Owning his own business was always part of Phillip Guy’s dream.
Guy’s Cooking Creation fulfilled that dream, but it was also born out of a need to serve the community.
The Black-owned BBQ and sauce company, which specializes in providing Hoosiers with healthy food options in areas lacking variety and flavor, has been a staple of community farmers markets and festival pop-ups for the last eight years. Philip Guy, founder and CEO, runs the business alongside his wife and said he’s excited to give back to his customers in a new way this summer.
“In the middle of summer, we’ll have a line of seasonings that we’ve been working on for the last four years,” Guy said. “I want the company to grow even more because this is not a hobby, this is the real thing for me.”
Guy grew up on Indianapolis’ Northeast side in a family where everyone cooked, and one uncle even owned a business. After graduating from Broad Ripple High School in the 90s, Guy started cooking and barbequing independently for his family and his community. Then in 2017, with the help of his wife, he decided to make a business out of it.
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Indianapolis is home to several food deserts or “dry spots” where people don’t have many options in terms of variety and flavor, let alone BBQ or healthy options, Guy said. The reason he even started the business was to serve his own community.
“It started with a passion for cooking for Phillip and then developing the sauces to have something to enhance the food, … then just everything being centered around health,” his wife, Latasha Guy, said. “The seasoning and the sauce line was birthed from a need — a need that Phillip has and that I’m sure others have as well — needing something that tastes good but is still healthy and still has good flavor.”
Guy’s Cooking Creation started out as a catering business. Phillip Guy took on the responsibility of cooking and serving the food, while his wife — who holds a bachelor’s and master’s in business management with a concentration in human resources — stepped in as operations manager to handle the business end of things.
There was a “figuring it out” stage in the beginning as the couple navigated the catering industry on their own. However, as the business gained traction, Phillip Guy said a problem quickly became apparent: the sauces.
“I was tired of buying everybody else’s sauces,” Phillip Guy said. “I wanted to make my own sauce, so I just went in the lab and tried to create me (sic) something. I came up with a sweet and spicy, and I let the people at work try it. They liked it. They was like, ‘Hey, man, you need to start bottling this up and sell it.’ So that’s exactly how that got started.”
Phillip Guy bottled the sauces at his previous job, Horton Fan in Carmel, Indiana, until the company moved to North Carolina in 2019. That is also when he decided to “step out on faith” and focus on the business full time.
Of course, business was slow at the start, and the pandemic didn’t make things easy for them, but Guy’s Cooking Creation began getting quite a few catering bookings and earned a steady slot working the farmers’ markets circuit in addition to other locations with the IU Health Network, Latasha Guy said.
“I’m able to see the real time feedback. He’s able to see the real time feedback of the quality of his services, because that’s what it’s about,” Latasha Guy said. “He (Phillip) does a really good job managing both, making sure that one, it’s personal for him for his food to be good, but two, for the customer to enjoy that experience.”
Today, the business offers more than 17 different original sauce flavors, including 24k honey mustard, Jamaican jerk marinade, strawberry heat and tropical thunder, in addition to a line of seasonings expected to drop in August 2025. Their motto, which can be read on the back of company t-shirts, begs the question, “Have you been sauced yet?”
After eight years, Phillip Guy said he’s grateful the community still shows up for him and his wife. He knows they have a good product with the food, sauces — and eventually the seasonings — but making people happy with what he’s created while continuing to grow the business is what he’s genuinely grateful for.
“This business is important because it’s something for the community,” Phillip Guy said. “It’s very important for me and my business to be around for the longest of times, to continue to feed the people and to let them enjoy what the Lord has blessed us; to be able to create for them.”
The new line of seasonings is expected to come out in August 2025. Guy’s Cooking Creations vends at the Garfield Park Farmers’ Market every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
To place an online order for catering or purchase sauces, visit guyscookingcreation.square.site.
Contact Arts & Culture Reporter Chloe McGowan at 317-762-7848. Follow her on X @chloe_mcgowanxx.
Chloe McGowan is the Arts & Culture Reporter for the Indianapolis Recorder Newspaper. Originally from Columbus, OH, Chloe graduated with a degree in journalism from The Ohio State University. She is a former IndyStar Pulliam Fellow, and her previous work includes freelancing for Indy Maven, Assistant Arts & Life Editor for The Lantern, and editorial assistant at CityScene Media Group. Chloe enjoys covering all things arts and culture — from local music, visual art, dance, theater and film, as well as minority-owned businesses. In her free time, Chloe enjoys reading, cooking and keeping her plants alive.
