Lisa Trifiro wasn’t always a foodie. But after discovering the excitement of trying new dishes, she launched a business that encourages others to take the same leap.
Trifiro opened Orcas Alchemy just over a month ago with 16 gourmet food products, and her artisan sugars and salts are already in several San Juan County stores and in gourmet shops in Seattle and California.
“I wanted to express my passion for food,” she said. “And I wanted to incorporate Orcas into the brand.”
Trifiro offers organic pure cane sugar infused with such flavors as Tahitian vanilla bean, ginger, raspberry, lemon, caramelized onion, habanero, and chili pepper verde. The sugars are packaged in 3.2 oz. glass jars and finished with handmade tissue paper and colorful Japanese Mizuhiki cord.
The sugars are all under $10, but she also sells a chef grade black truffle salt with flakes of 23-carat edible gold leaf, which at $30 per 1.5-oz bottle, is considered the “world’s most expensive salt.”
“A friend recently told me, ‘the black truffle salt would make a rock taste good,'” Trifiro said.
She also sells racks of specialty salts with different themes (flavors range from roasted garlic to Thai ginger), and has just put the finishing touches on her own version of Ras al hanout, a 17-ingredient Moroccan spice blend that means “top shelf.”
As the mother of a two-year-old son, Alexander, she feels lucky to mostly work from home.
“As a mom, it’s great to work out of the house,” Lisa said. “I use the commercial kitchen at Orcas Center for infusions and packing, but I run the business from the house.”
Her husband Matt Trifiro, who is CEO of 1000markets.com, an online community of artisan marketplaces, also has a home office. A professionally trained chef, Matt is the one responsible for igniting Lisa’s culinary fire.
“After reading ‘The Man who ate Everything’ by Jeffrey Steingarten, we established a rule to go out of our way to taste everything, including foods we thought we wouldn’t like,” she said. “I used to be a safe eater, but then I became exposed to new foods and experiences.”
The Trifiros moved to Orcas from Miami in 2006, and Lisa originally wanted to launch her business with a line of trail mixes named after Orcas locations like Cascade Lake and Obstruction Pass. She decided to move forward with sugars and spices instead, but would still like to offer trail mixes in the future.
Her ultimate business goal is to sell her products in Whole Foods Market and PCC Natural Market.
“I want to encourage people that instead of bringing a bottle of wine to a dinner, bring a gift of specialty sugar or black truffle salt,” she said.
Where to buy
Orcas Alchemy products can be purchased at the Orcas Village Store and Aesthetica; Chimayo and the soon-to-open Madrona Bar and Grill use the sugars and salts in their restaurants. To buy the products online, go to www.orcasalchemy.com.
