The Cajun Spoon

Alone in his food truck, shaking a basket of fries as 2014 erupted into 2015, Ryan Grizzaffi was determined that next New Year’s would find him someplace different. He had a popular catering venture, The Cajun Spoon, that helped support his first love of playing music, but he wanted to grow. “So what can I do for next year where we’ll be in a better spot?” he recalled thinking. “Where we’ll have more people involved? How can I make a difference?” Grizzaffi went home that night with thoughts of scalability, preparing jambalaya in bulk, and positive company culture swimming in his head.

One year later, Grizzaffi was father to a brand-new baby girl, and he and his fiancée (now wife) Kristen Seneca were set to launch The Cajun Spoon boxed seasoning mixes onto grocery store shelves. Now in 2017, The Cajun Spoon can be found in stores across the country—including in close to 400 Walmarts. I sat down with Grizzaffi (and his daughter Amelia) recently to talk about family, the value of great packaging, keeping his customers’ secrets, and winning over Walmart while maintaining authenticity. Find excerpts below.

On scaling the business

I essentially started the catering business coming from being a broke musician working little restaurant jobs, but I sank everything into my passion. I’ve pretty much always done that. I wanted to do more wholesale. Instead of doing briskets and pizzas or croissants, different things like that, I thought, let’s do just gumbo and just jambalaya and just be good at those. I found a manufacturer that I believe is the best here in the state, Southern Seasonings in Broussard. We ended up deciding to do retail.

During the time we were developing those products [Jambalaya, Gumbo, Shrimp & Corn Bisque, and Chicken & Dumplings], it was like no turning back when we found out we were having Amelia. Oh my gosh, this really has to work because we’re investing all this money into this project. We’ve got a little one coming, so what the heck are we going to do?

So it had to work. It was fairly expensive getting into the manufacturing process and paying for the cartons and everything. And doing that while we were still continuing the catering. I had money out everywhere trying to make this work. I had to make sure I could provide for this new addition on top of this new addition to the company. It’s like having two children at the same time, and I have to nurture both. But one’s definitely more important.

On consumer feedback

Everything has been very positive. I get people from all over the country who email in and they’ll say, “I picked up a box of your chicken and dumpling mix at the store and I just wanted to tell you that it really reminds me of my grandmother’s recipe.” It’s just how you want people to receive your product. To actually get emails about it. Or to have someone call me. I’ve had these little old ladies out in the middle of nowhere call me and say, “I just wanted to say that it’s a very good mix.”

People ask, “What can I add to it?” I encourage all my customers: these are bases. You can add whatever you want to it! That’s the beauty of Cajun food. You can put whatever you want in it. You don’t have to season it much. The seasoning and flavors we enjoy are in there. Or they’ll give me suggestions for what they’d like us to make. We’ve put up recipes online, like, “You can cook our product like this and it comes out like this.” For the chicken and dumplings, we have a recipe to convert it into a pot pie, using the same mix. Just a third of it. You can put that with your chicken, make a base, and then pour it into a pie crust and bake it. It comes out wonderfully. We made a turkey pot pie with Thanksgiving turkey we had.

Oh my gosh, this really has to work because we’re investing all this money into this project. We’ve got a little one coming, so what the heck are we going to do?

I get calls fairly often during the week, every week. Especially during the cold season. Gumbo’s flying off the shelf. People say, “Man, I usually make one from scratch, but having one ready, in this amount of time when we’re having folks come over really makes it easier, and it’s good.” Or a lot of people will call and tell me they really enjoy it, and they say, “I have to tell you—because I feel bad not telling someone—that I cook this and I tell people it’s my own.” I say, “That’s totally fine. Just buy more product. We’ll call it even.”

On his music

My whole dream is to build this company, scale it to where I can get back to music. I want to pass it on. I want to build and pave a way for someone who shares my vision to continue the culture that we have and enjoy the atmosphere. For a while, even being busy, I’ve always tried to maintain that commitment to music at the same time. I knew I was going to get really busy, but I love playing. I have to play music. For me, it’s stress relieving. Outside of my family, there’s nothing else that gives me that bliss.

Or a lot of people will call and tell me they really enjoy it, and they say, “I have to tell you—because I feel bad not telling someone—that I cook this and I tell people it’s my own.”

I write a fair bit of music. I’d say the guitarist in my band [The Axes of Evil] does a fair bit of composition as well. I love his style of everything he does. I think we complement each other well. I like adding my layer of what I write to what he does. He’s a beast at writing. [Our band] simulates a 1980s Viking or heavy metal band. We sound like Iron Maiden/ It’s a lot of dual guitar solos. None of this screaming metal stuff that’s nowadays. You go and see us and it’s like you’re going back in time.

On taste tests

I’ve always done everything from scratch. Everything. Growing up, that’s just how we always cooked—well, my mother would cheat here and there. (You can put that in, she’d find that funny.) I’ve always appreciated creating from scratch. But now I’m putting my name on a product that’s a box. How can I make it booming, I-can’t-believe-it-came-out-of-a-box? The only professional taste panel I’ve had is family and friends. I got all of them to try it for months. I’m very critical. I don’t want to hear any positive stuff about it! I want a non-biased opinion. Tell me if it’s got too much black pepper. I love black pepper, so that’s by far my favorite thing, so I hope it’s not too peppery for people.

I’ve always appreciated creating from scratch. But now I’m putting my name on a product that’s a box. How can I make it booming, I-can’t-believe-it-came-out-of-a-box?

We have more ingredients per capita than most other companies on the shelf. Most companies use a 9-1 ratio of rice and spice, 9 being the rice and 1 being the spice, where we’re more of an 8-2. We’ve got lower sodium, no MSG. We source the best ingredients we can to get the ingredients to sell. I did a fair amount of research analyzing nutritional facts from all my competitors all over the country, not just this market. What are people on the West Coast and East Coast wanting with sodium content or expecting with that kind of stuff, depending on the demographic? We came up with really good recipes that worked. Wow, I can taste this in it. I can taste this in it. After doing thousands of demos, I’ve confirmed that with myself that the research we did was very beneficial.

On giving back

To sweeten the whole deal—and something that was the purpose of the whole beginning of this project—is that we donate a meal for every box that we sell. I wanted to figure out some kind of one-for-one thing, like TOMS was doing. That aspect of giving back to the community. We’ve been able to apply that with Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank and other organizations. We did a bunch of flood relief, and all kinds of meals over the last two and a half years. Now we donate to a scholarship program through LSU for the agriculture department, to send kids to college to learn more about what we do and about other great things in Louisiana.

On getting into Walmart

Walmart wants to see the volume, what your turnovers are, they want to see that you can produce orders. Where’s your footprint right now in the market?

After Rouse’s, we got into Winn Dixie. We went on into being in Market Basket, Mac’s Fresh Market, Brookshire’s, and a lot of independent stores. Walmart thought, “Hey, let’s take a chance on you guys.” They picked up every single one of my products. They put me into every single Walmart in the country that has a Cajun section.

They wanted me to make some changes at first. They liked the labels, but they thought they could be brighter. We liked our designs, but that’s what we had scaled for the local market. But with the national market, I can’t talk to people far away, so I really need to make my box stand out. We made the changes Walmart suggested. On these boxes, it shows our other products. It tells our story on the back, which is most important. Before, we had a story on the back, but this one shows more of our one-for-one [meal donation] policy. It shows how many it serves and when it’s ready. It’s all-inclusive. It’s like I’m there, on the shelf, saying “This is what we’ve got! Check this out over here!” I wanted to make sure it popped. They took it. They went out on a limb for us, and they gave us that shot. I was thinking just a few stores and we went nationwide.

On putting Cajun cooking in a box

The best part about Cajun food is the slow process, when you can really spend time in your kitchen, make a good gumbo and it takes you all day. How will I translate that into three easy steps that take under an hour?

They went out on a limb for us, and they gave us that shot. I was thinking just a few stores and we went nationwide.

With our gumbo, the flour is already browned. A lot of people make a quick roux by putting flour in the oven to brown. Then we have dehydrated oil that’s in there. So you’ve got our oil, you’ve got your browned flour. We have all our seasonings, but if you add it all together and add in water, it wouldn’t have the right color. So to get your gumbo color, the trick is to add caramel. Not caramel as a flavor, caramel as a color. It’s an all-natural color additive, so the more caramel you add to it, the darker it is, the less the lighter. Literally, it’s tasteless. But it’s a natural ingredient. So I had to take caramel, weigh it out on a scale and see how much per volume I was adding to a serving to figure out how dark I wanted the gumbo according to how dark it is when I make it from scratch. That took forever getting it right. But we got the color we wanted. With the ingredients, there’s a lot of dehydrated vegetables in there. These bell peppers and celery and stuff. This is straight out of the box. You can see how they’ll fluff up. You’ve got all the natural stuff you put in your gumbo, and we put a lot of it. It’s finding the best quality thick cut, cross cut veggies we could stock in there. Then as you cook it, on medium-low heat, it thickens up as you stir it. And it comes out to exactly how I cook my gumbo.

On three new products

We have a Shrimp & Grits, which is very unique. I don’t think there’s really a shrimp and grits recipe out there in retail at all. And now we’ll have Brown Gravy and Fruit Cobbler. A lot of emails have said, “We’d love for y’all to do a dessert.” So we’re going to do fruit cobbler to start out with. We’ve got a bread pudding. We’ve got some praline ideas—you can make your own pralines. King cakes. We’re looking at getting into more of the sides and unique entree ideas. You might see a pot pie box soon. But you can see those three new products in January—they’ll be at all the Walmarts. And we’ve got them approved into Rouse’s and Winn Dixie’s. And we’ll be gradually getting them into all the other stores that we’re currently servicing. I’m excited. Moreso because I feel like they’re more year-round items whereas the other boxes are more winter items.

On Kristen’s design work

It’s just my wife and I that run this business. She does everything visual. I do all the logistics and sales. And oh my goodness, none of this would be possible without my wife. As I’ve grown through this process, I’ve realized my real strengths. And my wife has really made, literally, the vision appear. She’s very talented, graphically, and she’s got an incredible eye for design and for whatever people will accept, not just her own thoughts. She really puts time and care into making the boxes look good. Making us look good. I love my wife. She’s played such a critical role, more than anyone in this process. Not only holding the company vision together, but holding me together all through this.

thecajunspoon.com