Tag: Miss Cordelia’s

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Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Granola Goodness at Big River Bakehouse

CREDIT: Anna Turman

When it comes to selling her baked goods, Anna Turman isn’t easily discouraged. The founder of Big River Bakehouse began pitching desserts to High Point Grocery 10 years ago. “Back then, I didn’t know all the actual steps you had to take to put things in stores,” she laughs. Now, having been open for a little over a month, Big River Bakehouse has granola in plenty of local stores, as well as shipments sent out nationally.

Anna Turman

Spiced Maple Granola

Cooking has always been one of Turman’s favorite pastimes. “I’ve been doing it my entire life,” she says. “I love it because you can just be so creative, it’s relaxing, and you can let your mind kind of wander.” While she’s made plenty of desserts in her time, granola is something she just began pursuing recently. “I started out by making it for myself, and I kept looking up new ways to make it and new ingredients to use.” Eventually, she felt confident enough in her product to start her own business.

When it comes to baking granola, Turman goes about the process with health in mind. “Granola can use all kind of different components, so I use healthy fats in mine,” she says. “There’s no added sugars; it’s all raw natural ingredients. That’s been pretty important to my approach, since I wanted to try something unique.”

So far, Big River Bakehouse has three different varieties for sale. Simply Peanutty uses peanuts and roasted peanut butter as a base, and Blueberry Cashew is the most popular. Those two flavors use oats, but Turman also offers a low-carb, grain-free option. “My specialty granola, Spiced Maple, uses a lot of nuts and seeds,” she explains, “and it’s flavored with maple syrup. I do paleo and keto, so I wanted to make something I myself could eat at home. It’s great to eat out of the bag as a snack, but still goes well on yogurt. It’s a type of granola, but it’s basically made out of roasted nuts.” Only three flavors on the menu for now, but more ideas are in the works.

Turman works as a digital producer for FOX-13 during the week, but spends six hours in a commercial kitchen in Midtown every Friday afternoon and evening. “I put together all the dry ingredients first [nuts or oats], and then add wet ingredients, like coconut oil or raw honey,” she says. “I mix it all together in a bowl, and then it’s slow-roasted in the oven at low temperatures for about 30 minutes, stirring through the whole process. Afterwards, I let it cool for 15 minutes and add dried fruit at the end. When you pull it up from the container, it breaks apart into the little chunks.”

Anna Turman

Bag of Big River Bakehouse’s Simply Peanutty Granola

After finishing a fresh batch, Turman packages it all up for local distribution, and then ships out national orders on Saturday and Monday. While she felt a bit of trepidation at starting her own business, she knew she had to take the plunge this year. “I graduated from college at 35 last year, and felt really stable,” says Turman. “I thought if I don’t do it this year, there was always going to be some reason or excuse not to. I don’t feel really worried about the risk of failing, since this is something I was truly passionate about.”

Despite having little business experience, Turman wasn’t fazed in the early goings. “I’ve always been entrepreneurial-minded,” she says. The learning curve included obtaining all the proper certifications, as well as delving into strategies for her website and social media platforms. But with the business side of things now settled, Turman can turn most of her focus to the baking. “I’ve been thinking about branching out into other food items,” she says. “Something along the lines of baked goods. Maybe granola cookies, or a healthy muffin.”

Big River Bakehouse granola is currently available locally at High Point Grocery, Curb Market, and Miss Cordelia’s. “Memphis is a city that is really friendly and very helpful toward people who are wanting to make a food start-up or create their own food business,” says Turman. “I can’t stress that enough. In my experience, local stores have been very welcoming to people who have local products.”

Learn more or place an order at bigriverbakehouse.com


Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

No More Plastic Bags at Cordelia’s Market

Cordelia’s Market in Harbor Town has made the decision to get rid of its plastic bags, effective today.

And, it’s having a party to celebrate!

Kroger announced last summer that it plans to do away with plastic bags by 2025. Last fall, the city council discussed plans to tax consumers for each plastic bag used. I believe Cordelia’s is the first Memphis-area market to do away with the bags.

“The environment,” says Erica Humphreys on the reason why Cordelia’s made this move.

Humphreys, who is a manager at Cordelia’s, says that plastic bags are just no good. They aren’t recyclable and it takes up to 1,000 years for a bag to fully degrade, and they junk up the ocean.

Humphreys says they had been thinking about it for a while and starting feeling out their customers’ reactions at the register. The ban was well received. Cordelia’s will offer paper bags for those who don’t bring a reusable bag.

Today at the market, 3,000 reusable bags will be given away and for those who bring their own mug, there’s free coffee, and discount beer for those who bring their own pint glass. 

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Aaron Winters turns Miss Cordelia’s meat counter into a craft butcher shop.

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

Russell Smith, Miss Cordelia’s general manager, was impressed with the store’s history as a leader in the locally sourced food movement, but felt it had missed some key opportunities.

“Having a local meat source is something I was always interested in,” Smith says. “We had the equipment. It was just a question of figuring out how to shift from conventional beef and pork that comes in a box to bringing in sides of beef and whole hogs.”

To that end, Aaron Winters is one of Smith’s secret weapons in the campaign to enhance his store’s image. Winters has been charged with transforming the store’s meat counter into a craft butcher shop stocked entirely with locally sourced meat in addition to a range of house-made sausages, salumis, and smoked delicacies ranging from bacon to spicy tasso ham.

“With his background as a chef, Aaron’s been an awesome fit,” Smith says, describing the shift from buying primal cuts to sides of beef and whole hogs. “His cooking ability allows us to use all the animal — especially with hog because of the things you cure and things you smoke.”

“We only use farmers we know,” Winters says. He’s spent time working at Claybrook Farms, Newman, and Homeplace to determine whether or not the operations are truly sustainable. “I want to know the animals have had a happy life,” he says.

Even the humble ground beef at Miss Cordelia’s is currently being processed from a dry-aged cow. “So it’s not the yuck and the trim that’s been sitting in a bag for six months,” Winters says.

Justin Fox Burks

Aaron Winters, Miss Cordelia’s secret (meat) weapon

It may not always be evident on grocery store shelves, but there’s so much more to a cow than ribeyes, strips, chuck roasts, and tenderloin. Winters’ array includes lesser-known cuts like the bavette, inside and outside skirts, and spider steaks — the stuff people don’t know because it usually ends up in grind. Similarly, Winters, who trained in Italy, breaks his pigs down in a more European fashion. Nothing goes to waste. Soup bones not being frozen and sold are roasted and turned into rich, house-made stocks. Smoked ham hocks, bacon, and maple breakfast sausage are available all the time.

“I love tasso,” says Winters, who’s made his own version of the South Louisiana delicacy a staple of Miss Cordelia’s meat counter. “People think of it as a super spicy, smoked little chunk of meat that they throw in greens or red beans. My method is a little bit different, so you can slice and put it on sandwiches without completely blowing your head off.”

Beer brats and sweet Italian sausages are kept in stock due to popular demand, but Winters is always making specialty flavors that rotate in and out and run the gamut from Cajun spice, to an Argentinian chorizo.

“I’m making head cheese, pork terrines, capicola, and chicken liver mousse pâté,” he says, announcing plans to add even more specialty items like house-made ham, finocchiona, and lardo di Colonnata.

Winters and Smith are working together to build synergy between Miss Cordelia’s meat counter and its deli. Although only a few items are currently available, a new sandwich menu is on the works. Future offerings will include a pressed Cuban sandwich with cured Cuban-style pork, sour orange, cilantro, peppers, house-made ham, and pickles.

“I want people to tell me what they want,” says Winters, who enjoys preparing custom sausages and other items for his customers.

“It’s an interesting challenge to make people forget what they think they know about us,” Smith says. “Fair or not, this store has always had a reputation for being expensive. What I’m learning, the longer I’m here, is that the thing we can’t compete on are conventional groceries. I can’t sell Cheerios the way Kroger sells Cheerios.

“But we can do stuff like this that just blows other groceries out of the water, and we can be very affordable about it.”

Categories
News The Fly-By

Fly on the Wall 1323

W(TF)REG

A story on WREG’s website headlined “Increased health problems with illegal immigrants” is summarized with the following text: “The head of Homeland Security will head to the border to see the U.S. response to the influx of illegals. Meanwhile, some doctors are concerned about the increased health problems immigrants may be bringing into the country.” The video consists of one doctor, an infectious disease expert with Baptist Hospital, explaining that there is no immigration-related health threat increase and that the threat comes from poorly informed Americans not getting their kids vaccinated.

Campfield Revue

The Stacey Campfield musical Casey Stampfield: The Musical, a lampoon of Tennessee’s most talked about politician, opened in Nashville last week, and The Tennessean loved it. Sort of. The takeaway quote: “There’s an unmistakable cringe factor as Stampfield reminds us why Tennessee so often ends up being used as a punchline on late-night television.”

Seeing Red

Sammy Hagar, the Red Rocker who can’t drive 55, is opening a sports bar at Southland Park. Will neighborhood speed limits force the Van Halen frontman to be airlifted to and from his own club?

Cheesy

Either I’m going crazy or the cheese at Ms. Cordelia’s grocery store on Mud Island is trying to communicate with me. I think that’s its way of saying, “I’m with stupid.”

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Guilt-Free Pastries: “Good, Real Food”

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

A little more than a decade ago, Brandon Thomas dropped from 300 pounds to 175. More recently, he returned home to Memphis after college to take care of his father, who is on dialysis due to diabetes. And even while he was so personally involved in health issues, he never imagined he’d launch the health-conscious Guilt-Free Pastries.

Thomas discovered he’s allergic to gluten in August and began experimenting with gluten-free recipes. As Thomas walked through a market with a cart full of avocados, someone got curious and asked why, eventually requesting an impromptu order of avocado brownies.

The request opened Thomas’ mind to the possibility of selling to friends and family on occasion, and then another customer materialized.

Justin Fox Burks

Brandon Thomas’ guilt-free treats

“He was like, ‘What’s your company name? Where’s the storefront?’ I was like, ‘You’re my second customer, man. I don’t know. … Everything’s guilt-free. They’re pastries,'” Thomas recalls. “He was like, ‘That’s a great name.’ I was like, ‘Okay. Guilt-Free Pastries it is.'”

Thomas soon found a market for his products at Miss Cordelia’s Grocery, Stone Soup Café, Phillip Ashley Chocolates, and even a few gyms.

The brownies, $29 for one dozen, are his staple product, though he’s since expanded to caramel and vegan versions of the brownie, as well as several cookie options: cinnamon banana, white chocolate chip, and vegan avocado.

Thomas uses coconut flour instead of bleached flour, avoids hydrogenated oil, substitutes avocado for butter, and sources local eggs, honey, and vanilla extract.

Some of the recipes took experimenting. “When I made that first batch of brownies, it was not the prettiest picture. I had to throw them away,” Thomas says.

Starting with $500, he’s shown an acumen out of the kitchen as well, winning a Start Co. speed-pitch contest, connecting with mentors and securing a grant.

The advice he gets? Set higher price points.

“Right now organic foods are priced for a certain demographic. I don’t want that to be the case. I want everyone to be able to eat good, real food,” Thomas says.

Though he eventually wants his own store, for now Thomas still accepts orders via email for a single cookie or brownie and will deliver for free.

guiltfreepastries@gmail.com; 326-8482

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Locavoracious

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

Over the past few years, the food world has been abuzz with talk of eating locally and seasonally. For Memphians, translating this movement into practice has become so convenient that excuses for not eating locally and seasonally are like the croissant bread pudding placed before me at my recent visit to Interim. That is to say, the excuses have disappeared.

Dinner at Interim is one way you can eat local foods that follow the seasons. Chef Josh Belenchia and staff do a complete overhaul of the menu four times a year (that’s one change for each season). Depending on availability, as much as 50 percent of their produce comes from local farmers markets. And it tastes good. I stopped in to sample the newest menu changes recently and had smoked salmon cakes served with fennel-apple slaw and citrus reduction and trigger fish with parsnip purée, braised fennel, roasted Brussels sprouts (my favorite), and citrus brown butter.

My companions also sampled some seasonal fare, including an incredibly tender pork shank served with locally made Delta Grind gouda grits, collard greens and whole-grain mustard jus, and the Springer Mountain chicken breast with caramelized onions, bacon, sweet potatoes, and Swiss chard.

Some staples are always on the menu, like Interim’s wildly popular burger made with beef from Neola Farms, located 30 minutes north of Memphis in Brighton, Tennessee. (The open kitchen at Interim offered a perfect vantage to see just how many Neola Farms burgers were coming off the grill. Answer: a lot.)

Meanwhile, new menu items were peppering the surrounding tables during my visit: sweet potato soup with crème fraîche and toasted hazelnuts, scallop puttanesca, steak of the day with Parmesan-truffle fries, sautéed garlic spinach and wild huckleberry sauce, and a pear mousse cake with spiced devil’s food cake, pear panna cotta, and pear mousse amaretto sauce.

Interim is proof that eating local, seasonal food doesn’t have to mean cooking it yourself.

Interim, 5040 Sanderlin (818-0821),

interimrestaurant.com

Of course, if you like to cook, Miss Cordelia’s grocery in Harbor Town carries a wide range of local foods to work with: herbs from Millstone Gardens in Hernando, McCarter Coffee from the Millington micro-roaster, honey by Robert Hodum from Collierville, and Bonnie Blue Cheeses from Waynesboro.

What you might not know is that Miss Cordelia’s also pairs up with local restaurants to make some of their foods more readily available. For instance, Las Delicias, known for its fresh Mexican dishes, chunky guacamole, and homemade tortillas, now sells their homemade corn chips at the Harbor Town market. And the sushi at Miss Cordelia’s? “Most people don’t realize that it comes from Umai,” says executive chef David Thornton.

Out of all Miss Cordelia’s local items, Thornton says Isa’s Cakes — made by Isaura Amill, originally from Puerto Rico — and the products from Big Ono Bake Shop on Front sell the best. Big Ono brings in fresh pastries, breads, and cupcakes every day, and since the bakery itself closes at 3 p.m., Miss Cordelia’s is the only place to find their fresh baked goods in the afternoon.

Miss Cordelia’s, 737 Harbor Bend (526-4772), misscordelias.com

Another local treat you might spy at the grocery store is a bag of Makeda’s homemade cookies. Ten local Kroger stores carry the brand, and you can always pick up a dozen at one of the three Makeda’s Bakery locations. The business was founded in 1999 by Pamela and Maurice Hill and four other family members and was named after their niece Makeda, who passed away from leukemia in 1997.

In addition to Kroger, Makeda’s cookies can be found at area restaurants such as Soulsville Grill on Shelby Drive and D’bo’s Wings n’ More in Cordova.

What’s their secret? “The premium ingredients,” Pamela Hill says: “100 percent butter and a lot of love.” The butter cookies are the number-one seller, but the bakery sells 16 types of cookies, including chocolate pecan, iced oatmeal, chocolate chip, macadamia nut, sugar, and peanut butter.