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Kitchenware News & Housewares Review Show Daily Saturday, March 10, 2018 4 6 EG ENNOVEA Offers New Custom Solutions An interview with Christopher P. Gardner, Director of New Business & Product Development. KNSD: Your parent company, EG Industries, manufactures products for the automotive, medical and consumer industries. Where does ENNOVEA fit into that? CG: EG ENNOVEA is the consumer products division of EG Industries (www.egi.net). With an emphasis on health and safety, we partner with resellers who seek line extensions and brand promotion. Our suite of products and services can help deliver custom, innovative solutions without the tradi- tional costs of development. KNSD: Can you give an example? CG: Some of our most successful pro- grams happen when customers lever- age our strengths and we leverage theirs. For example – we make a small travel accessory that by itself is great. But, when we branded it with Equate ® , our sales increased because Walmart shoppers trust that brand. They benefit from a prod- uct where they had no tradition- al development investments and we benefit from their brand recognition. KNSD: Tell our readers about your new custom solutions. CG: Because we are the manufacturer, we can offer much more than 'we put your logo here!' In fact, we look at mate- rials, colorants, textures, packaging and more so that when we're done, you have bypassed all the heavy lifting and walked away with a fully customized solution. We do pad printing, hot stamping, heat transfer and raised urethane emblems – all in-house and to exacting standards. We have streamlined the process to serve our customers with prompt and exacting standards worthy of the brands we represent. KNSD: How would a company begin a program with you? CG: I am at cgardner@ennovea.com or 614.503.1188, x1450. Our innovative team of designers, engineers and market- ing experts can be a powerful resource for companies of all sizes. For more information, go to www.ennovea life.com or stop by booth #N6007. The World Is Your Oyster Knife By Greg Gonzales Zora Neale Hurston wrote that she doesn't weep at the world; she's too busy sharpening her oyster knife. A spectacu- lar oyster dinner is sure to drive worries away for the night, but shucking those oysters requires the right tools for the job. I've heard of people using screw- drivers to pry open those tight little shells, but a good oyster knife speeds things up and requires less force than MacGyver-style tools. Paired with the right accessories, the right oyster knife will show those who are new to shucking that it's safe, easy and a bit of an art. With a renewed interest in oysters among Millennial home cooks, retailers carrying high-quality oyster knives and acces- sories have the opportunity to tap into a growing market. When it comes to oyster knives, an informed consumer looks for a blade style that fits their needs and tastes. There's an oyster knife for every kind of technique, and for every kind of oyster. In fact, oyster knife styles get their names from the locations where they're most often used, or the location for which they were designed. For example, many peo- ple prefer the New Haven oyster knife, a classic and familiar design with a shorter blade that hooks on the end. The French style has a short, sharp blade; the Providence is a straight blade with a medium width and length; and the Boston is a short, sharp blade used for a technique called stabbing. "There's hinge shucking, bill shucking — a lot of people come in straight from the bill, which is the opposite side from the hinge — and some people go right after the abductor muscle, which is two-thirds of the way from the hinge down toward the bill on the righthand side if the hinge is by you," said Mimi Younkins, co-Owner of R. Murphy Knives. "That's called stabbing, but that's a messy method." She said stabbing is reserved more for meat pro- cessing plants that freeze or can oysters, where appearance doesn't make much difference to the end user. "You would never do that in an oyster competition because you'd lose points for having a messy shell," said Younkins. Grand Central Oyster Bar Executive Chef Sandy Ingber said some people come in from the hinge, "which makes it a lot eas- ier. When we're showing someone how to shuck, that's usually what we show them, to go in where the hinge is and pry it open." Oyster tools are all about taking the pain and unnecessary work out of the shuck. "With these pointy blades, you don't need a lot of pressure," said Younkins. "That's probably what hap- pens a lot, people think they need to push too hard. If you just let the point do a lot of the work and don't put a lot of pres- sure on it, it's going to drill in there. Just keep pushing a little bit, a little bit, the blade slips in there and it pops open!" Both Ingber and Younkins said per- sonal preference is what knife choice really comes down to, and the multiplici- ty of oyster knives on the market means consumers have plenty of options, but Younkins had a tip for what makes a good oyster knife. "The higher-end ones have a nice heft to them because there's steel in the handle," she said. "A full-tang knife, like a good chef's knife, the steel goes all the way through the handle – instead of a little tang that's inserted into a pre-made handle." Full-tang knives feel sturdier in the hand and reduce the chances of a knife snapping off mid- shuck. Oyster knives also come with a choice of materials, including different woods and plastic. R. Murphy Knives offers its New Haven Elite in rosewood, weighted and con- toured to fit the hand. HiCoup Kitchenware offers an oyster knife with a wood handle in pakka wood, with a 420-stainless steel blade, full tang, mir- ror finish, with an oversized hand guard in case of slips and a leather sheath. Restaurant owners and consumers who prefer a dishwasher-safe handle might choose a plastic handle, which are plenty sturdy and provide an inexpensive alter- native for consumers who aren't neces- sarily regular shuckers. Dexter-Russell offers a line of knives with textured, slip- resistant polypropylene handles in multi- ple styles, ranging from $17.25 to $18.95. Another plastic option includes the Shucker Paddy Universal Oyster Knife, a pistol grip oyster knife designed by world shucking champion Patrick McMurray. It's an ergonomic design with a finger guard for added safety that sells for around $20. With all of these new hands on oys- ter knives come new safety concerns and new opportunities to extend sales. A chainmail or kevlar glove, for example, can help consumers avoid the worst of injuries familiar to even the best shuck- ers, such as a knife straight through the palm. Microplane's Cut Resistant Glove protects against most injuries with a seamless, wire-free knit. The glove fits either hand, is FDA compliant for food and sells for $14.95 from Microplane. Consumers seeking more protection, like from stabs and chops, might seek out mesh and wire gloves, like US Mesh's USM-1105, a mesh glove made from sur- gical-grade stainless steel with a sewn-on polypropylene adjustable strap. Mesh gloves are a little more expensive. Consumers looking for some added ver- satility might opt for a Kevlar towel, too. Plenty of these safety accessories, like gloves, towels and shucking boards, come packaged in sets. Oyster knives might be a tough product to sell in a market where there aren't fresh oysters present, but they do pair well in gift sets. "Those do really well. We sell them with and without a nice little leather rollup you can keep all your shellfish knives in," said Younkin. "That's a popular thing; a couple of clam knives, a clam knife and an oyster knife, a clam knife and a crab meat knife, which sells well in the Chesapeake area where there are a lot of crabs." Oyster knives might seem a tough sell in markets without fresh oysters pres- ent, but they pair well with serving and safety accessories, and the experts who make them find oyster knives work well in gift sets. "Those do really well. We sell them with and without a nice little leather rollup you can keep all your shellfish knives in," said Younkin. "That's a popu- lar thing; a couple of clam knives, a clam knife and an oyster knife, a clam knife and a crab meat knife, which sells well in the Chesapeake area where there are a lot of crabs." If shucking the oysters is an art, serving them is equally or more so. The Oyster Bed, originally a Kickstarter proj- ect, offers the Stella Pro Package, a set that features a serving platter shaped to mimic ocean life with a center-bowl reservoir for au jus, soups, dips or gumbo. It also includes a spoon, and what they call The Dock, a serving plat- form made from reclaimed wood. BBQ Oyster Grill is known for its Shellfish Cooking Racks, a stainless steel BBQ accessory that keeps shellfish in place and upright, to prevent spillage. The racks are available from the manufactur- er for $79. Howard Products Cutting Board Cleaner Sold alongside Howard's Cutting Board Oil and Butcher Block Conditioner, now the entire cleaning, oiling and conditioning process can be done from products manufactured by the same company, which gives con- sumers confidence that all three prod- ucts will work together perfectly. Some dish soaps can't penetrate wood as deeply as Howard Cutting Board Cleaner will, leaving areas that can harbor harmful bacteria and contami- nate food. Howard Cutting Board Cleaner effectively cleans and neutralizes odors, leaving wooden kitchen items smelling great, even on well-used cutting surfaces. Dish soaps aren't specifically designed to clean wooden cutting boards; they are designed to cover a broader array of kitchen items. Cutting Board Cleaner is specifically designed for wooden cutting boards and wooden kitchen items. Howard Cutting Board Cleaner does not contain bleach or any other harsh ingredients which can make wooden boards soft and gummy, reducing the life of the board. Minimum wholesale order is only four cases of six bottles each, for a total order of 24 bottles. For more information, call 800.266.9545 or go to www.howardproducts.com.