The Spice & Tea Exchange Taps Flavorful Franchisee as Corporate Chef
Spice Connoisseur Stefan Pickerel to Expand Flavor Profiles, In-Store
Cooking Experiences
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The Spice & Tea Exchange®, a gourmet, experience-based store offering an
extensive selection of spices and exclusive hand-mixed blends,
naturally-flavored sugars, salts and exotic teas from around the world,
has tapped one of its own passionate franchisees – global spice maven
Stefan Pickerel – to fill its newly created position of Corporate Chef.
As an experience-based store, The Spice & Tea Exchange encourages
hands-on interaction with the spices and teas, allowing guests to open
the jars and smell aromas. Knowledgeable store staff helps guests create
custom blends and empowers them to take their creativity to the kitchen
at home. Among his primary roles, “Chef Stefan” will work to enhance
these in-store educational experiences, develop proprietary recipes and
create new custom spice blends for the 50+ store growing national
franchise.
Each store carries more than 140 spices, over 85 hand-mixed seasoning
blends, 17 naturally-flavored sugars, 25 salts from around the world,
and more than 35 exotic teas. The Spice & Tea Exchange also offers
recipes, gift boxes and accessories to complement the spice and tea
selections.
“Chef Stefan is not only extremely knowledgeable about flavor profiles,
but also one of our most enthusiastic in-store educators,” said CEO Amy
Freeman. “He was the perfect candidate for the Corporate Chef role to
help inspire our system to live our brand mission of `Creating & Sharing
the Experience of a More Flavorful Life.’”
Raised in a New York restaurant family, Chef Stefan Pickerel spent
several years traveling the world and experiencing the culinary riches
of more than 65 countries. With a gained understanding of how to enjoy
the world’s diverse flavor profiles, the ability to adapt culinary
techniques into everyday teachings became his true passion. As a
co-owner of The Spice & Tea Exchange Portland and The Spice & Tea
Exchange of San Francisco, and having attended advanced studies with San
Francisco’s renowned Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Academy, San Francisco
Baking Institute and S.F. Cooking School, Pickerel was a perfect fit to
help lead and implement new culinary initiatives.
As one of his first initiatives as Corporate Chef, Pickerel will help
refine and introduce an innovative new line of products that’s currently
being tested in a handful of stores. This line of products will provide
guests with video demonstrations of various recipes that can be created
with the brand’s custom spice blends. All recipes will be supported by a
“Come Cook with Us” instructional online video section, which will
showcase “How-To” and “Tips & Tricks” videos.
“Working with our customers is always a humbling experience,” Pickerel
said. “We unite all of the world’s most exotic flavors, and help make
them more accessible and understandable for our guests to use in their
kitchens as they recreate their favorite and new dishes. I’m not here to
recreate the wheel. Rather my goal is to latch on to our current
momentum and steer it towards the most dynamic and diverse flavors
possible to provide a more flavorful, valuable experience for our
guests.”
About The Spice & Tea Exchange
The Spice & Tea Exchange® was founded in 2008 with a vision to create a
one-of-a-kind retail shopping experience. The company has 50+ franchise
stores across the United States, providing guests with more than 140
spices, 85 exclusive hand-mixed blends, over 30 exotic
teas, naturally-flavored sugars, salts from around the world, gourmet
gifts and accessories. For more information, visit https://www.spiceandtea.com/. For
franchising information, visit http://franchise.spiceandtea.com/.
Contacts
Fishman Public Relations
Alissa Stevens, 847-945-1300
astevens@fishmanpr.com
