foodsources
by Joelle Kidd sauce boss Gourmet Inspirations is building community from condiments
For Peter Fehr, the mind behind Gourmet Inspirations finishing sauces, the goal has always been to bring people together.
Food offers plenty of opportunities to create relationships, whether between families around a dining room table, producers and their customers, or between owners of local businesses. It is clear that Fehr is passionate about strengthening these bonds.“ I want people to gather, and eat together,” he says.
The idea of bottling and selling sauces to be used as a topping or cooking ingredient was conceived during a stint as chef at a Northern Manitoba fishing resort.“ It was a rancher from Texas who inspired it,” Peter recalls. The customer raved about his creamy peppercorn whiskey sauce.“ He told me I should go into business.”
Fehr, trained as a chef, knew he needed to learn a few things about starting a company.
But the idea stuck, and after a stint of business training courses at Red River College, he registered Gourmet Inspirations in January 2013. A few months later he started production.
In addition to the original peppercorn sauce, three other flavours— sweet and spicy lemon, strawberry balsamic with basil, and chocolate port— are now lining shelves. These varieties set themselves apart with unique flavours not already available in a market saturated by big condiment brands. The sauces are versatile enough to be used in a number of different dishes and applications; the creamy peppercorn whiskey sauce, for example, can be drizzled over steak, swirled into sweet potato purée, or sizzled into stir fry. Keen culinarians have free reign to be creative, or to pull out an impressive meal for short notice dinner guests.
Trying out gourmet, restaurant-style fare is a trend that at-home cooks are enthusiastically
10 ciao! / feb / mar / two thousand fifteen