Chef Amy

Chef Amy’s Next Great Adventure

Staff_Profile_AmyWe’ve got exciting news about AllSpice Manager, Chef Amy.

It’s exciting news that, for the rest of us, is also kind of sad news.

Our Chef Amy is leaving AllSpice — she’s leaving the country, actually — and heading off soon on a big adventure.

What’s going on? “The short version is that my husband, AJ, was offered a position with Amazon EU. We felt that while we love our lives in Des Moines, the opportunity to live abroad shouldn’t be passed up! So, we have put our house on the market and are set to move later this month (Anyone looking to buy in Altoona?! Eh?).”

Where are you moving? “We’re moving to Luxembourg City, which is (no surprise) the capital of Luxembourg.”
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A grateful goodbye to Chef Amy: a note from AllSpice owner Rory Brown

Alessandra_Easter_Brunch_Amy_Rory_Lemon_tartFor almost a half decade, Amy Kenny (to us, affectionately known as Chef Amy) has been managing AllSpice in the East Village.

Half a decade! — that’s a ton of Saturday Samples served, weekly recipes written, monthly work schedules arranged, labels written, and so much more to keep this shop running like a well-oiled machine.

Chef Amy: our secret weapon. Most of all, Amy has been amazingly organized. She has, without fail, kept everyone on the staff moving in the right direction so that we could be prepared for events: Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day, the contests at the Iowa State Fair, our annual party in October, November Promenade, and busiest of all, Christmas.

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A chat with Chef Amy

Alessandra_Easter_Brunch_Amy_blowtorchingWe asked Chef Amy: What ingredients are in heavy rotation in your kitchen right now?

Chef Amy: Cape Cod Seasoning is the popular item in my house at the moment. Works great for a quick and slightly spicy tilapia sandwich.

Otherwise we eat a lot of the chile oils (Baklouti Green Chile Oil and Cayenne Chile Olive Oil).

What sort of recipes do you make with that?

Chef Amy: We use the chili oils for our eggs, homemade fries, veggies, and to coat anything we’re about to grill.

And we recently switched to roasting asparagus with the Butternut Squash Seed Oil and finishing it with a coarse salt – it’s an easy fix, and IT’S SO GOOD! – Rory tipped me off to that trick.

And, I can’t forget my favorite – I really love Vanilla Paste. It goes on anything and everything sweet: frostings, granola, coffee drinks, yogurt, pies and pastries, whipped creams.

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Chef Amy: 2014 surpises, samples, and staff

Chef Amy created a party menu of sweet, salty and savory bites, including salad (with specially chosen oils and balsamics!), just perfect with Alessandra's olive focaccia.
Chef Amy created a party menu of sweet, salty and savory bites, including salad (with specially chosen oils and balsamics!), just perfect with Alessandra’s olive focaccia.

As we look to kicking off the new year, Chef Amy has some reflections on the highlights and surprises of the past year at AllSpice:

Holiday surprises. That Double Chocolate gift bag was the surprise gift bag of the season for me. We knew folks would like it (who doesn’t like hot cocoa, marshmallows, and a chocolate bar? I mean, really.), but folks really, really liked it, way more than we ever would have dreamed they would!

While like Rory said the ready-to-give Barnyard set, the popular Pop!corn seasoning collections, and our newer gift boxes all sold well, many of our customers got creative and put together their own “favorite things” gift box. We saw lots of people assembling salt assortments – this may be the next new trend?

Looking back on this past year, it also seemed as though the oils and balsamic vinegars literally flew out of the store. It’s fun to get the inside scoop from our regular, repeat customers about what they are buying and why. Many folks are coming back for extras to share their favorite ingredients with their friends and families; other customers come back time and again because they’re using AllSpice products primarily in their everyday cooking.
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AllSpice Staffers Spill State Fair Judging ‘Secrets’

Looking back, how do you think the AllSpice contests went?

AllSpice co-Manager, Chef Amy said, “Overall, I think the fair was a big success! We were thrilled that we had such a great turnout!

“We really appreciated everyone who took the effort to participate. Some of the entries were *really* good, and we had a lot of fun trying them all.”

So, how does event-judging work? How did you choose the winners? Did you get to confer and share your opinions before deciding?

AllSpice Staffer Denise helped judge several of the contests, and described the experience this way: “We were not allowed to confer during the judging and had a volunteer “writer” between each of us writing down our comments. They were lovely ladies who had helped run the event for years. They were very helpful to this ‘judging virgin.’

“We had to score each entrant on 3 or 4 criteria, depending on the class.   Even we didn’t really know who had won until the ‘secret’ results were tallied. ”

Were you surprised by any of the results?

Chef Amy said, “Usually we were mostly in agreement on the top choice, but for sure we were in accord about the top two picks in each contest.”

Denise agreed. “We ended up 3-for-3 in the events I judged, with each of us ending up giving the highest combined marks to the same entrant.  How clever are we!!”

Curious about which recipes won their respective classes? Check out the list of blue-ribbon winners right here.

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