Handmade and Home Grown (and another Giveaway!)

Entrepreneur Stefan Grosberg puts a Trinidadian spin on an Italian classic with his Shadon beni (chardon béni) pesto. I love that he uses local flavours in new and extraordinary ways. Even better the farm to table approach of growing herbs which go into his amazing line of pestos is why I am here at 6:00 am on a Sunday morning tramping through his beautiful garden with my camera.

Stefan graciously submits to the awfulness of having his picture taken with steady aplomb. I must admit that I am intrigued by his quiet confidence and composure. Here is a 24 year old young man with a perfectly good degree in Chemical engineering who has instead turned himself towards starting up a food production business.

BLDP: What is your educational background?

Stefan: I studied science subjects in school and come from a family with a background in engineering. Chemical Engineering was my degree of choice. At that time, Trinidad was in great need of engineers. There were many projects planned and the economy was booming. I thoroughly enjoyed my studies and experiences while away and have no regrets whatsoever. I graduated in 2008 from the University of Bath, UK, then did a stint with an oil refinery. However a failed attempt at getting funding for a PhD and an economy which was no longer employing made me return home and take up a job with my family's business.

BLDP: How did you arrive at the idea of growing herbs and making pesto for a living?

Stefan:I heard about the slow food movement late one night on Travel Channel. It was captivating and it inspired me to grow vegetables and herbs. I started with a handful of containers which then grew to three beds. Later on, I was introduced to a group of organic farmers, one of them with connections to Italy. Utilizing my Slow Food connections I was soon on a plane to Italy to start my travels and learn about more about traditional and regional cuisines. In middle of all this, basil bushes that I had grown needed to be pruned. In my home we don’t waste anything so I decided to make pesto! I took it to Upmarket and the response from people was good. One thing led to the next, fast forward some time and I now I am doing it full time!

BLDP: Did you imagine that after studying at University that this would be your current path?

Stefan:I remember myself about 8 years old, coming home from school (we had just gotten cable TV) and on the Discovery Channel there was a show called Great Chefs. I watched this religiously. I loved it. I loved the food creations. I played a lot in the kitchen mainly with baking cookies, brownies etc but as I got older, well it just wasn't cool to do that sort of thing!

BLDP: Having invested heavily in your education what do your parents think of your current shift into agriculture and food production?

Stefan:My parents, bless them, have always supported my siblings and me. They will stand by us 100% and have always told us that in anything we do, do it to the best of our ability. They will be proud of us. I am truly grateful for them, their guidance and support.

BLDP:Who came up with the name for your company and the logo? 

Stefan:The name was the result of a lot of thought and contemplation! A very good friend of mine did the original artwork and logo. The name reflects my philosophy about food that is home grown and made by hand thus 'del mano' which means from the hand in Italian.

BLDP: What products do you currently sell?

Stefan:  There is a traditional Italian pesto which I make with Genovese basil that is fresh from my garden. I also make a Shadon Beni Pesto which is a pesto done in the style of South American Chimichurri. My tarragon pesto was inspired by the fresh scent I got every time I brush past the tarragon bush in the garden. I am constantly developing new flavours and have two new surprise pestos at the moment that you can find out more about on my facebook page which is the best place to learn about all my products old and new.

BLDP: Where are your products sold?

Stefan: Currently I only have Shadon Beni Pesto available for retail sale. It is available for home delivery in Port of Spain and environs from dMarket Movers and in San Fernando at The Gourmet Genie. This will change very soon though, with Basil Pesto and Roast Melongene Pesto joining the retail line up. There are always new pesto ideas coming through my brain and I feature them at UpMarket to judge how people enjoy them and to see how they need to be tweaked, or in some cases dropped! In addition to the monthly UpMarket I'm working with other outlets in the Port of Spain area to carry my products.

BLDP: Would you describe yourself as a good cook?
Stefan: I only cook for a hobby, and God help my sous-chef! I pride myself in flavors, but technically I'm rubbish.

BLDP: What is your favourite thing to cook or eat? 

Stefan: I enjoy Mediterranean style cuisine generally speaking, but good creole food with salty flavors like pig tail, or creamy coconut milk and spicy ginger are all flavors that captivate me.

BLDP: Which is your top selling product?(like I don't already know:-)
Stefan:Shadon Beni Pesto.

BLDP: Which part of the business do you enjoy most, the growing of the herbs, the making of the pesto or the marketing?

Stefan:The growing is a good time for contemplation and even relaxation. When it is time for harvest though, its early morning work. I'm not a morning person. Certainly creating new pestos and tweaking flavors is exciting. When making pesto to fill orders, once you get in the zone the work is fun. Marketing isn't my strength, or at least I don't think so...but a good friend told me to love up my problems...by loving it up, I'll get better at it. Really though I love what I do, the flavours I work with and the principles I stand for. I just want to share that with everyone.

True to his word about sharing Stefan has so kindly agreed to give away 3 bottles of Del Mano Pesto so that instead of just reading about it one lucky reader can actually taste these condiments.

I must tell you all that my personal favourite is the Shadon Beni Pesto. This herb is the backbone of the popular Trinidadian green seasoning marinade which flavours almost every dish in this country. It is used in soups, salads, chows (chutneys), and on every type of meat.

In some small way I consider myself an expert on shadon beni so yeah the first time that I tasted Del Mano Shadon Beni pesto I expected to like it. What I did not expect was that I would finish off the entire bottle! What started off as just a taste on a crix biscuit soon turned into a full on lunch of just a bag of crackers and one bottle of Del Mano Shadon beni pesto. When I ran out of crix I substituted with a slice of bread (hops) which turned out to be perfect for sopping up the last greasy bits of pesto and saved me from the disgrace of actually licking the plate.

Its grilling season and I cannot think of a more perfect time for someone to get this giveaway.  I can tell you that the shadon beni pesto goes well on anything that comes off the grill. Try it on your corn, roasted vegetables, shrimp, meat, chicken and fish. You are limited only by your imagination. So here is what you do:

1. Follow this blog by clicking on the google friend connect button

2. Click on the Facebook fan page widget in the side bar and click on the "like" button.

3. Leave a comment HERE on this blog saying that you have met the requirements of #1 and #2.

In the comments don’t forget to leave leave an email address so that I can contact you if you win. To avoid being spammed please type email in the following format janejohndoe(at)gmail(dot)com

4. Please don't enter a bunch of times under different names and email addresses. It's one entry per person

A winner will be chosen by random.org number generator. If the first number chosen doesn’t qualify (i.e., the commenter didn’t follow the rules above), then I will move on to the next number until I find a winner.

You have exactly 3 days from the time that I contact you to get back to me with delivery instructions. If I don't hear from you within that time I will give your prize to someone else. So make sure you keep checking your email around the time of the drawing.

The giveaway will be open until 6:00 PM EST Wednesday 20th July 2011. The winner will be announced shortly thereafter and will be responsible for the pick up of their prize. Unfortunately this giveaway is restricted to residents of Trinidad only.

THIS EVENT IS NOW CLOSED!

Congrats to the winner! Danielle I will contact you by email.

Submitted to

From Architect to Chocolatier

Chocolate connoisseurs may well be aware of the superior quality of chocolate from the Caribbean yet it is the Swiss, the Belgians, the French and the Italians who are credited with refining it into fine flavoured chocolate bars and bonbons. That is because most of the chocolate produced in the region is shipped abroad to be crafted into luxury chocolates - until now. Meet Trinidadian Isabel Brash, architect turned chocolate maker and chocolatier.  Her company is called COCOBEL and her chocolates are handmade from the finest quality trinitario beans from her brother’s Rancho Quemado Estate in south Trinidad.

Worldwide it is uncommon to find someone like Isabel who is both a chocolate maker and a chocolatier. Making chocolate is an exacting and somewhat arduous process so most chocolatiers opt to buy their chocolate from chocolate makers. These are the persons who are responsible for roasting and grinding the beans to produce a fine-flavour, fine-quality chocolate also called couverture. Chocolatiers then use the science of confectionary and their imagination to create wonderful confections and other chocolate products.

Isabel’s involvement in the process from bean to bar ensures that her chocolate is of the highest quality and her imagination knows no bounds. Fancy a ponche de crème, sorrel or gingerbread spice? Maybe a cashew gianduja, honey passionfruit or a ginger rum is more to your liking? My personal favourite is the mango pepper. Sweet with a little heat, it captures the spirit and spice of the islands all in one delectable little bite.

COCOBEL chocolate is a completely different experience from the mass produced bars sold in stores where the predominant flavour note is sugar more than it is chocolate.  Who knew that chocolate could have so many different flavours?  I had always thought that chocolate tasted like…well… chocolate. Turns out chocolate can taste like vanilla or berries or bananas or spices depending on the region in which the cocoa was grown.

Isabel’s decision to make chocolate for a living was not a conscious one. In 2005 she returned home from London with her master’s degree in architecture and worked in partnership with another architect for three years before ‘falling’ into cocoa. One day while eating some chocolate she wondered to herself, “When a piece of chocolate melts in your mouth and your eyes close down for a couple seconds… how does this happen? How does it get from that tree to this beautiful thing in my mouth?” 

At the time work was slow and so she started researching chocolate purely out of curiosity. Eventually she asked her brother to bring home some dried beans from his cocoa estate. “I started to experiment with roasting, cracking, winnowing, grinding….just so! I felt like a scientist!" According to Isabel the growth of her chocolate company COCOBEL has been very organic. It started as pure curiosity and it gradually took over her life. “I just started leaning more towards exploring chocolates…then I was leaning harder and harder…then I fell into the same hole that Alice in Wonderland fell into! Down, down, down…curiouser and curiouser! Door after door and I did not look back. I will always be an architect, I am just an architect now of chocolate!”

Isabel designs everything to do with the look of the product. From brochures to packaging, she does it all. The Cocobel logo is a result of her study of the cacao flower. “This flower is very small but extremely intricate and mesmerizing—it almost looks like it wants to swallow you!” She explains, “Only about 5% of the flowers survive to become cacao pods.” Such is her passion for her company and the work that she now does she has even tattooed the logo onto her arm.

At first she was only making chocolates for family and friends. Then the need to name her business came about in 2009 when she attended the World Cocoa Federation meeting. While searching for a suitable name, something that was indigenous-perhaps something Amerindian, her father suggested COCOBEL. Everyone loved the name but Isabel wasn’t sold on it. “It’s a pretty name but I did not want people to think that the brand was named after me." She finally embraced it when her father came back from a fishing trip and told her that his patois speaking friends had said that Cocobel meant, beautiful, brown girl. “I loved it…patois! So that is what it means to me…dark beauty.”

For Isabel one of the challenges in an endeavour such as this is has been in getting out there and educating the market about her chocolates. Initially, “I was being compared to commercial chocolates and people were not aware of the difference or why my prices were so much higher.” Recently there has been a wave of interest in the health benefits of dark chocolate and people are more appreciative of her efforts. Isabel is optimistic that she won’t be the only one with this kind of business for long, “We do have some fine cacao, that is for sure and more and more people are going to get into chocolate production now, you will see!" In the meantime great things are in store for the continued growth of COCOBEL.

If you are thinking about ordering Cocobel chocolates for Valentine's Day then you would do well to order early. Over the Christmas season Isabel was forced to close in order to fill existing orders. You can contact her at cocobelchocolates (at) yahoo (dot) com. A website is in the works and in the future Isabel hopes to ship her pure dark bars internationally but for now her filled chocolates will only be sold in Trinidad. “I would love if people came here to sample Trinidad’s cocoa estates and come by and visit COCOBEL to get a taste of our island sweetness!”

Asked about her inspiration for the soft fruit fillings and spices in her chocolates, Isabel says that she starts with what she loves and tastes that she grew up with. “As far as the flavour design process goes, the only reason that mango and passionfruit and local hot pepper sound strange to be put with chocolate is because chocolate is hardly made in our region. We have so many amazing fruits here. Many that you never see in the supermarket…the possibilities are endless really.” She goes on to say that locally people associate chocolate with “foreign” and cocoa as local. Isabel is of the opinion that if we can grow some of the finest cocoa beans in the world then surely we can make fine chocolates too. Having tasted her chocolates I’m inclined to agree.