Celebrity chef Aarón Sánchez was supposed to become the face of a growing food brand. Instead, after tasting its products, he decided he wanted a piece of the company.
Manny’s Ultimate Mixes announced on Wednesday, Oct. 7, that the longtime MasterChef judge has joined the company as its first-ever brand partner and an owner in the business.
According to the company, the partnership originally began as discussions about a traditional spokesperson deal. Sánchez’s plans changed after he picked up the company’s Ultimate Bloody Mary and Ultimate Michelada mixes at Smart & Final and tried them himself.
“I was told the fastest way to taste Manny’s was to grab both products at Smart & Final. So that’s what I did, and WOW!” Sánchez said in a statement. “The Michelada was outstanding, and the Bloody Mary was hands down the best I’d ever tasted.”
But Sánchez, 50, didn’t stop at using the products for drinks. The following day, he experimented with incorporating them into his cooking.
“The next day I had family over, so I used the Michelada for a ceviche and the Bloody Mary as a braising liquid for barbacoa tacos,” he continued. “That’s the moment it hit me. I called my agent and said I want to partner on the mixes, not just be a spokesperson.”
The chef now holds an equity interest in UBM Group, LLC, the company that produces Manny’s Ultimate Mixes.
The deal will also put Sánchez’s culinary expertise to work. He plans to create original recipes using both mixes as ingredients, in addition to developing cocktail and lifestyle content. He’ll also represent the products at festivals, trade shows and retailer events as Manny’s continues expanding its distribution.
The partnership comes shortly after Manny’s received a major industry honor. In June 2026, its mixes earned a Double Gold Medal at the San Francisco Ready-to-Drink Competition, part of The Tasting Alliance. The brand was also named a Best of Class Finalist and will advance to the Top Shelf Awards Gala in November.
Bartender Manny Ferreira founded the Greenwich, Conn.-based company in 2014 after spending two decades working behind bars in Manhattan and Connecticut. His Bloody Mary recipe combines 12 traditional ingredients with four ingredients the company says Ferreira still keeps secret. The Michelada mix followed later, using the same base with added citrus.
“Manny crafted our recipes because nothing on the shelf was good enough for him,” Spencer Rothschild of UBM Group said in the announcement, adding that the brand has experienced “incredible growth” over the past 18 months.
Sánchez is best known to many viewers as a longtime judge on Fox’s MasterChef and MasterChef Junior. He previously appeared on Food Network shows including Chopped, Chopped Junior, Iron Chef America and The Next Iron Chef, and currently co-hosts Restaurant Impossible: Last Call with restaurateur Jen Agg.
The James Beard Award winner is also a restaurateur and cookbook author. His restaurants include Johnny Sánchez, Showbird and Adobo Cantina, and he founded the Aarón Sánchez Impact Fund to help aspiring Latino chefs attend culinary school.
Manny’s Ultimate Bloody Mary and Ultimate Michelada are currently served at more than 1,500 locations across 18 states. The company says the first recipes and other content developed by Sánchez will debut later this year.
Related: Rising Food Network Star Launches New Korean Pantry Brand With 3 Kitchen Essentials
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