Learning to turn recipes into shelf-ready products
By Laura Hand
Tuesday, February 24, 2009 at 7:20 p.m.
In its first year of operation, the Syracuse Community Test Kitchen has helped 18 clients create new food products to go on the market. Lynne Foster, who is the product development director, presides over the kitchen complex in the Syracuse southside complex, next door to Dunk & Bright Furniture. Foster helps standardize recipes, to get them ready for any 'co-packer' to mass produce. But, for the $100 fee, clients also meet with business counselors to work out marketing goals. 'It puts pride in them and us," says Foster, "to create new business here in Central New York."
Kathleen Komar, is one of the program's successes. When deer decimated her Fayetteville organic garden, she discovered that they left her peppers untouched, so she learned to can and began producing pepper jellies as holiday gifts. One year, a friend dared her to start producing commercially so that others could buy her 'Curly Locks Gourmet' jellies, and, as she says 'the rest is history.' She showed us her jelly as a topping on brie, to serve with crackers, and as a topping for baked salmon. She says she is now selling in 6 Central NY counties.
The Test Kitchen is a joint venture, with SU's Whitman School of Management providing the enterpreneurial help, and SUNY Morrisville coordinating the hands-on food production. Foster says bakery items are popular, but she has clients who are also producing candy jewelry, caramel popcorn, and sauces, dressings and glazes. There are also a pair of local restaurants asking for help in marketing menu items for general sale. Foster says only 2 of her clients are fulltime SU students; most are from Central NY, and one is from Baltimore.
Komar says she's been to the Fancy Food Show at New York City's Javits Convention Center as an observer, as part of the program. This year, she plans to go as an exhibitor. "I have a bit of a following with people with celiac disease," she says, "because peppers are gluten free." But she's already looking to expand. "I really enjoy crafting new foods," she says, as she's looking to grow her pepper jelly line to include soups and dips using different organic and gluten-free ingredients.
For more on the test kitchen, check www.comtek.syr.edu They're running a salsa recipe contest, for cash---expecting to develop the salsa as an example of how the program works.
