Peppered Personalities–A Continuing Series

Chef Ivo’s Business Gets Hotter

by David G. Jackson

It looks like a stick of TNT with a fuse ready to light. It is actually the top of the line hot "Blasting Sauce" produced by Chef Ivo Puidak in historic Galena, Illinois, the home of President Ulysses S. Grant. The sauce was the 1999 Scovie Award 1st place winner among 400 products in 43 categories. Not bad for a man who has been producing salsas and sauce for only six years.

Ivo Puidak is a big man with a big smile, a big voice, and a big way of doing cooking demonstrations that will make a believer out of you. At the National Fiery Food & Barbecue Show he stands, surrounded by all manner of cooking gear, and discusses how precise measurements are vital to cooking success. He then reaches into a sack and pulls out a handful of rub and sprinkles it on buffalo filets--which he then goes on to prepare into a gourmet dish. The crowd loves it!

Chef Ivo is the son of immigrants from the small country of Estonia. His parents settled in Chicago where they always had a large garden and he grew up savoring fresh vegetables, fruit and berries. He started cooking with his mother as a child and learned that he had a talent for food preparation, a "God-given talent," he says.

A certified executive chef for more than twenty years, Ivo attended the Culinary Institute of America in New York City and the Culinary Institute in Paris. Prior to starting his own business in Galena, he was a private chef to the Chairman of the Board and Board of Directors of the United States Federal Reserve Banks. He has served United State Presidents as well as visiting state and foreign officials. He has also cooked for major restaurants around the country. "Seafoods and pastries were my specialties," he said, "and I always chose the freshest foods possible, even gathering vegetables from local gardens." In addition, he has been a martial arts instructor and served as a security officer for 20th Century Fox where he was a bodyguard for celebrities.

In 1993, he and his wife Shelly moved to Galena to open a bed and breakfast, which didn’t work out. His wife does consulting work in Chicago and when Ivo was left alone, he started cooking various kinds of sauces and jams which many people asked him to can for sale. "I noticed that there was this wonderful old town and no one was making Grandma’s old fashioned canned goods. I rode my bike up to the Walsh Hardware Store and bought canning jars and equipment and went around to local farmers for produce and started the Galena Canning Company."

Local people bought the products as fast as he could make them. "I tried my hand at the Farmers Market on Saturdays at the Market House (state historical site), setting up my card table, putting out samples and letting people try them. I sold out every Saturday. Then came Country Fair Weekend (Columbus Day Weekend annually), and I had worked non-stop for weeks on end making salsas, pasta sauce, and old fashioned butters. When we set up our booth at the Market House my wife (who was five month pregnant) said that she would go home to rest and to get some lunch and coffee. When she returned with the meal, I was half asleep, having canned all night. She said that I would have to wake up to serve the customers. I had sold out everything in four and a half hours. People were buying it by the case and bag full!" And the phone hasn’t stopped ringing since then.

He needed a base for his operations. "I found a wonderful couple that owned the Galena Wine and Cheese Store. They helped me to develop the first labels for the product line. We started off with two products--Baja Salsa and Chunky Garden Vegetable Pasta Sauce. We then went to ten products and now we have 85 -- some of which are seasonal," he said.

"When I began to develop my product line, I found out about the National Fiery-Foods & Barbecue Show and attended the College of Chile Knowledge. I learned that people want flavor with the heat and I have been on a major learning curve over the past five years," said Ivo. "When I launched Blasting Sauce, I recognized that it had to have great packaging so that it could be easily identified on the shelf." He has eight employees, some seasonal.

Ivo does almost no advertising. He deals with small specialty grocery stores and gourmet shops in 20 states. He chooses the people he wants to sell his products and works closely with them. "I am careful how and where I sell. Most of my outlets are in small towns and I like to keep our products exclusive to a given location in a specific market," he said. He also has significant sales in Europe, Canada, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, and Australia. Almost 25 percent of his line is hot and spicy and those products are among his best sellers.

"We have our own canning company so that I can make smaller batches and turn inventory in 21 days. This is important for seasonal items such as those using strawberries, apples, and cranberries. I want to keep my products as fresh as possible so, I supervise the preparation of each batch which I taste it before it is canned. Most of my products are fat free," said Ivo.

Ivo is continually experimenting with improving current products and inventing new products. "I have a new modern kitchen to work in because my wife told me to get out of our house after I burned up the second kitchen stove," he said with a laugh.

The company has a product list, but is considering publishing a catalog. He has been a guest chef on a number of TV programs and enjoys cooking in public. His products include salsas, pasta sauces, barbecue sauces, chile, relish, pickles, hot sauces, mustards, jams/jellies, fruit butters, toppings, flavored oils, and flavored vinegars.

"These products have won many awards at food shows all over the country and I am proud to have my name on them. I know that we will continue to provide quality foods and grow as we go," said Chef Ivo Puidak, who took small town products into a national market.

Galena Canning Company

2113 West Grace

Chicago, IL 60618

733/935-3884

Fax 773/477-5627

Galenacan@aol.com

Peppered Personality last time: CaJohn

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