Beyond the Shaker was 1 of 400+ exhibitors on display at the Michigan International Women’s Show in Novi, Michigan during the long weekend of April 29-May 2, 2010. And what an interesting few days it was! As a result of the virtual nature of Beyond the Shaker’s retail sales through our website, it is easy to lose the fundamental connection between our distinctive salt products and the public that (we hope) loves to consume our salts. Retail shows, like this one, really allow us to gauge what is popular and how ‘salt’ is perceived from a cross-section of our potential customers.

My first observation is that these retail shows are a tough way to make a dollar! Seriously, it is down right brutal. There are costs related to building up proper levels of inventory, remitting all the show entrance fees, creating marketing displays, staffing the booth, and providing the necessary discounts for ‘show specials’ on product – and so in the end, this all adds up as a giant deduct to the bottom line. On top of the monetary cost, to be successful, even with a wonderful product offering, you need to aggressively work a crowd that may not be completely receptive to the concept and importance of gourmet salt. Given all the recent news and misconception surrounding sodium intake, our unrefined sea salts and hand made blends also require us to provide a certain level of education to the average consumer, and so before you can even get to the SALE, it is critical to provide pertinent and compelling information on why our products are superior to table salt. One of the reasons that we launched Beyond the Shaker was because of a perceived void in consumer education on the difference between various salt options, and so this opportunity to speak one-on-one about salt is important to us, even if that discussion does not convert into the coveted SALE.

The second major observation from the weekend really does not have to do with salt at all, but more speaks to the actual experience of exhibiting in one of these shows. Again, to fully understand the point, it is important to remember that this is an incredibly tough couple days for the exhibitors. You are standing upon your feet 10+ hours a day, constantly talking and working the crowd. Making the sale defines your existence, and so time is always clocking away in your head with a reminder that every minute gone is one less to recoup the expenses of the show (at most you certainly strive to break even).

Racing around to sell product while keeping your display in stellar shape is a meaningful drain that cannot be made visible as that impacts your strictly upbeat marketing face.
“I heard Oprah loves Himalayan Pink Salt.” Yep.
“This stuff is a waste of money when you can buy a pound of Morton’s for a buck.” Hmmm…sure.
“Does this stuff have salt in it?” Oh boy.
“This smells like grass.” Uh-Huh.
“Your packaging rocks!” Yes ma’am.
And so it carries on into a loosely woven length of scraggly yarn lacking any discernible begin or end through the entire day. The key is to be always smiling and upbeat regardless of every other uncomfortable aspect of the process or how much you stand to lose if you cannot move more product into the hands of consumers. In this common situation, we discovered a community of other exhibitors riding the waves of crowds with the similar goals and frustrations we were experiencing.

For Beyond the Shaker at booth 532, I believe we happened upon an especially unique neighborhood of exhibitors. All that time spent together in economic proximity forms a common bond, and so between the strife of sell-sell-sell, there develops an unlikely relationship based around the objective absurdity of the marketplace and task at hand. Packed in a giant, sunless hall, the masses of women of all ages walk (or wheel) around the cramped aisles of booths where everything from doggie health insurance to organic hair removal creams are offered. The noise of chatter, disjointed music, and machinery (grinding ice cream makers, novel motorized mops, and on and on) fills the ear. Any sense of smell is completely confused as your nose is bombarded by hoards of scents lead by candy, perfume and the ever present aroma of burnt popcorn. Color and lights flash from all around as exhibitors up the ante to vie for the attention of each passerby, with the eye drawn to and fro in an environment of dizzying attention deficit disorder.

However, the moment amongst the four days of the show that best summed up the experience came on Friday evening (“Ladies Night”) when all of a sudden there was a rush of women literally running through the aisles as hoots and hollers erupted from the north east corner of the expo hall. Without any warning, burlesque-ish music (you know what I am talking about – chica bang, chica bum) rang through the building as the frantically ecstatic screams of females began to climax.

Turning to one of my fellow exhibitors, I inquired as to what was driving the mass hysteria. And of course the response made complete sense in relation to the rest of the experience – I was told it is a traditional highlight of the weekend when on Friday evening, one of the local fire departments puts on a strip tease show for the throngs of women in attendance. Ha. Yes, we were in it together and so a spirit of camaraderie developed over the course of the weekend. Every exhibitor was filled with positive suggestions on how to sell more, and we learned an unbelievable amount about working the crowd. To drive sales, next year Tyler has promised to put on a “Salt Tease” so be ready women of South-Eastern Michigan…

Anyway, if one of these shows comes to your town, I would highly recommend attending. It is certainly a hoot. Wear comfortable shoes and look out for Beyond the Shaker! We will update our site with more expos that we attend, so stay tuned…

Check out this amazing photo of our winning Odd Pairs dish taken by Chicago photographer, Douglas Bening! As a follow-up on this incredible event, there was an article in the April 2010 issue of Chicago Magazine highlighting the various Odd Pairs with a reference to the dish created by FIG Catering and Beyond the Shaker. Unfortunately, the actual article from Chicago Magazine is not available online, so grab the issue from your favorite magazine stand before it disappears.

There also was an article in the Chicagoist blog describing the Odd Pairs event in detail including the other competitors. As a bonus, in the Chicagoist blog entry there is a photo of Molly Schemper from FIG and Chris McVety from Beyond the Shaker cheering on the crowd that had assembled to try the various Odd Pairs. All-in-all, a very exciting evening.

We are forced to ask the question, is the culinary world ready for savory, salted, marshmallows? This quandary arises as a result of Beyond the Shaker’s invitation to participate in Odd Pairs, a Chicago-based food competition. Odd Pairs brings together some of the most exciting, small scale, food producers in the Midwest by pairing them together with the goal to develop a single culinary dish that highlights, in an ‘odd’ way, the culinary specialities of each participant. The invite-only event is attended by restauranteurs, food bloggers, chefs, and other culinary folk in the regional food industry. The upcoming Odd Pairs event is on March 26th from 7-9pm with a special media/VIP mixer at 6pm at 2023 West Carroll Avenue, Suite 401, in Chicago.

Some of the participants in March will be Ineeka Teas, Das Foods, Goose Island Brewery, Fig Catering, and of course, Beyond the Shaker. At the end of the evening one team is awarded the coveted Tastemaker prize for having the most popular Odd Pair. During the October 2009 Odd Pairs, NBC Chicago’s DC Crenshaw was one of the celebrity judges.

Odd Pairs is hosted by two amazing Chicago companies, both of which are friends and business-mentors to Beyond the Shaker, Crop to Cup and Bean and Body. Previous menu items from the event included Smoke Brisket Slider with Fig Earl Grey Preserves (from Goddess and Grocer & Rare Bird Preserves) and Black Bean and Banana Empanada with Blood Orange Infused Olive Oil (from Simone’s and Sonoma Farms).

So what the heck does all this have to do with savory, salted, marshmallows? WELL, Beyond the Shaker was fortunate enough to be paired with FIG Catering and its wickedly brilliant Chef Molly. During our first brainstorming event, Molly uttered two words that might forever change how we view that fluffy little white confection – “SAVORY MARSHMALLOW.” There was no denying that this was certainly an odd pair; marshmallows in their natural state are the furthest from the savory as could be imagined. It was suggested that a successful odd pair would be one that captures the imagination by flagrantly defying expectations. In this way, we are expanding the culinary diction by forcing a break in the bounds of what can (and should) be combined to produce a tasty food item.

I met with Molly last week after she had a chance to explore some of the most popular Beyond the Shaker salts in the comfort of the FIG Catering kitchen, and WOW did she push the envelope. Although I had a dinner later in the evening, Molly slapped around my culinary expectations with savory marshmallows each made from avocados, garlic, tomato and ginger. Purely because we could, Molly also decided to torch the heck out of a avocado marshmallow to discover what flavors would emerge (as you can see, we did not have fire safety in mind as a first priority when this was done on a wood table, but it was all in the name of righteous flavor so that made it OK).

We also tried some delicious spiced aztec hot cocoa with a Hot Habanero Salted Marshmallow and freshly fried tortilla chips (seen in the picture above). But the overall winner was this amazing organic carrot soup that Chef Molly concocted. To this we added several different savory marshmallows based on the flavors that harmonized with the soup. The savory marshmallows would melt as they were stirred into the soup creating a creamy explosion of salt and yum (get your mind out of the gutter). Our goal in this tasting session was to derive a single menu item for the upcoming Odd Pairs event, and it was clear to us that a combination of organic carrot soup and savory, salted, marshmallows was the ticket. Our offering would include three different types of flavored marshmallow to allow the taster to experiment with the delectable culinary options.

And so, our final menu item is as follows:

Organic Springtime Carrot Soup With Trio of Savory, Salted Micro-Marshmallow Accoutrements including, Roasted Garlic Shallot Salted Marshmallow (based on the Beyond the Shaker Garlic Shallot Salt), Ginger Wasabi Lemongrass Salted Marshmallow (based on the Everest Wet Salt), and Smokey Bacon Fumee de Sel Marshmallow (based on our Fumee de Sel).

We are incredibly excited about this event, and will keep you updated as preparations continue as we take Odd Pairs by storm.

As I am sure you have been following, the Beyond the Shaker salt challenge was last week, and it was amazing! I had no idea that my friends had were so imaginative and skilled in the kitchen. I honestly expected some of the dishes to be flops, simply on the basis that cooking in this forum is challenging, but every single dish was superb and we were all blown away. A few observations that I found interesting:

1. There was a really nice distribution between courses that people made. When laying down the rules for the challenge, I didn’t specify what type of dish you had to make, and was pleased with the amount of appetizers, entrees, sides, and even desserts that were made!
2. Much to my surprise, the desserts actually were AMAZING – I guess it makes sense when you think about how nicely salty and sweet flavors pair together.
3. I was surprised at how distinct each of our own salts are and how much flavor they added to each dish.

With that, here is a breakdown of what was created:

Myself (Tyler) [Citrus Wet] – Prosciutto Wrapped Scallops with a Honey Citrus Glaze
Amanda [French Herb Blend] – French Herb Lentil Soup
Chris [Hot Habanero]: Salad with a Hot Habanero Chile Dressing, Slab of Bacon, and a Hot Habanero Dressing Infused Watermelon slice
Kate [Chef’s Blend]: Chef’s Blend Yum Pasta
Logan [Windy City Celery]: Pork Tenderloin Brined in Windy City Celery Salt with Brussel Sprouts
Melissa [Everest Wet]: Everest Coconut Macaroons
Geoff [Citrus Basil Blend]: Citrus Basil Blackened Tilapia Fish Tacos
Mandy [Herb Garden Blend]: Herb Garden Mashed Potatoes
Amy [Hickory Maple Blend]: Hickory Maple Twice Baked Potato
Laurie [Alderwood Smoke]: Alderwood Smoke Slow-Cooked Ribs
Dave [Garlic Shallot]: Garlic Shallot Pizzas
Roxanne [Chanterelle Vanilla]: Chanterelle Vanilla Walnut Toffee/Chanterelle Vanilla Almond Toffee Topped with Chanterelle Vanilla Ice Cream

And the winner was..

Geoff with the Citrus Basil Blackened Tilapia Fish Tacos! These were amazing. Geoff added the Citrus Basil salt to the seasoning he coated the Tilapia with, as well as to his homemade chipotle mayo and each bite was better than before. He warmed the tortilla’s up and cooked the Tilapia moments before serving and topped them with lettuce, tomato, chipotle mayo, and cilantro.

I could have easily eaten ten more of these without hesitation.

I wanted to also call out honorable mentions, but after sitting here for ten minutes I have to say its impossible to do so based on the caliber of what was created. Every single dish was amazing. However, as I mentioned above, I was extremely impressed with the two venturesome participants who chose to make desserts. Melissa’s macaroons were so amazing – each bite was an alternating combination of sweet from the coconut and salty from the Everest Wet salts. And Roxanne’s toffee/ice cream combination was the perfect way to end the night.

So that’s it! Keep checking back over the next few weeks as we will be posting many of the recipes that were created and hope you will try them yourself!

Had an amazing weekend at the Chicago Merchandise Mart (dang that thing is big) Gift and Giving Show. Thanks everyone that came out to meet us and taste our distinctive unrefined salts and handmade blends. Chef Eric and our wonderful Chicago representative, Janelle (janelle@beyondtheshaker.com) did Beyond the Shaker proud with lots of in-person time for potential retail sellers.

The show goes until until January 26th so feel free to stop by and try some of the ridiculously simple gourmet offerings that Chef Eric has whipped up with Beyond the Shaker unrefined salts and handmade blends. The most interesting revelation from my time at the show was a. there is a lot of ‘get rich quick’ products out there (fancy desserts in a fricking preservative-filled bottle that you can make at home in your microwave…uh, no thanks!) b. folks are concerned about sodium intake, and c. fear of the strength of the economy, especially in the midwest, continues to shackle growth.

To point c., it is time to take a stance and jump in with both feet. We are in an incredibly unique situation in time and economic history, so rather than tucking away funds under an aged mattress, use that money to grow and build. Enough. I say this not as a producer, but as a consumer. We have languished for long enough, and now is the time to move forward. Come on! And heck, unrefined salt is a great cause (health, culinary, and otherwise) in many ways, so spreading the word by purchasing or reselling our products cannot be half bad, right!?

Anyway, here is another picture from the show. Enjoy!