Si Brown wearing his Hot Sauce Hall of Fame blazer. Lee Ball Photography

You don’t have to be from South Louisiana to know that the Cajun culinary tradition is one without rival. Yielded from a distinct cultural heritage handed down from generation to generation, signature spices, blends and food products have become recognized worldwide, indelibly linked to Cajun cuisine and the people who share them. Local businessman, J.S. “Si” Brown III, has been instrumental in the spread and preservation of this tradition through his career as the President and CEO of Bruce Foods Corporation, achieving great success while serving as a champion for the industry as well as the area.

Like most accomplished individuals, success was not something Brown merely stumbled upon. Rather, it was gained through his relentless pursuit of a goal, which he had decided upon while still a young boy at St. Peter’s College in New Iberia. “I was very fortunate in that I knew what my vocation and ultimate career goal was at an early age,” Brown states. “My goal was basically to build and own a substantial business and I chose to do the things that would lead me to accomplish that.” He applied himself daily in his sports teams and academics, ultimately graduating as Salutatorian of his class before attending Tulane University. After earning his Bachelor of Business Administration, Brown answered the call of duty, serving his country as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy. When his tour in the Pacific was completed, he returned home to New Iberia and quickly got to work. Chasing after his dream, he and his two brothers purchased what was then a small startup, Bruce Foods, and began building it into what would become one of America’s largest privately-owned food manufacturers.

The decision to pursue a business in the food industry was an easy one for Brown, as he was practically raised in the industry. Growing up, Brown recalls the long days he and his siblings spent working in the warehouse for his father, who was a food distributor. “He was a very strict person and I had to either go out and make a sports team or work in the warehouse after school because he didn’t want me getting in trouble,” he recounts. “Working in my dad’s business gave me a pretty good opening to see the inside of a business and what it involved and what it could become. Those were the things that opened my eyes and really solidified my desire to be in business,” he adds.

Those behind the scenes glances at the inner workings of a food business and lessons learned from his father proved to be invaluable as Brown and his brothers worked to get the business off the ground. In true “rags to riches fashion,” they began in a barn equipped with eight workers, simple equipment and one electric motor that had to be transferred from one machine to another. Brown recalls, “It was a very small business, which is hard to describe today because things have changed so much. But, we basically had homemade equipment, other than this one electric motor, and we built a hot sauce business out of that – Louisiana Hot Sauce.”

As with any young business, the first few years were riddled with challenges, but Brown and his brothers emerged unscathed due to their “hands on” managerial approach. “Fortunately, we were able to come through all of the challenges by doing things ourselves and with the help of so many other terrific local people who are too many to name,” he states. “We were real hands on managers, and I give great credit to my two brothers, Gordon and Norman, for our success. We had clear lines of authority and responsibility and we had much mutual respect.”

Their strategy required great sacrifice, long hours and hard work, but Brown credits it as being essential to their success. When asked where his work ethic comes from, Brown immediately responds, “There’s no question about the answer to that. That was my dad.”

He smiles, “He was what we called a ‘task master.’ He was a very hand on businessperson himself and he was very good to work with and a terrific person to learn from. He was no doubt the catalyst to my work ethic and ultimately setting my goal in business to achieve.” When questioned on his commitment to that goal he responds, “I’ve never wavered in the actual goal I had set and was very happy to work through the challenges.” Then, likening it to his high school sports experience he adds, “Growing up playing sports, you’re learning how to win, but you’re also learning how to lose. You get a lot of setbacks in business, just like in sports. You don’t win every game and you don’t win every year, but you go back and understand how you lost and how to get better from losing.”

Brown learned from his past, his successes and his failures and, using his experience in international travel and trade as a guide, set the company on an ambitious growth track. “I set up a national sales organization and an international sales organization with manufacturing to support and we grew our business through internal expansion as well as acquisitions,” he recalls. Soon enough, Brown found himself running a thriving, internationally recognized corporation, which at its peak manufactured food products under five major labels, employed 1,600 workers, operated 5 plants and distributed products to more than 100 countries.

Not only did Brown successfully achieve his childhood goal within his own business, but he also garnered multiple notable accolades and an ever-increasing sphere of influence in the process. One glance at his extensive list of honors and past involvement and the respect he’s so justly acquired among his business, local and national communities is easy to recognize. Among those, perhaps his most notable was having two number one national brands and receiving the President’s “E” Award for Exporting Excellence from President Ronald Reagan as well as the President’s “E” Star Award for Exporting Excellence from President George H. Bush. Brown explains, “Basically every award the government’s commerce department offered for international trade we won. So, we’re very proud of that.” Most recently, Brown was inducted into the New York Hot Sauce Hall of Fame, a confederation of hot sauce enthusiasts spanning internationally in scope, for his expertise in and promotion of the industry.

In addition to awards, Brown has served as director and member on multiple organization’s and committees and played an important role in advancing the causes he’s most passionate about. Among those is the preservation and enhancement of the Cajun culinary tradition, a passion that materialized in the creation of the John Folse Culinary Institute. Noticing the lack of formal instruction dedicated to Cajun cuisine, Brown and Folse worked to establish the institute at Nicholls University, a thriving program that has come to be widely recognized and respected, “We basically took Louisiana cooking around the country and around the world and I was proud to be a part of that,” states Brown.

Perhaps even more impressive was Brown’s involvement in commerce at the national and international level as a member of the Industry Sector Advisory Committee on U.S. Trade Policy in Washington DC as well as the Agricultural Technical Advisory Committee for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Chosen by the Governor as the single ambassador for the state, Brown was privileged to then make the final cut from 50 down to 12 to serve as advisors to Congress. “Ronald Reagan started the Fast Track program to promote free trade internationally for the United States,” explains Brown. “They set up the Industry Sector Advisory committee as the group of what, at that time, were the most experienced business people to advise Congress on that up or down vote for the fast track.” Additionally, Brown served on the original NAFTA negotiation team and was present when President Clinton signed it into law in 1994.

Even after all of his involvement and international success, Brown has not forgotten his roots, remaining appreciative and loyal to the program he has been a part of since adolescence, The Boy Scouts of America. “I have such admiration and appreciation for what I learned as a Scout, both as a person and as a professional,” he states. “The Scouting oath and law is something I wish every man and woman would embrace – to be the best citizen they can possibly be.” As an Eagle Scout, Brown has remained very involved, both locally and nationally, supporting and promoting the program among area youth. “It’s been analyzed internationally and compared with any other program in the world and has always come out as the number one program for youth development,” he adds. “I’m just a big believer in the scouting program and I spend as much time and effort as I can to promote it and encourage young people to embrace it.”

In recent years, Brown has taken steps to downsize his family’s corporation to spend more time with his family and friends, especially with his wife, Eaton, and children: Leslie, Virginia, Allison, Patrick and Robin who have all worked in the Bruce Foods family business. He also looks forward to enjoying more of the things he loves, like hunting, fishing and cultivating his fruit trees. “Right now, we’re in what I call a simplification program of Bruce Foods, which is to downsize different operations, divest some of them and basically put them in the hands of different operators or new owners,” he states. At this stage, Brown remarks, “I’m just looking to take it a little slower and a little easier.”

While his schedule may have slightly slowed, Brown’s unwavering passion for his hometown and belief in the achievability of the American dream has not. Using his experience and skills, He makes it a point to encourage and mentor young Eagle scouts and aspiring businesspersons to relentlessly pursue their goals while actively promoting the Acadiana community and Cajun culture. “I can honestly say I’ve been all over the world and I always look forward to coming back to the greatest place on the planet, which is Acadiana,” he smiles. “We have such great, rich culture here to enjoy and we all need to count our blessings because I think we couldn’t be more lucky than to be here.”