Start the day with a cup of coffee - for me always hot - cold is better in the afternoon and something to look forward to, be it coffee or a malted milkshake.

When the world is perfect, the lake water is glass smooth, and the cumulus clouds are plentiful to break up the sky, and what to make for dinner is a conundrum that happens all too often. The open markets are filled with the bounty of the day and the garden is sprouting beans continuously - a bit of a miracle nature is, since the fabaceae were picked clean the night before.

The desire to create a new meal is there but waning and with so many good looking choices to choose from one gets exhausted in the brain, especially when the beautiful summer (mental) slowdown is happily upon us.

When we go out and look for food it is a bit different than others, at least that is what people tell me. Not for the fresh stuff, which is more the feel it with you hands and eyes, but when we pick up a jar of hot sauce or a jar of jam.

We are always on the hunt for something new, undiscovered, unique and unusual. Or we might be looking for something that a reader or a chef is looking for.

We are always looking at the provenance, no matter where we are, Paris or New England, that guides us to what we look at. Then we use our eyes, does it look good? Interesting? And packaging can matter, though rarely will simple or plain keep us away, a perfect label designed to a “t” is attractive, but often too “developed” for us and we might shy away.

And then we look at the ingredients. They matter and the order of them does as well. For instance is sugar the first ingredient ? We then proceed with caution. (Many great French jams start with sugar, though that might not be for us). Right or wrong we stay away from ingredients we can’t pronounce and we like short lists…. To be clear it doesn’t mean we don’t personally eat non-organic cookie wafers and the like …we just don’t share them with you, or even admit it.

Its the food business. And the best thing about food is the people we get to work with. We strive to meet the people who make the food, the connection is essential.

We like to work with small family owned businesses like ourselves. In this world of industrialization and mechanization of our foods on the shelves in the grocery aisle, we strive to find the human touch, the connection, the in person contact. That alone can be the deciding factor.

Thanks to everyone!

Serve roasted garlic by squeezing it onto toasted artisan bread slices, and drizzling with good olive oil.

Coming soon - limited supply

Chesnok Red Hardneck Garlic is a wonderful purple stripe garlic originally from Shvelisi, Republic of Georgia. It holds its shape and retains its flavor after it is cooked. They are large bulbs with 9-10 easy-to-peel cloves.

Order ahead because quantities are limited

Organically grown

it's best to store your garlic in a cool, well-ventilated place, away from the sun and moisture.

Put everything in a small heavy sauce pan.

Coming soon - Very limited supply.

Spanish Roja organic hard-neck garlic is known for its "true" garlic flavor. Its large cloves are easily peeled. Garlic lovers choose this as one of their favorites. A northwest heirloom variety reportedly brought here before 1900.

Often the favorite!

Nothing complex here. Really! Take the chicken, cover it in chermoula inside a bag. Wait 1-2 hours. Add chicken to a skillet on the stove and cook .. until it's done! Get classic flavors of Morocco without much "hands on" time.

Though there is not a lick of meat in here, the instant memories evoked are every great smoked, grilled or BBQ protein you have ever had! What a masterpiece of delicious flavor!

And as your flavor mind comes up with a zillion ideas of what to do, your confidence soars and you feel perfectly in control of your next masterpiece!

To the nose, Moroccan chermoula reminds me of an olive tapenade with a twitch of tomato and a myriad of spices including cumin.

And to the mouth, wow, this Moroccan chermoula sauce is not what you expect. The spices mix together, and to your palate the cumin and the paprika stand up. On the outside of the inner walls of your mouth is the garlic. With a smoothness of a delicious sauce there is the preserved lemon that is just right, providing a little chew. Complexity revolves in your mouth, but the finish is complete & simple!

Think tomato as the carrier or support, then the olive oil washes through with the olive flavor bringing with it the cumin & paprika. And topping it all, like any good herb, parsley and cilantro open up and bring the garden. The preserved lemon is identifiable, yet not overpowering at all! What a mix! As the flavor finishes, you feel like you are eating all of Morocco in one spoonful! This red chermoula sauce is easy to use and spoon-ready!

Chermoula (cher moo lah)

What is Chermoula? So many things, it is, and it's uses vary from a marinade, to a sauce, to a dip. And from the many unlimited uses it evokes, it has exponentially more recipe variations!

What's Happening in the Store

Did you know the store often has more?

Come, taste and check it out! Pick your favorite and meet friends new and old who all love food. We love it when you hang out!

August, 2026
Friday & Monday - Saturday 10am-5pm
ChefShop Retail Shop, 1425 Elliott Ave West, Seattle

Perfect grilling party topper. One of our absolute favorite desserts during grilling season - which also happens to be peach season. Fast, easy and fresh-tasting. Light and tangy. Perfect.

The honey creme fraiche works well on all sorts of fruit - include blueberries and fresh strawberries.

This is a terrific, tangy marinade for grilled meat or chicken. We love this marinated flank steak with a simple plate of rice and a green vegetable. Easy, quick to mix, the quality of the soy sauce makes all the difference. The sesame oil and the ginger are key ingredients as well.

Also better known as Kecap Manis (soy sauce sweet), this Ketjap Medja is imported from Indonesia via Holland (the Dutch occupied Indonesia from 1602 to 1949) and is sweetened with a syrup of palm sugar.

Thick, like dark amber, late harvest grade B or C maple syrup, this is very dark in color.

To the nose, it smells like soy sauce, less bitter, and though you can smell sweet, it doesn't smell sweet. Perhaps it does not smell refreshing or appealing. Quite frankly, it smells nothing like the taste.

To the mouth, you can take a spoonful without the fear of a salty bomb that soy sauce might instill upon you.

It is smoky, sweet, and finishes with this weird salty edge, like a candy of a Chinese preserved plum. And like the smell, the taste is hard to describe.

There is no pucker-producing bite to this quite delicious treat. This is the best secret ingredient when making a marinade for a flank steak. Drizzle it into fresh carrot soup. On its own, it leans sweet, with the salty undertones enhancing the flavor and less adding a pronounced salt.

Pairing it along with soy sauce, fish sauce, and/or sesame oil is my favorite way. A recent use has been to lightly fry tofu in ghee, and then finish with Ketjap Medja, Shoyu, and a touch of Black Garlic Molasses, along with a healthy sprinkle of sesame seeds on top of rice.

This dark sweet soy sauce is one of the few essential pantry items I do not like to be without!

This sugar is at the top of my list to always have on hand. Use it once and you will see that this is how you want sugar to be. It has flavor, it has personality, it is alive!

Muscovado is a soft, moist, fine brown sugar. It's also known as Barbados sugar, where it was once made. But ours comes from the island of Mauritius off the African coast.

While most brown sugar these days is made by combining already-refined sugar with added molasses-like syrup, this is the real thing. This is a less refined product with rich, complex flavor.

This sugar adds a deeper dimension to cakes, fudge, pecan pie, and other desserts with its rich butterscotch flavors. Use it as you would brown sugar - take your morning oatmeal to new heights with a spoonful of Dark Muscovado on top!

Soft and moist on the spoon, to the nose these sun dried Turkish pepper flakes are raisin'eee, a bit like saba, finishing with the tingle of heat. It is, after all, a pepper.

The texture is between flakes and grounds. To create this pepper it is harvested and then baked in the sun during the day and wrapped so it sweats in the night for a week. The result is a complex and well rounded profile.

This smoky, earthbound nuanced Urfa Biber pepper flake has hints of flavor to bring forth taste memories of chocolate and tobacco leaf. Really a very pleasant flavor with a bit of sweetness.

Aleppo, Turkey and Urfa, Turkey share the same climate/area and tasty mild/medium heat level. Sprinkled on summer vegetables, the Urfa Biber pepper flake has a deep rich dark reddish color that contributes to the presentation of your dish.

Think sweet or savory dishes in regards to this sun dried Turkish pepper flake. From grilled vegetables to cold pastas, this Urfa Biber pepper flake goes extremely well with crumbly cheeses like feta, and Urfa's moist feel makes it a natural to add to foods uncooked.

These peppers are a deep purple color, and they have a higher oil content than most peppers, which contributes to their outstanding flavor. They are picked and then dried in the sun and in the process they turn very dark purple, almost black, in color and develop an earthy, almost smoky aroma. The peppers are then ground.

The essential oils give it a rich, and deeply aromatic flavor.

Located in the southeast of Turkey near the border of Syria, the Urfa region is pepper country, home to several varieties that are unique to the area and important ingredient in Turkish cuisine. Taking its name from the region, the urfa biber "Urfa Pepper" is prized for its flavor throughout Turkey.

This sun dried Turkish pepper flake is used in meat dishes as well as salads in its home country. With a moderate heat - It has more heat than paprika but significantly less than cayenne - it is a very versatile pepper to have in the kitchen.

You can use these sun dried Turkish pepper flakes in place of "red" pepper flakes in dishes that cry out for more flavor. Try the sun dried Turkish pepper flake as a finishing pepper in simple pasta dishes like those from Sicily and Southern Italy like pastas with garlic, anchovy and urfa pepper. The Urfa Biber pepper flake is also great as a finishing pepper for braised greens like kale, chard or mustard.

The production process is labor-intensive and unchanged from traditional methods. Pesticide-free rice from the mountainous Tango District of Kyoto is combined with clear mountain spring water. The rice is inoculated with koji mold, requiring attention every 3–4 hours for three full days and then it is pressed using a hand-powered wooden press.

After 45 days, the sake is ready.

That sake is then converted to vinegar through "static fermentation," allowing acetic acid bacteria to naturally develop on the surface of the tank over 100 days. Industrial producers pump air through their tanks and finish the process in as little as 8 hours.

After fermentation, the vinegar is aged for another 8 months. From start to finish, the process takes roughly one year — compared to a single day for large commercial producers.

What Makes It Special

Iio Jozo uses 200g of rice per liter, five times Japan's legal requirement for rice vinegar, ultimately producing a richer, fuller complex flavor.

Where ordinary rice vinegar is 99% acetic acid, Fujisu's ratio is just 86%, with the balance made up of mild non-volatile acids including lactic, succinic, and malic acid. The result is a vinegar with no harsh bite!

Fujisu Premium earned a place in Japan's government-sponsored "Wonder 500" program, which celebrates the country's finest local products, and has become a trusted ingredient for Michelin-starred chefs worldwide.

This is a chicken and rice dish recipe where you need to "feel" your way as you go. Changing out and adding and reducing to match your palate. Use your instinct. You can't really overdo it.

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