Archive for ‘New York Food’

Mast Brothers Chocolate Sets Sail on a Chocolate Making Adventure

By Susie, 19 July, 2011,

A short walk from the L train Bedford Street stop in Brooklyn’s strikingly hip Williamsburg area, you arrive at Mast Brothers‘ small chocolate making “factory.” Meeting their growers and giving tours of their bean-to-bar operation jazzes these two brothers: Rick, a chef and Michael, a film maker.

A chocolate making employee (as they all are), Rick, and Michael

I had no idea what to expect, and this visit proved how delightful it is when an experience exceeds anything you could have imagined:

1) Rather than drum roasters, they use small convection ovens and roast the organic beans on trays the size of a home cookie sheet. “We can do true roasting profiles and have so much more control over a drum roaster. Everyone here has a master palate. We know it’s ready by taste.”bea

2) An aerospace engineer friend designed and patented a winnowing machine that uses air to remove hulls and grind the beans into nibs. (This clever device has no hallmarks of Rube Goldberg.)

Rick Mast and the Brooklyn-made Cacao Bean Winnower

3) A domestic company builds their chocolate-making machines, powered by granite wheels. Their basic chocolate consists simply of cacao beans and organic sugar. Other inclusions like almonds come from producers they know personally. The granite wheels macerate and smooth the roasted beans and sugar for several days. With a twist of a knob, they increase pressure to make the chocolate smoother and smoother. When the chocolate is ready–all determined by taste–It sits for 30 days in metal bins to “age,” which is a new-school chocolate-making method popularized by fellow chocolate maker Steve DeVries.

4) Each bar is hand wrapped, with friends coming in during the busy season to lend a hand. In the air-conditioned bar wrapping room, which I imagine makes this the coveted job during summer, photos of the superstar fast wrappers plaster the wall. First gold foil wraps around the freshly molded chocolate bars, then a fancy gift-paper like wrapper, designed by Mast Brothers and printed by Prestone Press in Long Island City. They keep a keg filled with local beer on hand for the chocolate makers (which are all of the employees) to enjoy. “It’s the buddy system,” they explain when I asked if the brewery supplies beer is in trade for chocolate.

Wrapping like the oldies.

5) Next, The Secret Room. Just kidding. They specifically point out they are a completely open door operation with nothing to hide. Although the Oompa Loompas were disguised as hip tattooed Brooklynites.

How to Import Cocoa Beans and Travel to Another Century in 14 Days

Everything Mast Brothers uses is organic and direct trade, purchased directly from producers. The only “certifications” they embrace and need are direct connections to growers. “We consider our growers family. We will also be the first buyers from a new Belize co-operative that our friends started,” says Rick.

They point to a stack of burlap sacks filled with cocoa beans, preparing to transport me to the 19th century. “We chartered a 70-foot schooner to pick 20 metric tons of beans up from the Dominican Republic,” Rick says. He explains the impetus for sailing is that there is nothing local about cocoa. “We figure why not limit our participation in the industrialization of food. The same people who grew the cacao from the La Red co-operative delivered the shipment to the boat.” They thanked their growers with an excellent price and ample beer.

THE MAIDEN VOYAGE from Mast Brothers Chocolate on Vimeo.

It took 14 days to get the bean-filled schooner back to Brooklyn, with only wind powering the boat. “We learned a lot just bringing it into the Brooklyn port. The city hadn’t played host to a schooner in decades. They were like ‘Why would you do that?’” Once it sunk in, the city agreed it was quite an awesome endeavor. At the port, they inspected the beans and found no problems–making Mast Brothers the first since 1939 to sail cargo into New York City! A few blocks later, the beans landed at Mast Brothers HQ. They aren’t sure if it cost more to transport the beans this way. Hey, lots of people might pay to take such an adventure. (Here’s more about the trip)

In the next couple of months, visitors and locals can enjoy an expanded chocolate making facility with a community center open to passersby to see first-hand how good chocolate is made. Farmer visits, chocolate history talks, and music complete the picture of a community space for the brothers. “Nothing substitutes for people coming in, meeting us, and seeing our place. We want to have a place where people walking by eating ice cream can pop in and discover how chocolate is made.” Good business is FUN.

It’s worth a trip off the beaten path to taste their chocolate where it’s made. “We make every wholesale order on demand. Nothing is sitting in a warehouse.” Visit 105 North 3rd Street (the Bedford L stop) and travel to another time and place to discover Mast Brothers chocolate bars, chips, tablets, cacao nibs, and soon, confections.

Chocolates, nibs, oh my

What’s next? After I told a beloved candy maker all about the Mast Brothers, she immediately felt a connection. I won’t give it away to them or anyone, but I see great things to come in East Coast confection collaborations through yet another synchronous food connection. Good food is good life!

Good Cashews, Bad Weather – That’s Nuts+Nuts

By Susie, 18 February, 2011,

As a big fan of Nuts + Nuts cashews, run by two Indonesian sisters who work directly with farmers and grow their own Kaffir lime leaves, I was stoked to hear about their new mini storefront in the DUMBO area of Brooklyn at 145 Front St. Cyrilla, one of the owners, explained that an office space with the storefront just happened to open. It has pop-up written all over it.

I was also sad to hear, when I asked if they had raw cashews, that the cashew crop they normally source from was totally wiped out in 2010 due to rains — which even affected the chiles they use in my favorite flavor, the spicy Thai.

For now they have to source from another Indonesian island. I’m perfectly capable of imagining where US-grown nuts such as almonds, pecans, pistachios, hazelnuts and walnuts grow but the farms who grow the nuts you might buy in bulk or in tins, grown in tropical countries, often seem a little more “hazy” as to the origin. Nona Brooklyn recently interviewed Cyrilla, revealing the source of their nuts: “ Mr. Lilik and Mr. Suraji.”

Cashews in the U.S. are never local!

When I first met Cyrilla she shared how hard it was selling their nuts since they are made and packaged in Indonesia (in very cool silver vacuum packed bags). “We want local,” people told her. What they meant was they wanted “packaged in the U.S.” or “made in the U.S.” meaning roasted or prepared in the U.S.

Obviously knowing the people who converted the raw cashews into a delicacy like Oren’s Kitchen’s Ajwain Cashews is the next best to knowing the growers.

Nuts Plus Nuts is the poster child for “good food:” Fresh healthy ingredients, relationship with the producers + growing some themselves, paying a very fair price, and excellent quality. Rather than read labels to determine the goodness of a product based only on location, consider the supply chain, accountability, etc. (like Madecasse chocolate and Fair Trade). Shall we coin “Better than local.” ?

Go nuts!

Read Nona Brooklyn’s interview, try Nuts + Nuts via their website or Foodzie or order them wholesale.
In New York? Visit 145 Front St (limited hours) or the New Amsterdam Market.

Amazing East Coast Food Job Postings

By Susie, 2 August, 2010,

I think Good Food Jobs needs to change their name to Did You Ever Think There Would Be So Many Dream Food Jobs?

Too long. Suffice it to say I nearly had an aneurism reading the postings this week, let alone the previous weeks’.

If you’ve ever wanted to move to the Hudson Valley-ish area of New York, this week there’s a job at Katchkie Farms. Last week’s postings included a Facilities Director for Stone Barns Center – a unique nonprofit organization dedicated to celebrating, teaching and advancing community-based food production and enjoyment.

Not to mention THIS week Basis Farm to Chef which delivers artisan foods and produce CSA style needs a forager in New York. (I talked to them at the New Amsterdam Market to “forage” Kruggerand Farms goat cheese.) Basis has a fantastic mission to get good food direct from producers into the hands of companies who want it, conveniently…and so if this is your passion make sure to check out that job as well as some back office jobs.

Here’s the full listing for this week, brought to you by Good Food Jobs. (Re-printed with permission until their site is up and running and it is my pleasure!)

New Amsterdam Market – Early Summer

By Susie, 28 June, 2010,

The June New Amsterdam Market, at the old Fulton Street Fish Market location, was a bounty of fresh foods, heavenly baked goods, and very cool chalkboards. In a very old part of New York surrounded by rehabbed brick buildings, it’s a great destination that was off the beaten path for me and my friends. And we LOVED it.

If you’re planning a trip to New York for Fall and you love good food I’d definitely try to arrange it around the market’s next dates. You will eat well, cook well, and give well. Just see…

From Lisa’s Cookie Shop to Emmy’s Gift Bags

By Susie, 24 June, 2010,

From all the great press and reviews you’ll see on Lisa’s Cookie cookie dough Shop website, you might think the company name is a quaint descriptor for a secretly big operation. You know, like how elves make Keebler Cookies.

Quite the opposite. It really is “Lisa’s” shop. And the shop is a commercial kitchen, attached to her home, in which Lisa herself makes all the cookies.

Recently I had the chance to visit Lisa – on the weekend in which she and her family were furiously producing and packaging cookies for the 2010 Emmy’s gift bag.

It was a made for reality TV moment: Over a thousand cookies, all nighters, and in laws assisting in the production. The cookie? “The Kitchen Sink,” a crispy yet chewy oatmeal cookie laced with chocolate chips, cranberries, and other tidbits. In other words, one of those “healthy snacks” you can justify even for breakfast.

The Emmy gift bag recipients will be enjoying a cookie that Lisa originally made for family gatherings, throwing in whatever she had in her kitchen. Today this cookie is shipped nationwide and has a loyal following in her local town on down to Manhattan.

Food Business Tips from Lisa’s Experience

Kitchen Sink Cookies at Lisa's Cookie Shop bakery

Product Offerings Tip: “Don’t try to please everyone.”
Lisa started out with options to customize the cookies in lots of ways, along with a number of cookie flavors.

When it’s just you, and you’re starting small, it’s hard to make dough for every order and tweak it. Go with crowd pleasers. Consider how well they travel and shelf life. Test new products at local stores or include samples when you ship a package.

wrapping

Packaging Tip: When you’re just getting started it’s a big decision to pre-print packages. You’re locked into the flavors and ingredients. If any small thing changes, you’re out the investment. On the other hand the cost and labor of producing and applying many labels can add up. There are always tradeoffs.

shipping cookies

The proud (and relieved) Cierello family gets ready to deliver to the post office. They’d given the post office a heads up the packages were arriving.

Shipping Tip: Shop around for different delivery options and consider how to minimize the number packages to greatly reduce shipping costs. You can often tape FedEx boxes together for example.

Jones Tip (for any reader): You can find Lisa’s freshly baked cookies and cookie bars at Lisa’s Cookie Shop or her Foodzie store. And at various stores in New England.

Do you have a small food business? Please share any other tips from your experiences.