They could stand the heat, but time came for this mother-daughter business duo to get out of the kitchen

BY LUCY HAINES

Many of us grow up cooking with our parents, stirring and tasting, experimenting with flavours. For Calgary's Natalia Lazic, it was all that and more. “My dad would stick a chili pepper in my mouth when I was two,” she laughs. “I love spicy.”

Embracing her family's Yugoslavian roots and her mom Anna's stove-side advice, the registered dietician has parlayed her love of experimenting in the kitchen with a love of all things spicy - and become an accidental entrepreneur in the process.

As happens with the invention of many a good thing, the creation of Seven Spice Chili Oil came out of necessity about five years ago, when Lazic's search for a highquality chili oil came up short. “Every item I looked at had crappy ingredients or MSG, which I don't tolerate well,” she remembers. “I thought, why am I looking so hard?”

Retreating to her kitchen, the foodie mixed up her own blend of favourite aromatic ingredients - garlic, oil, pepper flakes, coconut and spices - a total of seven ingredients in all: hence the product name. And, voila. What started as jarred offerings of the tasty condiment to friends and family to use as a marinade or in stir fry, stews, soups, and meats, has found growing sales at farmers' markets and in an expanding line of local and across-Alberta retail shops.

“I never planned to bring the product to market. Mom was in the background cooking, and for two years we just kept giving out jars as gifts,” she says. “People were asking for cases of the stuff. We were doing once-a-week cooking/jarring sessions when finally, mom said, ‘We can't keep doing this. I'm not cooking anymore.’ That's when things changed. We decided to go all out, saying “maybe we have something here.”

Going ‘all out’ for Lazic has meant sourcing product labels, creating a website to sustain online ordering (sevenspice.com) and researching how to expand beyond the family kitchen. One solution was found a few hours drive away, at the Agrivalue Processing Business Incubator in Leduc. The site supports new food businesses like Seven Spice with the equipment, space and workers needed to upscale a business.

In a day, the Leduc facility can produce Lazic's monthly requirements of about 4,000 jars of mild, hot and extra hot chili oil (227 g). Lazic credits her advisors from Alberta Agriculture for encouraging her to take the product to farmers’ markets: it has been a boon for sales and a great avenue for growing public awareness about the product, she says.

The processing plant was also the site of a ‘lesson learned’, says Lisac. An early batch that went through production was found to have been made with chilis, “with zero heat. Now I always taste the peppers first.” Still, Lazic and the team made the best of it, slapping a ‘mild’ sticker on that batch of jars, and putting that variety into the lineup. The mild version of Seven Spice variety has now become as popular as the hot. “Another happy accident,” laughs Lazic.

Family friend, Renaissance man (spoken word artist, science major etc) and people-person Fred Holliss works many a summer weekend market for Lazic. Another spice lover introduced to the creation early on, Ellis says the product practically sells itself to buyers of all ages—thus far it’s mostly foodies, mostly women - so his job is simply to encourage market-goers to give it a try.

“We offer a sample on bread, pasta or rice; it's shelf stable and great at room temperature or warm. Three of four people who try it will buy it, often several jars of it,” Holliss says. “And regulars come back to suggest what they do with the chili oil, from putting it on eggs or roast vegetables, mixing it with soya sauce for a dumpling dip or even with peanut butter for a Thai-style sauce. There's all sorts of hot sauces out there, but we aren't competing in the heat wars, rather in the flavour wars. I love the stuff. I’m not precious about it; I put it on everything. And I'm proud of the work Natalia and her mom have done.”

Often associated with Asian cuisine, chili oils are a growing part of the market thanks to the mainstreaming of international flavours. “Garlic, chilis, coconut, sesame - these ingredients work so well together and they don't have to overpower the food; just complement it,” Lazic says. “And it's not just for Asian food; put it on pizza, on perogies - there's not a day goes by that I don't use it.”

The go-getter has other goals too, which she pursues through product demos at specialty grocers, meetings with supermarket management and more. Lazic admits she's trying to take her business to the next level, and that's about distribution, she asserts and, maybe...even an attempt at getting on Dragon's Den. “The lady who founded Kicking Horse Coffee reached out to me too - there's big decisions I'd have to make to take it to the next level.”

She's off to a good start, as Seven Spice Ltd. hits new targets. The chili oil was recently named a ‘best of’ product by Avenue Magazine (Calgary) and is on the shelves of Co-op stores, Safeway/Sobeys and soon, Save On Foods. And in addition to Holliss getting word out at markets and special events, Lazic has brought on Evencia Thornhill to help with social media and other marketing of the product.

And the dietician in her has served Lazic's business well, too. Pointing to the far less sodium in her all-natural condiment - just 30 mg of sodium per teaspoon - there's also just a scant bit of sugar to balance the salty flavour. Compare that to ketchup or sriracha (with higher sugar/sodium contents),

Lazic is confident her product is on trend with how the market and Canadian palates are evolving.

“This is my passion and if I can grow the business, I'll quit my day job. That's the goal,” she adds. “I've always loved to create in the kitchen; I'm still shocked I made this product.”

The next big step would mean leaving her day job at a pharmaceutical company, one she's had for over 20 years. No doubt, Lazic will turn to her company co-founder, counsellor, fellow cook and advice-giver, mom Anna, for when to take the leap. “I hope I will be alive to see our oil be like ketchup in every house,” adds Anna.