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Two Maine Guys Are Marketing Products That Prove What Many in the Food Industry Already Knew

Posted on: Wednesday, 24 October 2007, 15:00 CDT

By Meredith Goad staff writer

They're businessmen, not chefs or food industry experts.

But Kurt Shisler of Cape Elizabeth and Jim Picariello of Brooksville have both come up with ideas for new products that could capture the attention (and wallets) of foodies and fast-food aficionadoes alike.

They're the kind of ideas that make you slap your head and say "Why didn't I think of that?"

Consumers are more health-conscious these days, and lots of families are looking for more nutritious alternatives to take-out or "additives in a jar." At the same time, everyone seems to want food that's quick, quick, quick in the kitchen.

Kurt Shisler, 48, launched his "Good Clean Food" simmer sauces last year, and they're already on grocery store shelves from Maine down to Kentucky and Ohio. They're made with fresh ingredients, in small batches, at a facility in Biddeford.

Picariello's healthier versions of Popsicles, called Frosteas and Frostbites, are made with wholesome ingredients such as green tea, yerba mate and Maine honey. They just captured the award for "Most Innovative Product" at the Natural Foods East Expo in Baltimore. The business is moving into a new manufacturing plant in Blue Hill later this week.

I caught up with Shisler in Ohio, his home state, where he was taste-testing his products in supermarkets.

Shisler said he loves eating family meals around the table - his mother was a home-economics major and a great cook - but also empathizes with today's time-strapped home cooks. The idea for his simmer sauces was born in 1985, when he was in Harvard Business School. Shisler spent hours buying the ingredients for and preparing a bouillabase for a dinner party, and at the end of the day thought how much easier it would be if he could just buy the same good- quality food in a jar.

Shisler knew there are already simmer sauces on the shelf, but often they contain lots of sugar, salt and additives. Shisler's low- fat, low-sodium sauces are prepared by hand using fresh vegetables and fruit, and contain no additives, antibiotics or genetically- modified ingredients.

"There is no product like this in the country, anywhere," Shisler said. "Why? Our method of making this is like a kitchen. Nobody has proven that it can be done profitably. We think we can."

There are currently six flavors, three for seafood and three for chicken. In Portland, the refrigerated sauces retail for $6.99 and can be found in Hannaford stores and Whole Foods Market.

Preparation couldn't be simpler. Simmer the sauce, add chicken or fish and let it cook in the sauce until done.

I've sampled the Mediterranean, French Tarragon, Creole and Maine Cider flavors. My personal favorite was the Maine Cider served with chicken. (Maybe it's the time of year.) I was not expecting sauce from a jar to be this flavorful. Shisler uses only Maine Macintosh apples in his recipe.

The Creole, simmered with snapper, was also a favorite. (Shisler traveled to New Orleans for this one, looking for old recipes for inspiration.) The vegetables were still surprisingly crisp and fresh- tasting, and poblano peppers and Tabasco gave the sauce a little kick that I really liked.

Other flavors are Scandanavian Dill and a traditional Cacciatore for chicken.

Shisler is also developing a new Japanese sauce that's made with his own dashi stock, fresh citrus juices, sake, lily flowers, cloud ear mushrooms, fresh ginger, and soy sauce. It's sweet and tangy all at once, but not syrupy sweet like many off-the-shelf, Asian- inspired sauces.

For dessert, try one of Jim Picariello's all-natural Frosteas or Frostbites, available in the Portland area in Whole Foods Market for $1.49 each. The frozen treats, which work like one of those squeeze- up Popsicles you had as a kid, are sweetened only with Maine honey or organic Maine maple syrup and have just 40 to 50 calories each.

Picariello, 36, is a Web programmer who got the idea for the treats a few years ago, while he and his wife were living on Cliff Island. He found a Popsicle maker in the house they were renting and began pouring his extra green tea and honey in there.

The idea simmered in his susbconscious for a couple of years, until one day two years ago, "I woke up at, like, 4 o'clock in the morning, and I sat up and went, 'Does anybody make something like this, that's tea-flavored, that's a frozen treat and sweetened with honey?'"

Picariello Googled like crazy and couldn't find anything remotely like it.

Fast forward to today, after six months of research, several grants, and a year of market testing. Picariello has raised more than $200,000 in start-up equity and is aiming to raise another $300,000. He's also in "serious discussions" with some major national distributors and three large grocery chains.

"If this is going to make it, and it's going to be as big as I want, it's got to go national and it needs to go national quickly, so that's part of our plan," he said.

There are five flavors, including Jasmine Green Tea Delight, Yerba Mate and Cool Your Jets, all made from freshly brewed organic teas. "The Maine Maple Lemon was something that I was sort of inspired by the University of Maine food science team," Picariello said. "They kept bugging me: You've got to do a maple one, you've got to do a maple pop. And I was like, that's so cliche."

But he Googled, and couldn't find one anywhere.

"So I made one," he said, "and it was awesome."

Wish I'd thought of that.

Staff Writer Meredith Goad can be contacted at 791-6332 or at:

mgoad@pressherald.com

Source: Portland Press Herald

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