“Can you do it on a budget? Absolutely. It takes planning and thinking ahead, but you can buy food in such away that you eat well and still have money left over for other things.
However, per the definition of gourmet, if you want to experience “elaborate preparations and presentations of aesthetically balanced meals of several contrasting, richly prepared courses” you’ll have to spend some money to go to a high-end restaurant to see and taste how a professional chef prepares a dish.
This is the difference between a foodie and everybody else.”
This is a quote from Tim Reibling of CilantroCooks.com when asked about being a foodie on a budget.
Thankfully, we have sites like Cilantro Cooks, an online cookware shop based out of Lunenberg, Nova Scotia that also features recipes and foodie tips on their blog and social media channels. There’s something for foodies on any budget.
Tim Reibling took a moment to tell us about Cilantro Cooks and share some thoughts on presentation. He also told us about what it means to him and his family to be a foodie, as well as all the joy it brings.
Can you introduce us to Cilantro Cooks? When was your company founded? What is the origin of the name?
Cilantro The Cooks Shop is a family run kitchenware retailer located in the beautiful historic town of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We first opened in December 2008. CilantroCooks.com is our website which has been on the Internet since 2011.
My mother picked the name Cilantro while brainstorming ideas with her friends during a car ride. They all agreed it had a nice ring to it, and it just stuck. It has that sticky factor that is so important in branding. We hope one day that every time someone says or hears “Cilantro” or reaches for some in the kitchen that they will remember our store and all of the incredible products we carry. We’re working on making Cilantro a great place to shop online and in store.
Today, we have two retail stores and sell online across 8 channels, including Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.co.uk, eBay, Pricefalls.com, CilantroCooks.com and several smaller microsites. We’ve shipped product to every Canadian province and territory, nearly every U.S. state, and about a dozen countries internationally.
Who is Cilantro Cooks’ main audience, and what are some ways you meet their particular needs?
Cooking and baking cuts across all demographics and audiences; so in our stores, we feel our customer is best served if we carry products across a range of price points and from a variety of brands. Our online selection will be even larger as the web allows us to offer an infinite array of products to serve customers everywhere.
In store and online, we definitely listen to our customers’ needs, wants, and suggestions and try our best to find a way to incorporate those ideas and desires – especially when it comes to product selection.
For our blog and social media presence, we like to focus mostly on concise tips-and-tricks type articles with a few recipe posts here and there. Our blog is still in its infancy and we have a long way to go, but we’re exploring ways to get the larger internet community involved both through guest post submissions and interactions with the blog and on social media. In fact, we have a reward points program for our customers whereby they can earn points for interacting with our blog, and in turn use those points to purchase products.
Can you describe what being a foodie means to you?
To me, a foodie is someone that really enjoys fantastic food, seeks it out, and makes it a part of their everyday life beyond the norm. For them, the act of eating is more than just refuelling the body. For a foodie, eating is an opportunity to experience something wonderful three or more times a day, every day.
There are fanatics out there that love football, or film, or music; and then there are people that are fanatical about food and the entire culture around trying new food and discovering new flavors. This trend is becoming much more prevalent in our society as living standards increase and people have more disposable income.
So, yeah, I think a foodie is a person that derives great pleasure out of preparing and/or eating great food, who digs deeper about what they’re eating, and in turn shares that knowledge with family and friends while encouraging them to do the same. I think the sharing part is important, too. Who doesn’t love the friend that is always finding the hot new Italian joint in town or bringing over a delicious new product from the supermarket? I love that friend!
You frequently post delicious dish ideas on your Twitter account. What have been some of your favorite meals you’ve come across since you started Cilantro Cooks?
I’ve learned quite a bit about food and food culture since starting Cilantro and continue to learn a tremendous amount every day. I don’t cook as much as I’d like to and I’m definitely not the best cook, but I have been experimenting with our SousVide supreme water bath quite a bit, and I really enjoy the quality that it produces both for proteins and for veg.
When you type foody into your search bar, you get some items like this swirled bundt cake pan. How can presentation be used to augment elaborate dishes to let people know the care that has gone into the preparation?
Presentation is incredibly important, because we eat with our eyes first. If it doesn’t look good, most people might hesitate to eat it. If it smells bad too, you’re really in trouble!
Jokes aside, I think presentation is an important part in the process of conveying the level of effort and thinking that a chef puts into a dish. It’s a pride issue and an indication of what lies ahead taste-wise. But ultimately, presentation still takes a backseat to taste.
Taste is king. It has to taste good … which of course is subjective, making the whole exercise of defining “good taste” so difficult.
What would you say to people who think you need to be wealthy to have gourment tastes? How can people be foodies on a budget?
High quality and great tasting food don’t have to be expensive, both in the supermarket to take away and prepare at home or when dining out in a restaurant. You don’t have to be wealthy to eat high-quality, great tasting food. When cooking at home, it’s about the recipe and your ability to shape the flavors into something fantastic. But that can be hard, and it takes lots of practice.
Can you do it on a budget? Absolutely. It takes planning and thinking ahead, but you can buy food in such away that you eat well and still have money left over for other things.
However, per the definition of gourmet, if you want to experience “elaborate preparations and presentations of aesthetically balanced meals of several contrasting, richly prepared courses” you’ll have to spend some money to go to a high-end restaurant to see and taste how a professional chef prepares a dish.
This is the difference between a foodie and everybody else.
A foodie will go to the restaurant to try the dish and spend money on that experience over doing something else. They might even try to replicate those flavors and the experience at home. Yet how is it any different than going to see LeBron James play basketball? You can only spend $150 once. Foodies go to Cafe Boulud, and other people do other things.
What are five of your favorite seasonings, either rich and fancy or basic spice rack fare? What do you like so much about them?
I’m all about seasonings, spices, sauces, and oils. In my opinion, that is where the magic in cooking happens. Some foods are lucky and don’t require elaborate seasonings and spices, such as grass-fed Argentine beef from the Pampas or Nova Scotia sea scallops that we have here in Lunenburg.
To answer your question, I particularly like paprika, tandoori spices, camelina oil, himalayan salt, and fresh black pepper. I also like all kinds of hot sauces and mustards.
For people who have yet to identify as a foodie, what are some ways being a foodie can enrich their lives? How much has cooking and good food improved your own life?
Food and living are intricately woven together, and eating a great meal can dramatically improve your quality of life day in and day out. For me, eating well is important even though I don’t always get the opportunity to do so.
A great meal improves my life by not only tasting wonderful and bringing me joy, but also by properly providing my body with the necessary vitamins and nutrients that I need to maintain a high level of performance and reduce food-borne stress that can result from eating poorly.
Are there any restaurants or specialty markets near you that you particularly recommend if people are in Lunenberg? Secondly, is there any regional cuisine that you’re particularly fond of that people might not be aware of?
Yeah, there’s quite a few great restaurants here in Lunenburg and in Nova Scotia in general. Fleur de Sel is one of the highest rated restaurants in Canada and is located here. Rime Restaurant and Lincoln Street Food both opened last year and offer really delicious, forward-thinking fare.
Outside Lunenburg and on the way to Mahone Bay, you’ve got Old Black Forest, a hidden treasure that serves up rich traditional black forest dishes. In Mahone Bay, there’s Mateus Bistro and Rebekah’s which please the palettes of tourists and locals alike. And in Halifax, you’ve got a much larger and wider variety of top-notch restaurants spread out around the city. Each year, it gets better.
Nova Scotia is all about seafood and has some of the best anywhere in the world. Lobster, mussels, scallops, haddock, and halibut are incredibly popular in restaurants around here and in kitchens across the province. Seafood chowders, lobster sandwiches, and fish and chips are all tasty treats that tourists like to enjoy when visiting. I personally like the scallops and haddock the most.
Nova Scotia is more than just seafood, though; and there’s great local beef, lamb, chicken and pork being raised here. There’s also a burgeoning group of wineries creating some fantastic wines, and a few microbreweries and distilleries putting out a real quality product. Finally, there’s a company called Haskapa that is producing an incredible array of gourmet food products produced with the locally-grown Haskap berry. They’ve also partnered up with Acadian Maple Products to produce haskap-infused maple syrup that is supposed to be quite good. Finally, if you’re into chocolate there’s Gourmandises Avenue, which produces phenomenal handmade gourmet chocolates and truffles.
In terms of specialty markets, there’s quite a few farmers markets spread out around Nova Scotia. There’s one here in Lunenburg, a market in Mahone Bay, and one in Wolfville that I know of. In Halifax, there’s the seaport market that draws a large crowd of people looking for fresh and unique artisan food products. Commercially, there’s Pete’s, which imports all kinds of gourmet food products from around the world.
You have a series on your blog called Fast-Fix Meals which recently featured a recipe for Pepperoni Pasta. What do you say to people who think that making delicious food needs to be very time-consuming? Secondly, can you give us one or two other quick meal ideas for people to try out?
I don’t think making a tasty meal needs to be time-consuming. First, you can get really creative with smoothies and juices that can be filling and leave you wanting more – and they don’t take a long time to make. Plus, they’re really healthy. Lately, for a fast fix I’m into fondue, and my girlfriend and I have been eating lots of it. It’s super simple to make: heat the cheese, toast and cube the bread, and cut some apples and you’re good to go. It’s both rich and filling.
Quesadillas can be quick to make, are healthy, and are inexpensive depending on your ingredients. There’s a lot you can do with quesadillas, and it really depends what you have in your pantry. Avocado, monterey jack cheese with jalapeños, black beans and some corn, some diced tomatoes, a dash of tabasco salt and some chopped cilantro are really quite tasty.
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