As a child, Jason Hadley had two passions: selling and cooking. From the time he was 10 years old, he helped his mother supplement the family income by mowing lawns and washing cars, and when he sold newspapers on street corners and candy door-to-door, he absolutely thrived. He also helped his mother by cooking for his four siblings. With the little food they had, Jason loved experimenting, often combining unlikely tastes and textures, to provide his family with meals that were nutritious and delicious. His two youthful pursuits tapped into his creativity in different ways.
As an adult, with sales jobs plentiful, he sold cars, furniture and houses, always with the same delight and success as when he was a child. And then the day came when his two passions dovetailed. Jason was helping to organize a sales conference and decided to contribute his Chicken Bang Dip. The response was overwhelming. Sure, his family and friends had always raved about it, but, you know how it is, they were family and friends!
Jason had never lost the ability to know, almost intuitively, what combination of ingredients and flavors worked well. He had started out wanting to improve the store-bought Buffalo Chicken Dip and, after many trials and errors, he had his Chicken Bang Dip that was the “MVP” of the family get-togethers and neighborhood cookouts. Now he was going to see if the general public felt the same.
He and his wife opened a kiosk, The Bang Shack, at the Yellow Green Farmers Market in Hollywood, FL, with two crock-pots of his Chicken Bang Dip. Within a year, they had expanded to two kiosks, twelve crock-pots and two additional products: Vegetarian Bang Dip with zucchini instead of chicken and Vegan Band Dip made with a base of cashews nuts. Probably needless to say, Jason isn’t going into much more detail than that about his top-secret ingredients.
You get to be creative with thinking of new ways to use the Bang Dip. Jason will tell you that it’s good on everything! And it may be. What we know for sure is that the distinctively savory dip brings out the best in rice, baked potatoes, half a sweet potato, pastas, vegetables, eggs, hash browns, hot dogs and hamburgers.
Jason is in his glory, cooking, hustling, selling, and entertaining both customers and other vendors at the farmers market. He had one more role as a child—“family clown.” To keep up the spirits of a family in difficult circumstances, he always had one more joke, one more trick, one more silly dance. He still does.