by Zach Johnston | Sep 12, 2018 | Interviews
While we love selling spices online to home chefs, we will never forget where we started — in person, with restaurants. What began as a few wholesale spice orders to restaurants in the Rocky Mountains has grown to more than 400 restaurant partners across the country. We’re inspired by these chefs every day, so we figured it’s only fair to share them with you so you can be inspired in your own kitchen too.
Crystal Ramiro, Chef — Punch Bowl Social, Chicago
With a mission for “going out right,” Punch Bowl Social has expanded its “eat-ertainment” restaurant empire to Denver, Austin, Portland, Detroit, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Chicago and more. We’re proud to supply spices to all of the Punch Bowl Social locations, but today we’re talking with our friend Crystal Ramiro, who now serves as chef at the Chicago location.
Why do you choose to work with The Spice Guy?
Wow! this is an easy answer, The level of spice quality that you get from The Spice Guy is fantastic. Not only do you get spices that are true to their flavor and freshness that is hard to come by, but you also get the personal treatment from Zach. We’ve used The Spice Guy at all of our stores for a while now. He has a Punch Bowl inventory that made it easy for us when we placed our first order for our Chicago location.
What TSG products do you incorporate into your dishes? Do you have a favorite?
What? Do I have to pick just one? We use a lot of them, but I love our chicken dredge. A lot of people don’t think of a gluten-free fried chicken as a good tasting dish, but our gluten-free blend that we get from Zach is phenomenal and it makes our OMFG Fried Chicken taste like no other.
What do you wish more people knew about using herbs and spices?
Gosh! I wish people were more daring and less afraid of using a variety of spices in their every day cooking. There are so many spices to try and so many flavors to play with.
What are you most excited about right now?
All of the stores are opening! Being able to work for a company that combines food nirvana, entertainment and a great craft beverage program is truly an honor. I love that we stay true to our food, that we cook things we enjoy and that we are a unique brand full of unique people. We are a place where Punchbowlians and guests can come in have fun and be themselves.
by Zach Johnston | Sep 12, 2018 | Spices 101
Our new Spices 101 series will dive into everything you’ve ever wanted to know about spices, herbs and spice blends — starting with salt. Do you have a spice you’d like to know more about? Let us know what you’d like to see featured next in the comments.
Let’s talk about salt, baby.
When it comes to properly seasoning your food, there’s no ingredient more important than salt.
“One of the biggest secrets to restaurant cooking is salt and butter,” our founder Zach added. “But never salted butter.”
Generally, salt falls into two major categories: rock and sea salt. In the kitchen, you’re typically reaching for sea salts, which include everything from kosher salt to fancier versions we’ll detail below.
Once we make it to the kitchen, salts get further divided, starting with ingredient salt (incorporated into the cooking process) and finishing salt (added at the end while plating a dish). Because they don’t need to dissolve fully, finishing salts are larger and sometimes come in interesting colors to add a dimension beyond flavor to a dish.
But, that’s only the beginning. From there, you can go down a deep rabbit hole of more than 50 types. Today, we’re going to hit the major players.
Major Players
Table Salt
Hello, Morton’s iodized salt. This is your typical, from-the-grocery store NaCl. You’ll find this in most salt shakers, and it typically has lots of chemical additives to keep it from clumping. (something we always avoid.)
Kosher Salt
This coarser variety is used by more serious home and professional chefs, with a saltier flavor that lasts longer than others on the tongue. It also tops soft pretzels and your margarita glass.
Sea Salt
Sea salt comes from evaporated sea water instead of sedimentary deposits. Depending on the commercialized process, most sea salts contain more minerals and flavors than your typical table salt varieties. From there, sea salt can branch further down into even more types, depending on the sea from which it came — from Hawaiin to French.
Artisan Salts
Gaining popularity in recent years, artisan salts come from various processes — from Himalayan pink salt (a rock salt from Pakistan) to Fleur de sel (which comes from scraping grey salt pools).
The Spice Guy Favorites
Here are a few of our favorite salts that we sell to restaurants and online. All of our retail blends only contain Pacific Ocean sea salt from Washington. Zach’s rule is — “If my 7-year-old niece can’t pronounce it, we don’t include it in our blends.”
We don’t like to pick favorites, but this is probably it. While many salts have anti-caking agents and sometimes even sugar added, this salt (often called “Redmond Real Salt”) is perfect for replacing your kosher or table varieties. This comes from the salt flats in Utah, and as it moves along the ground it picks up more than 60 minerals along the way. Not only does it look beautiful with a brick-speckled hue, it also has nutritious properties you can’t find in other salts. Add it to literally anything.
To add a spicy zing to your everyday salt, try our Sriracha Salt. We turn Sriracha into a paste and mix it into the salt for a rich, spicy flavor. It’s great for adding spice in extra dishes, marinades or even over popcorn. Some restaurants in Denver (like Lola and Work & Class) use it to rim their margarita glasses.
Smoke Salt
This Alderwood smoked salt adds a deep, dark flavor to anything it meets. Great for apartment dwellers, smoke salt allows you to gain that natural smoke taste without the hassle of a smoker. This would also kill it on a margarita glass. Coming online soon!
Cypress Sea Salt
Our favorite finishing salt, Cypress salt is known for its pyramid shape. It comes from the Mediterranean Sea. Top your steak or fish fillets with a few flakes of this magical mineral. Coming online soon!
… and that’s just the beginning! Taste the difference in our salts found in our other blends like seasoning salt and French fry seasoning.
