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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Guide Weather Subscribe Contact Us March 22, 2005 Ashland's saucy entrepreneur By Jennifer Squires Ashland Daily Tidings If he has to, John Koch can produce a couple hundred bottles of Cooks Kitchen sauces a day in the three-car garage he converted into a commercial kitchen. Cooks kitchen chef and owner John koch slices baguettes he'd made previously and turns into crostini that he uses to let people sample his sauces. Photo by Orville Hector | Ashland Daily Tidings He'd just rather not be pressured to make too much at once, since the organic, vegan, sugar-free sauces and dressings have a shorter shelf life than traditional products. "I keep them fresh by making them frequently," said Koch, a chef who started Cooks Kitchen Organic Foods in Ashland two years ago. On Friday afternoon, Koch was slicing up the baguettes he'd baked earlier in the week to make the crustini while the organic pizza made on focaccia bread cooled and the banana bread batter rose in the oven. He makes his own crustini and bread for market-goers at the Ashland Growers and Crafters Market to sample his sauces. The pizza recipe needs to be perfected before Koch leads a class in gourmet pizzas at the Ashland Food Coop in April. Usually Koch makes his sauces in small batches - two to 10 cases at a time - from his personal recipes to distribute to four local grocery stores and about 25 stores in Northern California, the Willamette Valley and the Oregon Coast. He also sells the sauces, as well as a hibiscus tea blend, online, at the growers market and to delis and restaurants. It's all a one-man show. Koch, who has been cooking and eating organically for 35 years, grows a lot of his own herbs and uses local organic producers such as Glory Be Foods in Eugene and Mountain People's Warehouse in Northern California to pick up the rest of his ingredients. He makes all of the local deliveries personally and staffs his booth at the growers market every Tuesday. "I do everything myself, so there's a limit," said Koch. Koch has been cooking professionally since 1972 and also teaches cooking classes, is a caterer and attends trade shows to demonstrate his wares and skill. He came to Ashland eight years ago from Atlanta for a position at the community food store. After four and a half years there, he opened the Natural Cafe with a partner but, about 18 months into the venture, he sold out to go into business for himself. That's when he converted his garage into "a place I would want to eat from" and used a 35-mm point-and-shoot camera to create the artwork for the labels on his sauces. Even though some days can get long, Koch has no plans to expand the product line or the distribution area. That would mean he couldn't do it all himself. "I'm here alone most of the time," Koch said, though he still dresses in kitchen whites and a chef's hat while he putters in the kitchen by himself. "In order to do it the way I want without compromising, I had to do it myself. I absolutely love what I do." In two years, Koch has created and marketed eight sauces - vegetarian Worcestershire sauce, Wabash sauce and salad dressing, sesame shiitake sauce and salad dressing, tamarind chutney, Thai peanut sauce, roasted garlic and tomato vinaigrette, barbecue sauce, roasted jalapeno sauce - at regional grocery stores including the Ashland Food Coop, Shop-N-Kart and Market of Choice in Ashland, as well as Tark's in Talent. He also makes three special sauces that are only sold at the grower's market. For more information about Cooks Kitchen, go to www.cookskitchen.net or call 535-3663. Staff writer Jennifer Squires can be reached at 482-3456 x 3019 or [email protected]. DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Slippers Women's & Men's Slippers Ceramic Piggy Banks heloc libor rate Calenders 2005 Calender 2005 Accelerate Weightloss Products Memory Foam Mattress afsa studentloans home equity loans teleconferencing W2 Forms fasa student loans Matchmaking & Dating Scripts African Safari Conference Calls - $50/Month Security Systems student loan consolidation wholesale diamonds Currancy Exchange Online Casinos Community Fasa Student Loans Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams