Meet the Maker: Gilda's Biscotti

When Gilda Doganiero says biscotti, you want to ask her to repeat the word, because her voice already has you dreaming. Bite, and you’ll see why it isn’t bombastic to toss around reviews like “best cookies in the world” and “best biscotti this side of the Atlantic,” nor to marvel “it’s a wonder that anyone can keep them in stock.”

You’ll be captivated by every flavor, including Chocolate Espresso, Lemon Fig, Almond Anise, Cherry Pistachio, and Vanilla Bean.

Amidst the mid-90s coffee boom, herself enjoying the buzzing excitement and proliferation of European-style coffee shops around Philadelphia, Gilda noticed the lack of authentic biscotti. (She was attuned to its dearth because her previous undertaking as a Vail hotel pastry chef had been to perfect an incredibly light, butterless biscotti that was used to accompany all coffee service.) In 1994, lured by the intoxicating coffee scent streaming from the storefront of Philly’s La Colombe Torrefazione, Gilda entered, met the owners, and departed on a mission to bake them a batch of her chocolate hazelnut biscotti. They were happily convinced, and La Colombe became her first client, bartering espresso for biscotti. As the biscotti’s popularity grew, Gilda knew it was time to leave her job as pastry chef at the Four Seasons and to begin making her artisan biscotti by hand, every day.

Gilda Doganiero of Gilda's Biscotti

The burgeoning company quickly outgrew the 800 square foot Haddonfield, New Jersey, apartment in which Gilda’s Biscotti began. Recognizing that the city was also a challenging place to raise a family, Gilda and her husband began looking for an old farm that needed restoration, and 12 years later, the major work is done on the farmhouse in Salem, NJ, where Gilda lives with her husband and daughter.

Gilda jokes, “Have you seen the movie The Money Pit? That is our life! We were actually attracted by the renovations if you can believe that. We were much younger end had more energy!” But they enjoy living a quieter life on the farm, still proximate to the cities of Philadelphia (about 35 miles) and New York (a couple of hours away).

“This is so different from my city life. Nearly every day, I come home for lunch. I’m 2.5 miles away from the bakery. My daughter’s school is 10 miles away. Everything is very convenient. Most decisions are based on maintaining a balance of work and not work. I am always faced with how to grow and still maintain flexibility for my daughter and household.”

The family’s 5 acres are surrounded by 200 undeveloped acres, and their working farm is alive with sheep, chickens, and bees. You’ll find the farm-fresh eggs from her own flock of chickens in your biscotti, part of Gilda’s commitment to using the most wholesome, finest, and freshest ingredients possible to make her authentic biscotti.

Where did the passion for biscotti enter? “I am Italian-American and I grew up eating some pretty lousy biscotti. You know when you have that experience where you eat something, and you just know the moment you taste it that the rest of your life is going to be spent trying to match it? That’s how I felt eating biscotti in Italy. I understood that what we had in the US was a sorry substitute. Experiences like that calibrate, or re-calibrate, your taste. We go back to Italy once a year. I love getting into the small towns, meeting people, eating their foods, really getting down to the authentic things that make a place special.”

Gilda's Biscotti labels feature portrait images, based on family photographs

You’ll notice that Gilda’s Biscotti labels are made from black and white portrait images, which I discovered are based on vintage family photographs.  With the exception of Dad’s Midnight Stash, they depict a woman standing stoically, her right hand grasping her left elbow behind her back. “My father, Antonio Doganiero’s, mother was named Gilda. I was named after her. She was born in Teramo, Italy, in the mountainous Abruzzo region near the Adriatic. People may recognize the name from the recent terrible avalanche. Gilda’s marriage was arranged and my grandparents wound up in Camden, NJ.”

Her father, Antonio, appears on the Dad’s Midnight Stash tin. The tin’s contents are biscotti “ends,” and are a mix of all the flavors. Gilda reflected on the birth of the idea: “When we cut the cookies from the logs, we always have the end pieces. A couple of years into my business, I started saving the ends in little bins and giving them to my father. My dad is that guy who always wants the end of the bread, the end of the roast beef—the hard, crunchy, burnt parts of things. As I got busier and had more and more ends, this guy Mr. McNally who owns an Irish Pub in town said, ‘You should bag these up and I’ll sell them in the pub!’So I did. For the label, I found an old picture of my dad from when he was in the service in 1953.  Dad just turned 89 and is hilarious. He’s an attorney and always jokes with everyone about the cookies, saying ‘I am still waiting for my daughter to pay me royalties for the use of my image!’ Turns out, it’s our most popular product! You never know which flavor you’re going to get, which people find kind of fun.”

Although Gilda’s has grown tremendously since she began baking her biscotti in her little Haddonfield apartment, she still operates most aspects of the business. “I did it on my own for twelve years and my mom handled the books. When I had my daughter, it forced my hand and I found a baker, Glen, who now does all of the baking. I come after I drop my daughter off at school and help with packaging, invoicing, social media, etc. There is always plenty to do!” Gilda’s has operated for a decade in its current bakery, which was an old 70s barbershop bought from the city’s economic redevelopment committee. Gilda’s enthusiasm leads her to many new ideas, and she is currently at work on making a bittersweet bark that incorporates biscotti crumbs—a combination of leftovers from her Chocolate Espresso Biscotti and the readily available post-baking crumbs.

Throughout our interview, I knew that Gilda had been out walking. As our phone call came to a close, she revealed that as we’d conversed, her dog had jumped in a pond and come out a muddy mess. Following a dirty cleanup, she was on her way to the bakery. I had no idea what had taken place, and she’d never let on or missed a beat. This do-it-all and do-it-all-well woman is just as authentic as her biscotti.

Meet the Maker: Ajiri Tea and Coffee

Scholarship. Mentorship. A sense of community for orphans. These are a few of the ways your Ajiri Tea and Coffee purchases are strengthening lives in western Kenya.  

Sara & Kate Holby of Ajiri Tea

Ajiri means “to employ” in Swahili.  Co-owner Sara recognized that creating a company with a “full cycle of sustainable aid” meant going beyond providing handout benefits or selling great-tasting tea; it meant cultivating jobs, fostering economic independence, and advancing educational opportunities.

Sara reflected, “My mom studied abroad in Kenya in the 70s, and when I was 19, I participated in the same program. I was able to spend time with different families and volunteer with a nonprofit. After I graduated college in 2008, I received a grant to return to Kenya for a year to volunteer for an NGO that distributed food and medicine to community members suffering from HIV/AIDS. It was during the recession, and the organization began to shut down around me as the grants and donations that had funded it were drying up. The effect was that people who’d come to depend on the benefits were without food and medicine, practically overnight.”

Having witnessed the detrimental cycle of aid, dependence, and low self-esteem, Sara, her sister Kate, and their mother Ann wanted to start a company that would take on these issues and initiate positive change. Since tea is a major industry in western Kenya, women tend to reinvest 90% of their earnings back into their families, and education is a sustainable investment, they decided to marry all three in Ajiri Tea Company. In 2013, Ajiri expanded to include Kenyan AA coffee.

Today, Sara takes charge of sales and management of the Kenyan side of the business, Kate handles marketing, and Ann plays an integral, behind-the-scenes role.

Employing Women

Ajiri Tea currently employs 60 women from 5 women’s groups to hand-make their keepsake labels as well as the twines that go inside. Each Ajiri label is a unique work of art, made with inspiration from daily life using dried bark from banana trees. The artworks are placed on paper handmade from water hyacinth—an invasive species in Lake Victoria—mixed with recycled office paper. Employees Duncan and Regina pick up the paper each month from its maker, Mike, and distribute it to each of the women’s groups. Throughout the month, the women work from home on the designs, which are totally at their discretion. They are paid at the month’s end.

“It has been really inspiring to see the savings programs these women have created in the last couple of years,” said Sara. “One of the women’s groups pooled their income to buy 100 chickens, which they raised and sold. They’ve also created loan programs called ‘table banking.’ The basic idea is for members of the group to put money on the table, loan it to someone around the table, and then divide the interest on the loan when it is repaid. Loan rates are very high in Kenya, so this offers women another option. They might use their loans to replace their thatched roofs with more reliable materials, pay for their children’s educations, or purchase animals. It is so exciting to see this happening and so obvious that they want to improve their lives.”

Educating Orphans

100% of Ajiri’s net profits are returned to Kenya to pay school fees for orphans. These students have been orphaned for various reasons, sometimes due to their parents’ deaths from HIV/AIDS.

All of the students Ajiri sponsored in school in 2016, taken at the annual student field day.

Sara shares information about the Kenyan school system which helps explain why this support is so crucial. “If you are familiar with the setup of Newman’s Own, we are similar. We are a for-profit, then we donate 100% of the net profits to our Foundation. This year, we are supporting 30 students in primary and high school. The primary schoolers go to a local day school. School itself is free, but we supply them with books, uniforms, school supplies, and other necessities. In Kenya, all high schoolers go to boarding schools; admissions to particular schools are based on an 8th grade exam. Talk about pressure! They have to bring everything to boarding school with them—their own mattresses, blankets, buckets for washing clothes and for drinking water, toilet paper, sanitary napkins . . . the list is long. We help provide everything on their list as well as school fees, uniforms, transportation, and other school-related costs.

A photo of the students playing with a parachute at field day

More than just paying for everything, we mentor the students and try to create a community for them. Our employees Duncan and Regina go to their parent-teacher meetings, work to sort out any issues, discuss their report cards with them, and other things that would usually have involved their parents.

We also want to inspire them to consider the possibilities for their lives and careers. For example, in high school, they all do a trip to Nairobi to see what life is like there—the hustle and bustle of the big city is very different from the small villages where they grew up—and what sorts of career options there are. They have, for example, visited the General Electric office, and spoken with a student at the University of Nairobi, a woman who runs a non-profit focused on reproductive health and rights, a tech startup that helps farmers know the market price of goods, the Daily Nation newspaper printing press, and Royal Media Services to see how TV and radio programs are produced.”

The Tea

Tea Harvest

While you’ll first be wowed by the exterior, which has won a distinguished sofi award for packaging, the taste will keep you returning for more. Sip, and you’ll understand why Ajiri has won first place at the North American Tea Championships and the Buyer’s Choice Award for Best Tea.

Sara says, “It is so important to the sustainability of our business to have a taste that backs up our mission, so this work can continue indefinitely. Our tea is all handpicked, so the highest quality is ensured and it never has a bitter taste. We pick only the top leaves and the bud, so you can steep as long as you like and your tea will get stronger, but never more bitter.” The high altitude, abundant rainfall, and fertile volcanic soils make Kisii, Kenya, an ideal tea-growing region. “All of our black tea blends are sourced from a cooperative of farmers in western Kenya. The tea is grown on small-scale shambas, or farms. On average, each shamba is only a quarter to two acres of land.”

The Coffee

Since 2013, Ajiri has proudly offered Kenyan AA Coffee. AA designates the size and grade of the bean—generally, the bigger the bean, the greater the flavor and aroma enhancing essential oils. AA is coffee’s highest grade. Like its tea, Ajiri’s coffee is grown on predominantly small-scale farms. The main coffee-growing area spans from the slopes of snow-capped Mt. Kenya toward Nairobi (to the south).

Kenyan coffee is known for its bright and fruity flavor with complimentary gentle notes of wine and black currant. The diverse and complex flavors reflect the diverse and vibrant regions in which it is grown.

With Love

We hope this story of love inspires you this Valentine’s Day as much as it does us! The Savory Pantry is one of a few stores in the Saratoga area and the only store in Central Arkansas to proudly carry Ajiri Tea and Coffee, and we hope you’ll join us in supporting this incredible mission, whose taste is as rich as its story. 

Ignite Your Passion for Valentine's Day Cocktails with Passionfruit Bubbly and Boozy Gummies!

Searching for some fresh and simple ways to turn up the heat with your Valentine on Cupid’s favorite day? We’ve got tantalizing tastes that will transform your average bubbly, turn kid candies into tempting adult treats, leave your favorite crush lovestruck, and seduce you into finishing every last piece. 

PASSIONFRUIT BUBBLY

In this super easy but sensuous cocktail, I poured one tablespoon of Liber & Co’s Tropical Passionfruit Syrup into a champagne flute, added bubbly, and graced with a raspberry. The natural punch of tart Peruvian passion fruit shines through, and a touch of gum arabic provides a silky, luxurious mouthfeel.

What will you do with any leftovers after the day of love? This tropical simple syrup is a perfect complement for rum-based cocktails. Whiskey can go tiki, too, when mixed with passion fruit syrup, a little Grand Marnier, and a squeeze of fresh lemon. In the kitchen, drizzle over vanilla ice cream or toss with fresh fruit.

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Woo your heart throb or star-crossed lover with concoctions that are easy, fun, and unexpected!

Inspired by the “boozy gummy candies” playfully gracing the cover of a recent Bon Appétit, I decided to experiment with a couple of my favorite items for The Savory Pantry’s cocktail shop—Liber & Co.’s Fiery Ginger Syrup and Pink House Alchemy's Cardamom Simple Syrup—using versatile vodka to boozify both. I will definitely be making these again as they were stars among dinner party guests and potential combinations are practically unlimited. Gummies will keep for several days, so in the unlikely event that you have leftovers, you can continue to enjoy them.

Flaming Hearts Fiery Ginger Boozy Gummies

• 3 Cups Fresh-Squeezed OJ
• 1 and ½ Cups Vodka
• Juice of ½ Lemon
• ½ Bottle Liber & Co. Fiery Ginger Syrup
• 3 Packets Unflavored Gelatin

DIRECTIONS: Combine orange juice, lemon juice, vodka, and ginger syrup in a small saucepan. Sprinkle gelatin as evenly as possible into the mixture and allow to sit for 10-15 minutes, allowing gelatin to soften. Turn stove on and cook over medium to medium-low, being careful not to allow mixture to boil. (Getting that vodka in your nostrils!?) Simmer until no gelatin granules are visible and any gelatin clumps are fully dissolved (around 5 minutes). Pour into an 11x7 glass casserole. Chill for at least two hours. Cut with cookie cutter just prior to serving. If desired, sprinkle with sugar just prior to serving.

Notes from Erin: Read my “Meet the Maker” interview with Robert Higginbotham of Austin, Texas-based Liber & Co to learn more about how Liber got its start making world-class cocktail mixers with premium ingredients and none of the yucky stuff. Also, say sooie for our “Fiery Rasperback Cocktail,” perfect for Arkansas Razorbacks tailgating.

 

Star-Crossed Lovers Cardamom Boozy Gummies

• ¾ Jar of Pink House Alchemy Cardamom Simple Syrup
• 1 Cup Vodka

DIRECTIONS: Combine cardamom syrup and vodka in a small saucepan. Sprinkle gelatin as evenly as possible into the mixture and allow to sit for 10-15 minutes, allowing gelatin to soften. Turn stove on and cook over medium to medium-low, being very careful not to allow to boil. Simmer until no gelatin granules are visible and any gelatin clumps are fully dissolved (around 5 minutes). Pour into glass casserole (I used round pie dish). Chill for at least two hours. Cut just prior to serving. Sprinkle with silver sugar just prior to serving.

Notes from Erin: Read my “Meet the Maker” interview with Emily Lawson of Fayetteville, Arkansas-based Pink House Alchemy to learn more about the beginnings of incredible maker of simple syrups, shrubs, and bitters. 

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Don't want to linger in the kitchen this V-Day but still want to give your Romeo or Juliet some tastes to remember?

A Bite of Chocolate Gift Box, $53

View fullsize

Prestat Coronation Sea Salt Caramel Thins, $23

Arkansas Artisan Sweets Gift, $62

Meet the Maker: Liber & Co

When three twenty-five-year-old guys walked into the service entrance of the Lawrence, Kansas, luxury hotel, The Oread, they were full of hope, if a little lost. Liber & Co co-founder Chris Harrison’s neighbor worked at The Oread, and had invited the trio to use its commercial kitchen to expand their stovetop-developed Spiced Tonic recipe to sell back to the bar as a craft cocktail mixer.

Chris, Robert Higginbotham, and brother Adam Higginbotham were greeted by a 30-gallon steam kettle that they had to ask for assistance to turn on. Once it was operational, they looked into the 30-gallon kettle and then back at their piece of paper with their stovetop recipe—a rich and complex spiced tonic made with real cinchona bark, a natural source of quinine. How would teaspoons and cups transform into cups and gallons? There was nothing to do but get out the calculator and start doing some math.

Prior to this pivotal preparation, Chris was living in Lawrence, working in a genetics lab, Adam was living in Austin and shipping tastes back and forth with Chris, and Robert was working as a lobbyist in Washington, D.C. The three had been kicking around an entrepreneurial idea based on the dearth of exceptional bar syrups that could help home bartender create cocktails equivalent to those found in the best bars in the world. They liked the name Liber, meaning “the free one,” the Roman god of fine drinks and good times.

So when the opportunity arose, the three met in Lawrence, Robert using his frequent flyer miles and taking what then was a nauseating risk—putting $1,500 of bottles and labels on his credit card.

Robert reflected on that rough transition in The Oread’s kitchen, transforming small batches to a large one, “Hours later it was time for dinner service and we were still in the way. They were trying to go on about their business. We were washing dishes to try to keep everybody happy so we could finish. Finally, we had 19 gallons of tonic syrup. We brought it out to Chris’s truck in 5 gallon buckets and it was sloshing everywhere. Eventually, we got back to Chris’s apartment, feeling totally defeated by the process. Of course we had to have a drink! It was 11 at night and we were exhausted and we still had hundreds of bottles to fill by hand, one at a time. Somehow, we got it done.”

Robert took some bottles back to DC in his luggage. After he made a gin and tonic for a friend who managed a grocery store near Robert’s DC residence, the friend was so impressed that he ordered a case for the store. “He wrote a check to me personally because we had no bank account at the time. That was five years ago and he’s still a customer. Amazingly, we were profitable on our first case. We went right back in with our earnings and spent on more inventory.”

With Robert an entrepreneurial spirit, Adam an avid cook, and Chris an avid cocktail enthusiast, the three formed an ideal partnership in Liber & Co, which thrives on the trio’s mutual love of food and beverage. The experiences they were constantly trying to create at home for family BBQs, dinners with friends, and impromptu cocktail parties were something they wanted to share with the world, providing mixers that were the same quality as those being made behind bars.

“What was out there before was high fructose. Artificial. Nuclear,” said Robert. “While there were all kinds of high-end spirits, liqueurs, and bitters, there were still no cocktail syrups with high-quality, thoughtfully sourced raw ingredients, made from real fruits and vegetables. We wanted to fill that void because we understood that the discerning cocktail drinker’s day in the sun had arrived. We’d witnessed the wine boom and the micro-beer boom, and knew that cocktails’ turn was next.”

Chris moved back from Kansas. Together, Adam and Chris experimented and created and marketed. And soon, their big break came. “We had pitched to HEB grocery stores because they really support local business. We thought it hadn’t worked out but then we heard from them again. They wanted the Spiced Tonic we made in Lawrence. And they wanted our Texas Grapefruit Shrub. At the time those were the only two we had and they were kind of ‘out there’ in terms of flavor and they wanted both. To put a single case of each product in each of their stores had Adam and Chris in the kitchen for 18 hours. And HEB had 90 stores! It was overwhelming, but we knew that if they were dedicated to our product, we had that support, and that we’d find a way to make it work. We did. By 2014 we were all three back in Austin, moved in to a dedicated 3,000 sq ft space, and we’ve grown from there.”

Today, all three men are full-time employees of Liber & Co., and their stovetop batches have transformed to 220 gallon tanks. Next year, they have plans to move into a 10,000 sq ft space, and their semi-automated production line will be upgraded to fully-automatic. In 2015, they produced 50,000 bottles, every one of which was capped by hand. This year, they are on pace for 70,000, some bottles being made especially for bars buying at larger liquid volumes. In other words, life at Liber is pretty sweet.

The Savory Pantry proudly stocks Liber & Co.’s Spiced Tonic, Fiery Ginger, Tropical Passion Fruit, Classic Gum, and Almond Orgeat Syrups, as well as their Texas Grapefruit Shrub.

What is it like to live in Austin? Robert says it’s a blast: “We’re all from College Station. The city is booming, young, with a great music and art scene. It takes well to a brand like ours that is small, entrepreneurial, and created from scratch. People respect and support that and it shows in our dedicated consumer base who loyally attend our events.

It’s great to sell nationwide, but so cool to have people loving what you make right in your back yard. Our goal is to equip people with what they need to personally make what they need to replicate the best bars in the world. We provide lots of great recipes, but we like the idea that people will use our products to come up with their own expressions of themselves. We hope we empower our customers to follow their own intuitions and use their creativity to come up with something entirely new.”  

Meet the Maker: Savor Cookies

Ready for tastes that are unconventional works of art for your mouth in the form of small, circular shortbread cookies? For André Kreft, every bite one takes should be a savored, artful celebration. 

André Kreft of Savor Fine Foods

Kreft’s family emigrated from France, and he grew up a part of a community of people with stories of moving to this country. “My parents valued going back to our roots, foraging for food, for example. I recall gathering mussels on the coast in the winter. We’d have picnics, eating the mussels in the snow on the beach, and my parents would reflect on their past lives, spiritually connecting to their friends and family that were still across the ocean. I grew up as part of a community of people who had moved to this country, all appreciating the joy of being together and being alive. When I lived in Nigeria, you could cross the lawn and a cobra could bite you and you’d be dead, so I learned personal experiences and from the loss of my mother, husband, and cousin that we shouldn’t waste time focusing on trivial matters, dwelling on the past, or awaiting an uncertain future—now is what we have.”

For Kreft, food is an essential part of celebrating the moment. When he and his mother traveled to France before her death, he recalls a four-day party just to celebrate being alive. It included a ten-hour meal, the point of which was to be with each other, appreciating the joy and the magic that happens around a table with family and friends. “People would get up, maybe go have a cigarette, stretch their legs, and then return for more. For the moment, those that were there were there together. To me, these lengthy meals were part of an acknowledgment that only the moment is a given.”

How did these existential experiences translate into Kreft’s launch of Savor Cookies? Losing his husband and his mother in short term led him to bake his way through grieving.

“Here I was having lost the most important people in my life, and everything was changed. I considered following through with my husband’s and my plan to move to Hawaii, but then I decided maybe what I needed was to stay at home. From there, I moved forward with the idea to begin Savor. Before moving back to my hometown, I lived I San Francisco where I was a visual artist. Back then, it was very important for my art to travel with me. In the food I desired to create for others, I also wanted something durable, light, transportable.”

Savor Coconut Ginger Cookies

That he did and does, daring to combine and create buttery bites like Moka Ginger Savory Shortbread with Smoked Black Pepper; Coconut Ginger; and Nicasia Rosemary, Lemon & Smoked Salt. Kreft’s never-too-sweet little rounds of delight combine tantalizing flavors inspired by place and by phenomenon.

Inquiring about the small size of Kreft’s cookies, I uncovered even more probing thought and inspiration.

Apparently, he used to make them bigger, but without being too heavy-handed, wanted to communicate how we can get along just fine with less. "In our country, we have this tendency to over buy and waste and I want to take the opportunity to suggest a revision to that dynamic. There is truly no paucity unless we create it—this fear that there’s not going to be enough that is followed by snatching up much more than we need. Living in California, I learned that there’s enough for everyone. So I want to suggest that people consider this by judging for themselves if the tiny jewel of a cookie and a bit of goodness might actually completely satisfy them. Maybe it isn’t necessary to have gobs. Perhaps a little bit of sugar and some butter combined with other unexpected ingredients can help others let things go with grace, knowing there’s more to come. I wanted to offer an affordable luxury—this is something everyone can have, perhaps not every day, but also perhaps every day is not necessary to feel satisfied.”

All this in a bite!? There’s more . . .

“I knew that the most important thing to me was choosing something through which I could share joy and happiness. Part of that for me includes bridging gaps. Selling cookies provides surprising cultural and social experiences.” Kreft shared that Scandinavians love cardamom, the French do not generally care for cinnamon, older generations of English and South Africans don’t like birch flavor (because it reminds them of a tonic once used for the body), and most Americans are hesitant about lavender because they associate it with soap.

Kreft enjoys being the junction at which people come together to experience the same delights, and values sending customers away smiling. Order a bag of these tiny treasures today, and the corners of your mouth can’t help but turn up, knowing that their tastes and their meaning stretches far beyond the coin of shortbread melting inside.