Specialty Food Magazine is the leading publication for retailers, manufacturers and foodservice professionals in the specialty food trade. It provides news, trends and business-building insights that help readers keep their businesses competitive.
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producer profile raised more than $100,000. "We asked for any size donation for the cause, and people gave more than we would have charged," she says. "Lots of twenties." Around the third tailgate, Preau had an epiphany: I can make a business out of this. "People were not only supporting us because we were from New Orleans," she notes. "When they'd try it they'd come right back and tell us how good the jambalaya was and ask for the recipe." The Preau family was able to return home by Thanksgiving that year. The house Kristen had rented before she left had been under eight feet of water, all her belongings destroyed. Her brother Kevin's house was also uninhabitable due to flooding. "My parents thought they had gotten us out of the house after college, and we came right back home," she says with a laugh. Still, she remembers that time as the best Thanksgiving of her life. "We held it in the backyard with all our neighbors, one big potluck," she says. "We celebrated all the families being together and thankful for what we had, not material things." Tough Start in the Big Easy Preau's jambalaya business idea didn't come to fruition right away. As New Orleans rebuilt, she took on other jobs, working for an ad agency and doing marketing for an architecture firm. Then her father came to her one day with a jambalaya rice mix he'd developed with renowned chefs Paul Prudhomme and George Rhode. "Here it is. Can you help out? I don't know what to do with it," she recalls him saying. She did. They came up with a catchy name: Cook Me Somethin' Mister, a play on the Mardi Gras entreaty to fetch beads from the passing parade ("Throw me somethin', Mister!"). She solicited the local grocery store to take one case of eight bags. At PH OTO: KR ISTEN PR EAU RE AU KRISTEN P Age: 30 :4 tomato ecialty food ya), a Creole Years in sp vious (jambala the ob pper, olive d: Other than , with salt, pe Favorite foo sissippi River Mis banks of the grown on the eans ic vinegar. g in New Orl oil and balsam my fiancé livin o celebrate e plate, thing I ate: T eir charcuteri Last great ois and had th t to Pat , hogshead s, we went ou pork rillettes for five year with boudin, Orleans dish mustard. a classic New s and Creole acter pickled pepper ll be a char cheese, I would: Sti business, running my If I weren't ow. rleans someh sistence, oting New O prom usiness: Per to a new b give it. It doesn't of advice I'd to stick with One piece 've just got You persistence. persistence, night. happen over 66 ❘ SPECIALTY FOOD MAGAZINE specialtyfood.com demos people liked it, but getting off the ground still wasn't easy. "New Orleans was my toughest market," Preau admits. "Why do we need another jambalaya mix?" she heard over and over. "There is no MSG, common in other mixes, and ingredients include dehydrated vegetables, richer in vitamin C than vegetable powder," Preau would explain of her jambalaya's unique attributes. Also, it was mild, not spicy. "It's a misconception that jambalaya has to be spicy," she says. "We believe you should be able to spice it to your taste." She would also point out that the mix was versatile, good for stuffing peppers or a flavorful dish of rice and beans. The products finally caught on. To date, more than 100 stores in six states have signed on to carry Cook Me Somethin' Mister Jambalaya Mix. Another boost came in November 2010 when Food Network host Guy Fieri featured Preau on his "Tailgate Warriors" show. No slouch herself at drawing attention, Preau sometimes enlists a group of "Yum Yum Girls" who cheer at sporting and tailgating events: "Yum, yum, come get you some!" "It's so funny, I honestly just fell into this," Preau says. "I didn't go to business school and, although I grew up in the cooking-equipment industry, I had no real culinary training or background for preparing food products. But I've always wanted to work for a company that promotes New Orleans. Even on my college resume, it was my first objective." The "Jambalaya Girl" logo came about when she was at a college alumni event where a caricaturist drew her wearing her signature yellow fork earrings, a look she'd adopted for promotional purposes and ended up sticking with for her daily life, too. She changed the packaging to reflect that image and reports, "People go to the grocery store now and ask for our mix saying, 'You know, the one with the jambalaya girl with the fork earrings.'"