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www.kitchenwarenews.com • JULY 2019 • KITCHENWARE NEWS & HOUSEWARES REVIEW 17 Briton Brings Taste for Bangers to American Shores Cont. on page 18 Cont. on page 18 Elements Truffles Brings BalanceTo Indulgent Chocolate BY LORRIE BAUMANN Jolly Posh Foods got started in the early years of the 21st century (2009) with a trans-At- lantic love story. Nick Spencer, the com- pany's owner, was born and raised in the United Kingdom, grew up and started work- ing for Ernst & Young in London. That's what he was doing when he met Connie, a Chicago native, in a London bar. Sparks flew. The couple dated long-distance for three years until Spencer could persuade Ernst & Young to transfer him to New York. Connie moved there from Chicago to join him, and they eventually married. Then, late in 2009, in the midst of the Great Recession, Spencer's New York assign- ment with Ernst & Young had ended, and the couple decided that they'd move back to Chicago to be closer to Connie's family and to start a little family of their own. "It wasn't the best year for either of us to be looking for work, so we decided to start our own com- panies," Spencer said. Connie opened an independent law practice, and Spencer started thinking about what he could do that wouldn't involve stepping back into the cor- porate world and that would take advantage of C h i c a g o ' s strength as a manufacturing and trade center for the food processing industry. "Nothing is easy, but I thought I'd start with something that, on the surface of it, sounded rather sim- ple," he said. "I was in the right place." He'd already realized, over the few years he'd lived in New York with Connie, that he was missing the good British food that he'd enjoyed in London. The "British food" he'd been offered in the United States reminded him of the nation's historical cuisine – the stodgy "meat and two veg" that had come to characterize cooking in the British and Irish isles after World War II's deprivations and ra- tioning had come to an end but the post-war hardships remained. But over the past few decades, Britain has seen a culinary revolution led by chefs pas- sionate about resurrecting British culinary traditions with fresh ingredients and superior technique. "It was getting really, really good," Spencer said. "The presentation and quality of food that's either British or Irish that's available in the American market doesn't re- flect the modern version of home." Spencer decided that his new business would introduce Chicagoans to the mod- ern British take on a couple of foods al- ready familiar to them – sausages and bacon. He made some bangers and took them out to farmers markets, then opened BY LORRIE BAUMANN SZENT is a new brand of bottled water with a twist ― a scent ring affixed to the neck of the bottle that's infused with natu- ral oils carry the aroma of natural flavoring to the drinker's nose. What's actually inside the bottle is just water purified by reverse osmosis ― all the flavor is in the scent ring. "What you're ingesting is the water," said Maddie Grandbois, SZENT's Chief Creative Officer and one of the three company co- Founders. "Your brain believes that you're getting a hit of flavor, but you're not ingest- ing any flavor, any artificial ingredients. We're not adding anything to our water." The company was launched in October of 2018 after four years' worth of research and development looking into ways that they might be able to disrupt the beverage category. "It took a group of people outside that industry to shake it up. We were able to think about the beverage category in a different way," Grandbois said. "We were looking for a product that had flavor, but we didn't want to compromise." While they wanted their beverage to have authentic flavor, the partners were du- bious about the 'natural flavors,' they were finding on the market, which seemed somehow less than natural to them. Then they thought about the widely observed phenomenon that much of what we taste when we eat food ― perhaps as much as 75 percent to 90 percent, although around 80 percent is the figure most used ― actually derives from olfaction. Some neurophysiol- ogists believe it's possible that only about 5 percent of what we experience when we're eating is actually coming from our sense of taste. That being the case, SZENT's partners decided to capitalize on the phe- nomenon by supplying aroma rather than ingredients in their bottled water. The scented ring is infused with natural oils and remains around the bottle's neck after the cap is removed. "Every time you take a sip of water, we can channel that sensory ex- perience by using the sense of smell," Grandbois said. "Any flavor you experience is coming through your nose." SZENT launched its product on Amazon in October, 2018 with still water in the bot- tles and scent rings with five flavors around their necks: Passionfruit, Tangerine, Tropi- cal, Pineapple and Mint. The products are just starting to roll out in Southern Califor- nia grocers, with a national roll-out forth- coming. SZENT is currently offering the still water varieties in 20-ounce single-serve bottles packaged in a case of 12 that retails for $24. Single bottles retail at $2.25 apiece. "It's been really fun. It's a blessing and a curse to be first to market," Grand- bois said. "It's really exciting, but you have to carry the weight of consumer educa- tion." KN Food Entrepreneur Creates Line of Wine-Based Seasonings After more than a year of product and brand development, Ken Medei of Melbourne, Florida, has officially launched a line of wine-based seasonings and rubs under his brand, Wine It®. Medei has been in the specialty food business since 1990, when he launched a line of premium pasta sauces, Medei Cui- sine, in Schenec- tady, New York. After selling the brand in 1994, he has worked with a variety of specialty food companies to as- sist them in packaging, new product develop- ment, distribu- tion and even celebrity licens- ing, which included the launch of the Emeril's brand of consumer food products in 2000. But, deep down, Medei always wanted to create another line of specialty food products as long as they were not me-too items. Says Medei, "For example, in 1990, premium pasta sauces were rare in the marketplace so I had a niche back then." Today, of course, there are many excel- lent pasta sauces in the marketplace, and there's also a wealth of other specialty food products. Medei wasn't interested in a product that wasn't unique and relevant as well as high-quality. "I would joke that the only way I would do another sauce or other food product is if it cured baldness or had a Viagra effect," he said. He started thinking about the possibility of creating a sea- soning mix. But, there was still the rub that the mar- ketplace is crowded. "With so many season- ings and rubs available to shoppers, many of which are out- standing, how could I stand out among such a crowded field?" he said. Enter wine. When Medei came across wine powders during his ingredient re- search he experienced the proverbial light- bulb moment and immediately knew where he was going with this venture, he said. He references the continued growth BY GREG GONZALES Stopping to take a breath now and then can help us pay attention to our inner voices. That's how Alak Vasa, Co-Founder of Ele- ments Truffles, says she found her way to making chocolate. She left a career on Wall Street to follow her pas- sion, and now she and her team make truffles and chocolate bars with a mis- sion in mind. Vasa spent more than a decade on Wall Street be- fore she quit to train at Financier Patisserie in Manhattan. A friend had introduced her to medita- tion, which enabled her to understand herself better, she said. While she appre- ciated the chance to learn a new craft, she still didn't feel at home. That inner voice kept getting louder, she said, telling her she had to create something of her own. In 2015, she got to work finding the right product. "I never thought I would be making chocolate," said Vasa. "When I quit my job I didn't know what I wanted to do, but I did know I wanted to do something with food and with good food ― food that you can trust, food that you can give to your child and not worry about what they're eating ― and to build a company with values, in terms of the partnerships, the sourcing of ingredi- ents, the packaging, the people. When we decided we wanted to build the company, we wanted to be mindful, to make it a human- centric company." The brand makes chocolates in small batches that are raw, or- ganic, dairy-free, with no refined sugars, preserva- tives or emulsifiers. Each of its products is made in its New Jersey facility, where they're sweetened with local honey that makes each bite melt slowly. Elements Truffles mixes in essential oils, gin- ger, black pepper, beet root, turmeric and laven- der into its products. The result is a new kind of flavor experience, and a bar that's less likely to end in a sugar crash. Much of the inspiration for these flavors comes from Ayurvedic eating, something Vasa and her husband learned as kids in Ahmedabad, India. She explained that where most diets are about do-and-don't think- ing, Ayurveda is about bringing Bottled Water You Taste Through Your Nose Cont. on page 18

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