"Just like my mother used to make" is the ultimate compliment to a chef, no matter the cuisine.

For years, entrepreneurs have been packaging their families' cherished recipes to share with the masses. Enter Saucey Sauce Co., a line of fresh, gourmet fish sauces created by Ken and Toan Huynh, a brother-sister team from Vietnam.

The Huynhs moved to the U.S. in 1981, when they were toddlers. While they were children growing up in Philadelphia, their mother would make them homemade Vietnamese garlic sauce to spice up after-school snacks.

Ketchup of Southeast Asia

Known as nam pla in Thailand and nuoc cham in Vietnam, fish sauce has unpretentious roots. It's made from dried, salted anchovies or squid, which are fermented for one year in giant vats and then filtered to remove all impurities.

"The best stuff is more translucent, with a much cleaner taste," Ken Huynh explained. "It's like wine — there are different grades. Good ones taste better and have a nice aftertaste."

While some lower-quality fish sauces use artificial flavor enhancers, Saucey Sauce is an all-natural product. Because fish sauce is naturally shelf-stable, the duo use no preservatives to make their three sauces. Unopened, a bottle it can sit out at room temperature for at least nine months. Once opened, the sauce can be refrigerated for about three months.

The sauce makes delicious dressings for salads or cold noodles, and it's fantastic to marinade and grill with. The sauce also can be used as a dip for sushi or french fries, on hamburgers or to add kick to a bloody mary.

"It's the ketchup of Southeast Asia," Ken Huynh says.

While many non-Asians may be wary of anything labeled "fish sauce," one must keep in mind that salted fish often is the signature flavor in many of our favorite foods and condiments. Worcestershire sauce, for example, is made with anchovy garum, a fermented fish-sauce ingredient. Likewise, many sauce recipes call for anchovy paste or clam juice to add flavor and body.

From their home to yours

Traditional fish sauce is used like salt and pepper in Southeast Asia, but many Vietnamese families add fresh ingredients to make their own sauces at home. "When you go to a Vietnamese restaurant, they give you a little saucer of plain fish sauce with a lonely floating carrot. It's boring," Ken Huynh said. "When I get to the restaurant and get bun [Vietnamese rice noodle salad], I put a lot of chiles and pepper in it [and] maybe some lemon juice. This takes it up several notches, which is what we try to achieve with our sauces."

The original idea for Saucey Sauce came when the Huynhs threw a party and served their mother's sauces — people loved them so much they asked for bottles to take home.

The Huynhs are not chefs by trade; neither went to culinary school. But premium fish sauce is their passion, and Ken Huynh quit his job in technology to focus on the company full-time. If you go to a Brooklyn food fair and visit the Saucey Sauce booth, he's the guy talking with customers.

He's also the guy who makes the sauce — pounding the chiles, slicing the ginger and peeling fresh lemons.

The Huynhs owe part of their success to the support of the Brooklyn food scene, which is very intense and feeds into the food culture of Manhattan. "We're at two pretty prominent summer food fairs/outdoor markets, like Smorgasbord in Brooklyn," Ken Huynh said. "A lot of the chefs in the city find inspiration through these food fairs. We've had chefs from Le Cirque and the Flatiron Grill want to try the sauce."

The flavors

Saucey Sauce comes in three flavors, all based on the Huynh's mother's recipes: Spicy Garlic, Fresh Lemon and Sweet Ginger. Each begins with the highest-grade fish sauce available, to which fresh ingredients, such as brown sugar, garlic, lemon juice and fresh Asian chile peppers are added.

The sauce is then cooked to precisely the right stage to bring out the flavor of each ingredient.

The Huynhs continue to innovate and try out new variations. In addition to Wasabi and Cilantro-Lime and Spicy Garlic Extreme sauces, the duo also are developing a vegan, gluten-free sauce made of soy.

Saucey Sauce is available online, but thanks to the thriving Brooklyn food scene and the recent uptake of interest in Vietnamese food, Ken Huynh says, there's been a lot of interest in the product, and it soon will be available in stores.

"There's nothing else on the shelf like it — a fresh, homemade Asian condiment that works on everything," Ken Huynh said. "Really, we owe it all to our mom."

ON THE WEB

To buy Saucey Sauce, visit www.getsauceynow.com

Sauces: Spicy Garlic, Sweet Ginger and Fresh Lemon

Prices: $7.99 per bottle or $23.97 for all three, plus shipping and handling