DDO seafood entrepreneur feeds kelp caviar to Dragons
Is it something in the water? The Dragons of Dragons’ Den might well have been pondering just that as they listened to a pitch from the third company from the West Island to appear on the popular CBC Television reality show this season.
Naor Cohen, general manager of the Dollard-des-Ormeaux-based Imperial Caviar & Seafood, delivers his pitch Wednesday at 8 p.m.
So why are so many West Island companies making it onto the show?
“I guess we’re good at convincing people,” Cohen said with a laugh. “I watch the show all the time and it’s not just companies from the West Island. Companies from (throughout the island) are making it onto the show, too.”
Cohen’s company produces vegetarian caviar made from kelp and sustainable, Canadian-farmed, Breviro sturgeon caviar.
The seaweed caviar is eye- catching, coming in brilliant colours and flavours like chili, truffle, wasabi, ginger and balsamic as well as familiar flavours that mimic red and black fish-egg caviar.
Cohen, with the help of his cousin Liz Cohen, served the Dragon judges the kelp and the sturgeon caviar with Veuve Clicquot champagne.
“They tried them all,” Cohen said.
Cohen cannot reveal what happened before the show airs, but the idea was to get at least one of the business titans on the judging panel to invest.
Cohen bought an existing seafood and caviar company and rebranded it in 2012. In February 2013, he lined up with about 150 other entrepreneurs for the Montreal auditions, in front of the show’s producers at Concordia University. If the producers like your pitch, you go to Toronto for a taping. But that doesn’t necessarily mean your segment will make it to air.
“You’re told that you have to give a show,” Cohen said.
“They look at the ratings, above all else.”
You also sign an agreement that allows the producers to do what they will with whatever footage is filmed from the minute you walk into the Toronto studio.
Cohen is aware that editing of segments can get creative, possibly shaping the entrepreneur’s experience in ways he or she isn’t expecting. Close to 60 minutes of video is edited down to six or seven minutes.
“The risks are small if you know what you’re talking about and know your true numbers,” Cohen said. “And I probably spent around $1,000 to get to Toronto and back. The show reaches around 1.2 million viewers with an additional 700,000 during rebroadcast. That’s a small price to pay for that kind of exposure.”
The kelp caviar is available at Metro, IGA, Loblaws and Provigo grocery stores in Quebec and Zehrs grocery stores in Ontario. Both the Breviro sturgeon caviar and kelp caviar can be ordered online, visit www. caviarkelp.com.