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Category Archives: Products

Holiday gift ideas from the COOK pantry

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You already know us here at COOK for our nightly demonstration classes (January tickets on sale now!) and huge cookbook selection. But did you know we also have a small-but-smart retail section in the corner of our kitchen? It’s a carefully curated collection, packed with our own house line of spices, mixes and candies, plus handy tools/utensils and locally produced goods. After the jump, we’re highlighting just three of our favorite pantry items that’d make excellent holiday gifts. Come visit us [retail hours] to check out the rest!

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Meet Meat the gentlemen of Side Project Jerky

Growing up in Utah, Marcos Espinoza just wanted to be normal. When he was in fifth grade, his New Mexican family opened Navajo Hogan, a Native American eatery in South Salt Lake, translating to long work hours for mom and dad — and full-blown “little restaurant rat” status for their son, who washed dishes and lent hands during catering gigs while the 9-to-5 parents of schoolmates enjoyed a more conventional day-to-day. “I wanted so bad to be normal, because all my friends were quote-unquote normal,” he says. “But now, that’s the last thing I want to be.”

Business-wise, at least. Espinoza, a married father of two, is now a 9-to-5er himself — he works as a cost estimator for a local construction company. “I really like my job,” he says. “But I also wanted to do something other than that, something involved with food.” He turned this desire into an impeccably branded reality earlier this year with Side Project Jerky (SPJ), a handmade snack that appeals to the polished, meat-masticating gentleman inside us all.

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Next-level pickles from Jersey Gina’s Gems

“Suddenly, everyone’s calling me The Pickle Guy,” says Ryan Harrison. “And everyone who knows my mom? They call her The Pickle Lady.”

Nicknames that stick are often the result of some sort of memorable childhood happenstance, but the title Harrison shares with his mother Gina is a more recent development. The vinegary monikers are being tossed around local markets, restaurant kitchens and right here at COOK for one simple reason: The Harrisons make their own dill pickles, and they’re damn good at it.

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