Over the past few years, I’ve come across only a few folks that have loved BBQ Sauce as much as I do. So I get really excited to talk to fanatics like me… some of these people devote a fridge to sauces, some of them devote sections of their basement to sauces, and some are in places where the brown-red river of sauce doesn’t flow like it does here in the US.
Meet Nick from Chimay, Belgium whose been a reader of BBQ Sauce Reviews for years, and a great BBQ blogger in his own right over at www.bbqsauce.be!
Please get in touch with him if you can send him some sauce!!
My 10 Questions to Nick Bauwens
1. Who are you and what do you do?
I’m Nicolas, 29 years old, I’m a web developer in a web agency – I code websites all day long. In my spare time I’m making electronic music, running.. and barbecuing !
2. Where are you from and where do you live today? It is hard to get good sauce in Belgium?
I’m from Chimay in Belgium, a city which is well known for its trappist beer (brewed by monks). I’m pretty sure you’ve already heard of it if you like beer. I’m living in Brussels, the capital city of Belgium and of European Union for 11 years.
Belgium is the land of beer, but also the land of sauce ! There are hundreds of sauces to put on fries (sauces you’d never think of), but good BBQ sauce is pretty hard to find. There’s a small American community around Brussels, so it’s possible to find imported sauces like Bull’s Eye, Jack Daniel’s, Hunt’s or Budweiser, but these are mass-markets ones.
The shipping cost from US to Europe is too expensive for small producers, it’s like 18$ to send out one bottle of BBQ Sauce, that’s insane ! So it’s kinda frustrating to see all the sauces you review, because I don’t have the opportunity to taste them. Hopefully, I was amongst the lucky winners of 2 giveaways and Scott from Outta The Park and Sandy from Uncle Joe’s kindly sent me their products, that’s really nice of them !
3. When did you start your BBQSauce.be blog?
In 2008, my wife and I discovered our mutual love of BBQ sauce, we started searching after sauces and decided to setup a blog in February 2009 to talk about it. We didn’t even know BarbecueSauceReviews by then !
4. Why did you start making BBQ sauce? How long has BBQ Sauce been on your mind?
I just wanted to reproduce the sauces that I liked. I made my first homemade sauce in June 2009 and I keep trying new recipes, I recently made a sauce with Chimay beer, and the combination tastes great ! But I can’t really remember since when I like BBQ sauce.
5. What is different about your site?
The point-of-view of Europeans about a typical American product.
6. What has been the biggest success you’ve had so far?
I’m still waiting for my biggest success ! 🙂 But I’ve started organizing really tiny events where I cook lots of ribs for friends, and there is already a big waiting list.
7. How is site traffic?
Very average.. only around 10-20 visits a day, that’s not much. I should have more incoming links from other websites to generate more traffic – so I’m always interested in exchanging links with other BBQ sauce related websites.
8. How can people get to your site? Facebook page?
By going to www.bbqsauce.be (or www.barbecuesauce.be). I’ve just created a new Fan Page on Facebook to replace to old Facebook group, so don’t hesitate to “Like” us and post your pictures, links, and whatever you like. There’s a like box on the site 🙂
9. What can people expect next year from you?
More cooking articles for sure and fortunately more sauce and rub reviews. The site will also be redesigned. In the medium-to-long term, I’d really like to start importing US sauces in Belgium and maybe setup a BBQ joint or something – a complete professional retraining !
10. What is your favorite meal?
I really like meatballs, roasted chicken, eggs.. and tune them with barbecue sauce so they taste even better.
Are you a Sauce Person? Got a cool story?
Send the answers to the above questions to brian@bbqsaucereviews.com with a picture of yourself and your product(s) and I may put you and your sauce in the spotlight!
Site Editor, BBQ Sauce Lover, Family Guy, Hi Tech Marketer by Day. He recently wrote the Ebook “How to Market Your BBQ Sauce” which can be purchased on this site.
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