Who gets to profit from the culinary culture and heritage of an ethnic community?  

Randy Pulayya staunchly believes it’s the people who are a part of that community. 

“Our cultures are on shelves, but our people are not," said the co-founder of West Indies Peppa Sauce.  

The cultural appropriation of global food traditions by corporations with no ties to said cultures isn’t new. Grocery store chain Trader Joe’s for example, has been accused of exploiting minority-owned small businesses by taking their ethnic specialty foods, copying the recipe, name and even packaging designs, and reselling under the Trader Joe’s label without proper compensation to the original brands. 

Pulayya is doing his part to change the narrative. Together with his wife, Shauna Vo Pulayya, the Orlando-based couple has created West Indies Peppa Sauce, aka WIPS, an all-natural pepper sauce made with Scotch bonnet peppers.  

“Our mission’s about preserving food culture for the 42 million Caribbean diaspora,” says Pulayya. 

Scotch bonnet peppers are a type of chili pepper native to South and Central America. They have a fruity profile that packs serious heat and are an integral part of Jamaican cuisine, providing the spicy kick to popular dishes like jerk chicken. 

Pulayya is Guyanese American, and West Indies Peppa Sauce is based on a four-generation family recipe passed down from his great-grandmother. 

“I've been making this pepper sauce for the last twenty plus years,” says Pulayya, “We started with the idea in 2023 and we launched in February of 2024.” 

It was a business that grew partly out of necessity. Shortly after launching WIPS, Pulayya, who worked in transportation and logistics, was laid off from his job. A few months later, his wife experienced her own layoff at the fintech company where she was a marketing executive.  

“We both kind of went all in for some time,” said Vo Pulayya, “We have 2 kiddos, a 6- and 8-year-old, so had to go back [to work] to support the family, but obviously doing WIPS as well full time.” 

All their hard work seems to have paid off. WIPS is a two-time winner of the Spicy Flave Award, placing first in its category (Caribbean Hot Sauces) in both 2024 and 2025. The sauces have been featured on Hot Ones - Caribbean Edition, a Caribbean spinoff of Hot Ones, the popular YouTube talk show wherein guests test their tolerance for increasingly spicy hot sauces. 

WIPS Yellow Scotch Bonnet and Red Scotch Bonnet sauces have been featured in grocery store chain Sprouts Farmers Market in Florida, and there are plans to expand to Sprouts’ nationwide locations, said Pulayya. 

Respecting tradition is important to the co-founders; it even informs the packaging for WIPS. 

“We have it in jars for cultural reasons,” said Pulayya, “On hot sauce aisles, it's traditional woozy bottles,” he noted, referring to the tall and narrow, slender-necked bottles that hot sauces typically come in. “We want to keep it true to culture. We're not looking to dilute our culture in any capacity.”  

The co-founders recommend stirring the sauce before adding it to dishes, and the jar format means it can be used in a variety of ways. 

“Our sauces are more about the flavor than the spice. So, we love to use it for cooking as a marinade, as a spice, as a condiment. We mix it with different flavors as well,” said Vo Pulayya. “We use it to marinate galbi, Korean galbi. We use it in curry. So, it's very versatile, and I think that's what makes us stand out,” she says. 

Both husband and wife are first-generation Americans who know what it’s like navigating two cultures at the same time. Pulayya was born in New York City and grew up in a section of Queens known as Little Guyana. Vo Pulayya is Vietnamese American and was born in Arkansas. A US service member adopted her mother during the Vietnam War, while her father escaped Vietnam by boat.  

The couple has brought their span of lived experiences to West Indies Peppa Sauce, a product that’s unapologetically rooted in Caribbean tradition yet simultaneously evolving and reshaping it for new generations.  

Pulayya highlights WIPS’ clean label ingredients and notes that the sauce can even be added to cocktails. Vo Pulayya weaves her own heritage into the mix by adding WIPS to phở, a traditional Vietnamese noodle soup. 

“We're the son and daughters of immigrant families,” says Pulayya. Their pepper sauce reflects that truth, a product of blended cultures telling its story on its own terms.

Written and photographed by Tina Trinh.

Photo location: Summer Fancy Food Show 2026, New York City.