Hot Potato

Hot Potato: Jenny’s Delectables Finds Success

Many small businesses grow out of a “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade” situation. When Jennifer Kohut lost her job in Calgary’s oil and gas sector as a result of Alberta’s economic downturn, rather than lemonade, she started making stuffed potatoes.

In 2016, Kohut started Jenny’s Delectables, a grass-roots business that came about through a combination of necessity, opportunity, and a genuine love of delicious and wholesome food. Having grown up on a farm, Kohut says she’s always had a “profound respect” for food and the people who grow it, but was always too busy with corporate work to pursue professional training or work in the food industry. But with no immediate opportunities in the energy industry available, she decided to build a new career for herself.

Kohut found that new calling in the world of potatoes. It seemed like an unlikely choice — there are plenty of frozen potato options in grocery stores and they’re a relatively easy vegetable to prepare from scratch — but she figured that starting with something she loved and was often praised for, made good business sense.

“I also have two young boys to feed, support and be a mom to,” Kohut says. “I had been making twice-baked potatoes for years and everyone always loved them and complimented them relentlessly, so one day while sitting down to dinner the idea was presented to sell these potatoes.”

Kohut’s friends and family thought that her stuffed potatoes were good enough to sell, which is a common compliment thrown at home cooks, but in this case, they were absolutely right. She booked a booth at the Bearspaw Farmers Market and showed up with

BY ELIZABETH CHORNEY-BOOTH

a batch of frozen potatoes. Customers who sampled the potatoes couldn’t resist them, and Kohut almost immediately sold out of product. She expanded to do more markets and within a matter of weeks was making a sustainable income for herself.

To anyone who has tried the potatoes from Jenny’s Delectables, Kohut’s instant success isn’t all that surprising. Creamy and stuffed with ingredients like smoked bacon, chives, and cheddar, the potatoes have a comforting, homemade taste. Again, most home cooks can prepare regular baked or boiled potatoes without much fuss, but twice-baked potatoes can be fairly labour intensive, so the convenience factor has definitely worked in Kohut’s favour. Jenny’s Delectables products are made almost entirely with locally sourced produce

and Kohut also prides herself on using natural ingredients. She stays away from preservatives and additives, and air seals her products after freezing to prevent freezer burn.

“We want the best quality and the best results for you when you put them on the table,” Kohut says. “Our product is not easy to make and by having a product that is natural, local and high in quality, it not only tastes amazing but it is extremely convenient for the customer to simply pop in the oven from frozen or barbecue without all the prep and work to create it themselves.”

Since those early farmers’ market days, Jenny’s Delectables has grown substantially. In addition to markets and boutique food stores all over the province, Kohut’s products are available in Freson Bros. stores and all Calgary Co-op stores. When Kohut got the Co-op order, she needed to make a substantial investment in staffing and equipment to keep up with production, but says that even though the quantity has changed, she still makes the potatoes exactly like she always has, and hasn’t had to sacrifice quality. She’s also expanded her product line, with eight varieties of her Gourmet Stuff’d potatoes (with standard flavours like cheese and broccoli, and cheddar and dill, as well as flashier varieties like the crab-stuffed “King”) plus complementary products like loaded potato skins, shepherd’s pie, and pierogies with fillings similar to the stuffed potatoes.

With people sticking closer to home because of the pandemic, and everyone in need of some comfort food, there’s no stopping Jenny’s Delectables these days. Kohut is in the midst of a renovation of her commercial kitchen with new freezers and packing equipment to facilitate her continued growth, with plans to expand into a separate distribution centre next year. The products are currently in about 80 stores across Alberta, but Kohut expects to hit 250 stores in the province within the next year with the possibility of moving into Saskatchewan and BC before long.

“It’s very difficult to plan the growth of something that seems to have a mind

of its own, and is in constant growth and constant restructuring. It takes a lot of logistics to keep the product moving,” Kohut says. “We always joke wondering where we will be 12 months from now and then we look back to where we were 12 months ago. It has been an amazing journey.”

Cookbook author and regular contributor to CBC Radio, Elizabeth is a Calgary-based freelance writer, who has been writing about music and food, and just about everything else for her entire adult life.