Hudson food firm hopes to whet appetites on Den
Speaking in broken English and with his bicycle in hand, Michael Kachani asked the New York train station ticket clerk where the next departure was heading.
He had just left West Berlin after completing his baking apprenticeship, a place he says he never felt he belonged, and had plans to make a living in the United States. But after only one night in Manhattan — “not the best place in the ’ 90s,” he says — he decided it wasn’t right for him, and so he asked for the next ticket out of there.
“Montreal,” he was told. He looked up at a big map plastered on the wall, his eyes hunting across the U. S., failing to find the city he had never heard of. Then he looked a little north, and with his bicycle still boxed up in tow, he took the next train.
In Montreal, Kachani eventually settled in the Plateau, and got to work at different bakeries around town, impressing employers with his speed and consistency. After a while, he started asking for a little more flexibility.
“I’d tell them I’d still fill the counters, but I’ll be out earlier to work on other things,” he says.
He started using the kitchens on days they weren’t open, baking his own goods on Sundays, packaging products in his bedroom, and delivering them by bike to different customers around town.
One day, a client asked if his biscotti could be made a little longer and packaged with a label. Kachani complied and prepared a few batches’ worth, but the client never returned.
So instead, he left them at Park Avenue’s Supermarché PA on consignment — money only promised if they sold. A few days later they were gone, and he was asked for more. It was the mid-’ 90s and Montreal’s café scene was blowing up. The timing was right, and biscotti were an easy sell to new shop owners eager to impress clientele.
In 1999, Kachani founded Tutti Gourmet.
He eventually moved the business to Knowlton, but when he met his future wife, Cara Berkovits, her family lived in Hudson. The two towns had a similar feel, he thought, and the business opened on Harwood Blvd. in 2007, later relocated on Cameron Road.
These days, when Kachani looks at maps he isn’t looking for where the next train will take him, he’s looking for possible places to expand, new markets where his line of products could be sold.
Tutti Gourmet’s gluten- free products are now listed or sold independently to most grocery chains in Quebec, and found across the country in a slew of national stores.
With sales doubling each of the last two years, and an appearance on CBC’s Dragons’ Den looming, the last two weeks have brought the addition of an online store, four new employees and five new offices to the business.
Sitting in his yet- to- be- decorated office above the Tutti Gourmet plant last week, Kachani was on the phone arranging six new email accounts for the company so administration can best handle the influx expected from appearing on the Feb. 18 edition of the show. “It’s been a little crazy,” he said. The company now specializes in gluten- free products.
When the couple’s second son, Jonah, was born in 2009 with a number of intolerances, not only did Kachani want to make a product he could take home, he also saw the potential market.
Fifteen months ago, the company’s new product, Bana Krisp, was introduced: fruit crackers that come free of gluten, peanuts, corn, soy, dairy, egg or added sugars.
Kachani also transferred his biscotti into the gluten- free market, finally pleased with the result after seven months of testing and about 80 different ingredient combinations.
As is written on the packaging, both products are still handmade in the shop on Cameron, where workers were busy hand- packing and weighing bags last week. Walking among the hums of the ovens and smell of freshly- baked biscotti, Kachani said the plant should be producing close to 20,000 bags of product a week this year.
Because of a confidentiality agreement, he couldn’t talk about the appearance on the Den, offering little more than the fact that the investors were pleased with the company’s valuation, which he couldn’t reveal, either.
He likened the experience to a trade show. “It works because they get to see the whole package,” he said. “To see the people behind the product, our story.”
The pitch was a family affair, Kachani, Berkovits, her parents and their two young boys were all present. The young ones — dressed in matching blue jeans, white dress shirts and striped black ties — spent most of the presentation on investor Arlene Dickinson’s knees.
It’s a part of the business Kachani doesn’t want to lose through expansion. He likes that his kids can walk over to see him at work, or run around the plant on weekends.
The company currently employs 18 people in Hudson, and uses every inch of space in its 4,000- square- foot plant.
“These things can change your company so drastically, it’s hard to say where you’ll be in three years,” Kachani said, interrupted by the arrival of new Internet modems for the expanding offices.
“But we’ll try our best to stay here, in Hudson. It’s home now.”
A public viewing of the Dragons’ Den episode will be held at the Hudson Legion on Wednesday, Feb. 18 at 7: 30 p. m. Non- perishables will also be collected for local food bank Le Pont- Bridging.