The Richest, Most Powerful Families in the Food Business

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The McIlhenny Family

The Business: Tabasco hot sauce

The Fortune: The family’s historian, Shane Bernard, estimates the company’s net worth at $2 billion to $3 billion. (At $2.5 billion, that’s 626,566,416 five-ounce bottles of original Tabasco).

A Brief History: In 1868, Edmund McIlhenny of Avery Island, Louisana, crafted a sauce made from salt-fermented tabasco peppers to pep up “bland” Southern food. Two years later, he received a patent and began expanding the business, focusing on restaurants and “men’s clubs.” The fact that there were few competitors at the time helped Tabasco gain ground quickly. The company has stayed within the family for five generations.
Amateur Hour: Consumers originally complained that McIlhenny’s sauce was too hot, because they applied it “liberally,” like ketchup—that’s why the bottle is fitted with a slotted slow-release top.

Didja Know? A “Sweet and Sour” version of Tabasco was nicknamed “Sweet and Soapy” during testing because coconut oil in the sauce wasn’t aging well.

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