11 minute read
Spice Bouquet
Adding a little spice to life
Story & Photos By Lauren Branch
These days people are so busy that cooking is becoming a thing of the past, but Frank Crowley, owner of Spice Bouquet in Kinston, believes that cooking should be a top priority for everyone.
Cooking at home has so many added benefits, according to Frank. It helps ensure that your food is healthier than fast food, lowering salt and sugar amounts, it helps you save money by cooking one meal that can last multiple days instead of buying one entree that only lasts for that meal.
Frank started cooking at an early age when he lived in his native Brooklyn, New York. He was one of five boys, and the second oldest. The oldest brother had hopes of becoming a priest, so he had other focuses in life, making Frank next in charge to help his mom out around the house. His mom was the assistant to one of Wall Street’s top dogs, and his dad was a city commissioner, so they were very busy business people and leaned on him for help with his siblings and in doing house chores. At 8 years old, he began assisting his mom in the kitchen with small tasks, such as cutting up vegetables and doing prep work on the foods his mom planned to cook. Frank remembers cutting carrots a lot and helping to prepare the meats like roasts, which he said they ate quite often because of their large family size. Crowley said he remembers how happy he was as a child after he cooked his first turkey for the family, and by about age 10, he could cook a full Sunday dinner.
Cooking family dinners and actually sitting down around a table as a family was the norm during those times, and Frank feels that it is a sad loss that we do not do those things as often anymore. “Family dinner is a history lesson and if they don’t have dinner together, they miss out on family history and getting to know your family. Where is our world going to be in 15-20 more years?” he stated during a recent cooking class.
Although Frank had an early start when it comes to his love for cooking, he has not always been in the business, although he has mostly worked in the food industry. For many years, Frank worked as a financial
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manager for international operations at General Foods, so he had his hands into foods— but just in a different capacity. That job took him all around the world. He even lived in Brazil for many years. His international travel has helped expand his taste buds and cooking styles, which is one reason people enjoy his cooking so much. He also taught history and economics at Boston College at one point.
His mother’s health began to decline, causing him to make the decision to move back to New York, so that he and his wife could help take care of her. He left his corporate job, and eventually decided to start a business, in his words, “to keep busy, and make some money.”
His spice company developed in 1984 when he hired a couple of sales reps. Someone in Canada who was having trouble with his original distributor wanted Frank and his team to give him a hand. He also knew a man that decided to move back to India but wanted to start some sort of food business. He also asked for Frank’s help. So after some research and business negotiations, Frank’s spice business began its journey.
He spoke about the process of getting spices from India, which took up to 21 days to ship to the U.S. “The spice business has certain complications, but it’s certainly a lot simpler than running an oil refinery,” he laughed.
In 2003, Frank decided to move his business to Kinston, where it still resides today. He decided to move the business to North Carolina for several reasons. One, the Long Island commute to his plant was taking between an hour and a half to two hours each way, everyday. Also, where he lived, the schools were not great and he and his wife had begun to have kids and wanted their kids to go to a good school. They looked at a couple different states when comparing.
Now 86 years old, Frank is still working with his company and even teaches cooking classes to the community. The classes began because once his rubs became popular, people would ask him a lot of questions about how to use them. As a result, he began inviting those people to his business on Saturdays, where he would do free tutorials. They became so popular that he began teaching official cooking classes.
Now, Spice Bouquet offers classes all year long. Class sizes vary anywhere between 15-30 people. Over the last five years he has been teaching the classes,
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more than 30,000 people have attended a class with him. All types of people and groups attend his classes, including church groups, businesses groups, car clubs, groups of families or friends, and even kids. Frank also works with the Kinston Chamber of Commerce and Manufacturing Association, doing things like manufacturing days to help educate youth. He participates in those activities by doing tours with the schools, but one day decided to do a class with the kids. It was a huge hit, with one child even asking to take a selfie with him. “It brightened my day,” he said. Now, classes with the middle schools and high schools are a regular occurrence. He mentioned that there are times that kids come to class not even knowing how to use a fork and knife properly. “Apparently, family dinner is passing out in our culture,” he said. “A lot of it is that we have a lot of young women with a couple of kids, and a heavy percentage of those women have to work outside of the house in order to help pay the bills.” But he believes there is a solution. “In a positive sense, with the rubs and all that we do, you can do meals quickly if you know what you’re doing.” Frank said that his original motivation for the starting the Spice Bouquet was to have a business, but after seeing the effect and the smiles on people’s faces, his motivation changed. “When you read the comments that we have ... The people really enjoy the food immensely. To see that the product and the work that you are doing is really getting a very warm reception, and doing a positive thing. It’s really a nice feeling for yourself. Plus it keeps you off the street.” When asked if he plans to retire anytime soon, Frank responded, “I turned 86 on August 1, and I can’t imagine not doing something. Not having something to get out of bed for, and to feel a degree of satisfaction at the end of the day. I just don’t know how people can do that.” During his classes, students get to taste samples throughout the two hours, and at the end, get to eat a full beutifully aranged plated meal prepared by him and his staff. One thing that Frank always says is that you have to visualize your plate before you start to cook amutjomg. “Cooking is kind of like an artform. So try to visualize the plate and cook to that so that it’s presented and is attractiv,” Frank stated. One unique thing about Frank’s cooking class that you might not expect, is that he teaches a lot about healthy eating and how to save money. He gives very detailed information on these topics. For example, he gives the price breakdown and savings on buying chicken cutlets vs. slicing your own cutlets from whole chicken breasts. He also teaches you about how much salt an average person intakes versus how much they should have per day. Frank believes in eating good but also eating healthy. The purpose of Spice Bouquet classes, according to its website, is to demonstrate techniques on how to prepare quick, easy, inexpensive, and healthy meals using Spice Bouquet rubs and seasonings. Spice Bouquet offers 120 different seasonings and blends. He even does custom blends for restaurants and businesses. They do all of the blending and packaging in house with his small staff, that he says is more like a family to him than employees. Frank Crowley and the Spice Bouquet have been adding spice to the lives of the Kinston community and beyond since 1993, and he does not plan to stop anytime soon.
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more than 30,000 people have attended a class.
All types of people and groups attend his classes, including church groups, businesses groups, car clubs, groups of families or friends, and even kids. Frank also works with the Kinston Chamber of Commerce and Manufacturing Association, doing things like manufacturing days to help educate youth. He participates in those activities by doing tours with the schools, but one day decided to do a class with the kids. It was a huge hit, with one child even asking to take a selfie with him. “It brightened my day,” he said.
Now, classes with the middle schools and high schools are a regular occurrence.
He mentioned that there are times that kids come to class not even knowing how to use a fork and knife properly. “Apparently, family dinner is passing out in our culture,” he said. “A lot of it is that we have a lot of young women with a couple of kids, and a heavy percentage of those women have to work outside of the house in order to help pay the bills.”
But he believes there is a solution. “In a positive sense, with the rubs and all that we do, you can do meals quickly if you know what you’re doing.”
Frank said that his original motivation for the starting the Spice Bouquet was to have a business, but after seeing the effect and the smiles on people’s faces, his motivation changed.
“When you read the comments that we have ... The people really enjoy the food
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immensely.
To see that the product and the work that you are doing is really getting a very warm reception, and doing a positive thing. It’s really a nice feeling for yourself. Plus it keeps you off the street.”
When asked if he plans to retire anytime soon, Frank responded, “I turned 86 on August 1, and I can’t imagine not doing something. Not having something to get out of bed for, and to feel a degree of satisfaction at the end of the day. I just don’t know how people can do that.”
During his classes, students get to taste samples throughout the two hours, and at the end, get to eat a full beutifully aranged plated meal prepared by him and his staff. One thing that Frank always says is that you have to visualize your plate before you start to cook anything.
“Cooking is kind of like an artform. So try to visualize the plate and cook to that so that it’s presented and is attractive,” Frank stated.
One unique thing about Frank’s cooking class that you might not expect, is that he teaches a lot about healthy eating and how to save money. He gives very detailed information on these topics.
For example, he gives the price breakdown and savings on buying chicken cutlets vs. slicing your own cutlets from whole chicken breasts. He also teaches you about how much salt an average person intakes versus how much they should have per day.
Frank believes in eating good but also eating healthy. The purpose of Spice Bouquet classes, according to its website, is to demonstrate techniques on how to prepare quick, easy, inexpensive, and healthy meals using Spice Bouquet rubs and seasonings.
Spice Bouquet offers 120 different seasonings and blends. He even does custom blends for restaurants and businesses. They do all of the blending and packaging in house with his small staff, which he says is like a family to him.
Frank Crowley and the Spice Bouquet have been adding spice to the lives of the Kinston community and beyond since 1993, and he doesn’t plan to stop anytime soon.
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