferson and has found the people friendly and fun-loving with a love for good food and good times, which is “right up his alley!”
What started out as a tribute to his dad and the love they shared for cooking turned into 15 products that are his father’s namesake. Chef Lee is extremely proud that Benwood’s Surely Southern products can now be shared with everyone.
According to Chef Lee, “If you haven’t tried them yet, ya missin out!”
From seasonings to sauces, marinades to pickles the Benwood’s brand is best described as, “Uniquely southern, surely the best.”
You can find a list of retails store locations and buy the Benwood’s products online at Benwoodssurelysouthern.com.
Chef Lee’s column will run every week in the Jimplecute.