P.J. Monte, aka 'The Sauce Boss' Is the Perfect Ambassador for the Family Brand

Most people would not consider a windswept ocean beach or a wide open cattle field an ideal place to put together a classic Italian dish.

But most people are not P.J. Monte.

The continued relevance and popularity of the Monte legacy in the restaurant and hospitality industry has everything to do with the strong founding principles of the family, and the many members of that family who have made running restaurants like the original Monte’s in Brooklyn, and Gurney’s Hotel and Spa their life’s work over the years. That legacy has continued with the opening of the family’s newest restaurant venture, Monte’s at the Manor, two years ago. But if there is a perfect brand ambassador for the family in the modern era, it’s P.J. Monte, aka “the Sauce Boss.”

Monte is the second-oldest son of Paul Monte, the owner of Monte’s at the Manor, which has rejuvenated the restaurant space at the historic Montauk Manor is just two shorts years. P.J. Monte exudes classic middle kid energy, putting his natural charisma and creativity on display in a variety of ways, including his “Make it With Monte’s” videos on YouTube.

In one short clip, he is in a fedora and crisp linen shirt, several top buttons undone, gold jewelry on display, as he gathers a potful of ocean water to begin cooking Shrimp Luciano on a simple two-burner stove set up right on the beach. In another video, he’s making meat sauce in a field, as a real live cow looks on nervously. Chic sunglasses, a fedora, and a partially buttoned shirt are Monte’s style calling card, and he’s a natural in front of the camera. But there’s more to Monte than a marketable image.

He put in plenty of hours behind the scenes to earn the moniker “Sauce Boss,” working for many years, like almost every one of his family members, at Gurney’s, and more recently under the watchful eye of his uncle Chip Monte at the restaurant his uncle operated in Amenia, New York, for several years before closing it shortly after the pandemic. Monte had long wanted to jar and sell the sauce that was such a big part of the family’s restaurant business for so many years, and the key to the deliciousness of so many of its beloved Italian dishes. After making countless batches of the sauce — often starting at midnight or later, after working a full shift in the kitchen of the Amenia restaurant — Monte was finally ready. He developed the retail arm of the family business, Monte’s Fine Foods, which sells not only the sauce, but homemade pasta and hip merchandise as well.

The sauce had its big moment during the pandemic, when Monte doggedly tracked down New York Times food writer Florence Fabricant, who has a home on the East End, and gave her a few jars of the sauce. She told him she’d try it, and do a write up if she liked it. She did both, calling the sauce “Old New York flavor, in a jar,” in a write up in The Times in November 2020.

The sauce is made with vine-ripened American-grown (in California) plum tomatoes. As the Monte’s website explains, they find the American-grown tomatoes “paramount to most Italian tomatoes available today, as the popularity of ‘San Marzano’ and similar Italian tomato varieties has led to mechanized commercial farming and mislabeling.”

“Our tomatoes are grown in California via the rural Italian tradition and are washed and steam peeled,” it continues. “Additional ingredients are sourced locally from the best farms in the Hudson Valley, whenever seasonably available.”

Not present in the Monte’s sauce: tomato blends, pastes, starches, fillers, artificial additives, colors, dried herbs or added sugars. The sauce is also certified kosher, vegan and gluten-free.

For Monte, creating the Monte’s Fine Foods arm of the family business has been exciting for several reasons. First of all, the sauce is simply delicious, and he felt it deserved to be shared with the world. He knew his family had the goods, in terms of the family legacy, to draw people in, much in the same way that another sauce brand, Rao’s, became popular.

“This sauce is better, and it’s clean label,” he said. “And I also had the additional motivation of continuing the family legacy. I grew up as a fan of my own family’s legacy, where I collect everything that pops up on eBay that says Monte’s or Gurney’s. I saw a vision of — if I don’t jump in and do this, it might not continue, and that would be such a shame.”

Not only has the brand, and the famous sauce, survived, but it has thrived, thanks to Monte’s hard work and talent for curating and promoting the brand.

It’s the kind of sauce that will continue to find its way onto tables and in family meals for years to come — whether those meals are cooked in a traditional kitchen, a field, or on the beach.