Duff Goldman Approves Of This Trader Joe's Spice

If you are melding the images of Duff Goldman and sprinkles together in your mind, you are probably thinking about the sugar nonpareils that decorate cakes and cookies. After all, the Ace of Cakes is known for his cake art and even dabbled in packaging sprinkles of his own at one point (via Instacart). When it comes to decorating cakes, well, the Ace of Cakes is pretty much in a class all his own. The great-grandson of a Ukrainian baker, according to his Culinary Institute of America bio, the celebrity chef began cooking at the age of four. He later gained some valuable foodservice experience at Burger King, Wendy's, and McDonald's and earned a Baking and Pastry Arts certificate from the CIA. He even provided the inauguration cake for President Obama in 2013.

But he's not a one-trick pony. Though he's mainly known for his cake prowess, the cake ace knows his way around a kitchen and has provided different recipes for one of his non-cake specialties: chili. In fact, he shared his chili dog recipe with Mashed for folks to use on NFL game day. Goldman, who played hockey in high school and college, per NHL, was named the celebrity chef of the Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic in 2011 and shared his recipe for Mule-kick, High-stick Cold Weather Chili. It uses, among other things, a whopping 4 tablespoons of red chili pepper. If ever he makes it again, we have an idea of what brand of chili pepper he wouldn't mind using.

Duff Goldman took to Twitter recently to voice his approval of Trader Joe's Red Chili Pepper, saying, "I approve" of a Twitter post from Dr. Death Metal that featured a picture of a bottle of the pepper flakes from the grocer's "Spices of the World" line along with the caption "My wife refers to these as 'hot sprinkles.'"  Goldman's post received 159 likes and a handful of responses, including one from a commenter who simply said, "Yes."

Trader Joe's Red Chili Pepper is one of quite a few interesting seasonings offered up by the boutique grocer. Extremely versatile, red pepper can be sprinkled on pretty much anything, like pizza, stir-fries, or pasta, according to ChefSteps. It can even be used, as suggested by PepperScale, on veggies like kale or Brussels sprouts, in sausage, kimchi, or even in pickles. Given Goldman's penchant for taking things to the extreme (at least with cake), is it any surprise that a little jar of heat meets with his approval?