Our chef friends on the radio. Turn it up, turn it up, little bit higher, radio.

 Tom and I always argue about advertising. Mostly because it costs A LOT. I would argue that in these tough times we need to hang onto our money. He would counter that sometimes you have to spend money in order to make money. At least he had a clever idea to run with this time. We asked a few of our chef friends if they would be kind enough to come on and talk about why they like to buy ingredients for their top notch culinary creations at The Spice House. We waited anxiously for their  replies, feeling like the boy who knows he about to be turned down for prom! We were so happy when they actually said yes. Here Gale Gand and Tom look over their material.

The French Pastry School

We LOVE  The French Pastry School, located here in Chicago. Owned and operated by internationally acclaimed pastry chefs Jacquy Pfeiffer and Sebastian Canonne, this is the finest pastry school in the country, perhaps even the world. Over the years, Jacquy has brought some of the world's top master chefs in to tour our spice shop. While I don't speak French, and the chefs often do not speak fluent English, we communicate through the wonderful aromas and tastes of the spices I put under their noises.  It makes us so proud that they would want to bring their highly acclaimed friends in to  visit our shop. They also bring us goodies!

Our spices go into Barackwurst!

After over fifty years in business, we have acquired some pretty special customers. Some of them are extremely discriminating about their ingredients. We understand that artisanal food crafting is only at its  finest when all of its components are also. So its makes us very happy to have customers such as Stanley Feder of Simply Sausage, Inc.  He makes some of the finest sausage in the world. He is also very creative, as demonstrated by the recently success of Barackwurst, the sausage he sold over a ton of, at the recent inauguration. 

CHC programs leads to discovery of French Patisserie

We have spent our lives as spice merchants. I believe it is true in many small businesses, this is not just a living, it is a calling. As such, it spills over into our personal lives, and our hobbies. We are consumed by the food world, and as such, the organizations we belong to for enjoyment tend to run along parallel lines.One of my very favorite groups is the Culinary Historians of Chicago. Their programs are both educational and entertaining, and sometimes lead to a fantastic discovery of a Chicago treasure of which we were unaware, like the French Patisserie Vanille.

Cooking our way through Thailand

A while back my daughter and I had the opportunity of a lifetime. We went to Thailand on a cooking tour. We visited 3 major cities and took cooking classes in each region. The first city was Bangkok, the second was Chang Mai in the north and the third was Phuket in the south. Each had a slightly different cuisine using ingredients available in that area. This was truly a great culinary experience and we encourage everyone to explore different cultures and their individual ethnic foods, whether abroad or in your own homes. The cuisine of Thailand is surprisingly simple. The preparation is the key, the actual cooking takes minute in most cases.

Places we love to hang out!

Reading the title of this blog, I imagine many of you assume I am referring to a restaurant, a food or wine shop, possibly a museum. Not at all, although we do enjoy these too.  It is probably in the nature of the beast that all foodies really enjoy their relationship to not only food,  but also to food communities and the fellow food lovers that populate them. I belong to several of these organizations, however this one is not a club, anyone can join in. I refer to Chicago’s Green City Market. How can Chicago have a farmer’s market in the dead of winter, you lucky warm population inhabitants wonder?