Springfield Chef Creates Line of Fresh Seasonings
Springfield, MA — It can be a challenge to give extra flavor to a meal at home, especially in a healthy way. Chef Sheena Colgram has made it simpler with her line of spice and herb mixes called 10:13 Seasonings. The seasonings are dried, mixed and packaged by hand so that every bottle has the freshest vitamins and nutrients possible.
As a chef she noticed that customers didn’t always know how to add spices and seasonings to their home cooking. Colgram wanted to make food preparation easier while introducing new flavors that customers might not have tried.
“People are accustomed to eating certain things,” she said. “I’m going to take them outside of their comfort zone into a different realm.”
Experimenting with different flavors is nothing new to Colgram. She has a way of imagining a taste before she creates a recipe. She experiments to find the correct levels of ingredients until the result is what she imagined.
“Once I get to that taste, I already had the taste in my mind, so I know it’s right,” she said.
Cooking has always been a part of her
Cooking is something that interested her even as a child. Colgram recalls combining grass and different shades of dirt to get the right mixture. An interest in creating things that appeal to the eyes and nose has always been a part of her.
While attending culinary school she simultaneously worked as a restaurant chef, giving her an enormous amount of hands-on experience.
“I already had a lot of (the skill) inside of me,” she added. “Being able to learn technique with the creativity I already had, it just made me explode.”
A seasoning for every season
Colgram will soon be adding two new flavors to her current selection. All Herbs is her take on an Italian blend using a wider variety of spices than traditionally packaged products. Herbs n Friends is a blend of spices. Her variety and freshness of products give the customer something unique.
“If I’m making something that tastes like what’s already on the shelf, why would you support me?” she said.
The seasonings are sold at Pulse Café in Hadley where Colgram serves as chef. They’re also available through her website, 1013bychefsheen.com. Many have no sodium and all are preservative-free. Each bottle carries a different scripture to remind customers that they are loved, valued and not alone.
“I believe that we are the salt of the Earth, and we all should be doing good,” she said. “Sometimes people need to be reminded of that.”
The meaning behind the name
Her company is named 10:13 for her birthday, October 13. It’s a birthdate that is shared with her uncle who passed away in 2004. The date runs deep in her soul, and Colgram always told herself she’d have that date as part of a future business enterprise.
Friends and family made this year’s birthday more special by purchasing a 10 hour advertising campaign for 10:13 Seasonings on the Stand Out Truck. And they also surprised her with a separate birthday celebration with Stand Out Truck on her birthday.
It’s the support of her family and friends that has helped Colgram create her blends and help inspire her to keep trying new things.
“I’m not cooking and making things for me, I’m making them for other people,” she said.
To learn more about Chef Sheena and to purchase some of her delicious seasonings visit her website at: www.1013bychefsheen.com
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