How We Got Started

Spices Made Easy was started after a diagnosis of cancer. Not only did this event change my life, I had an Aha! moment. After receiving that blow, I was told to eat healthier, with more fresh fruits and vegetables high in antioxidants and stay away from processed foods. I thought it would be easy since I prepared my own meals, but once I started reading labels I was quite surprised to see all the additives and preservatives.

For a moment I panicked. I envisioned my plate with boring and bland food, lacking exciting flavors or robust taste. That's when I realized it wasn't the food I would miss, it was the lack of flavor. But then I remembered the wonderful foods I enjoyed during my travels to exotic places and how they were easily prepared, wonderfully flavored and healthy.

I wondered, how did they do that?

While on safari in Tanzania, I remember sitting around the campfire under the African night sky eating some of the most flavorful food I had ever tasted. It was comforting, it was exciting, it was a bounty of flavors I had never tasted before; a new culinary adventure. The cooks had no refrigeration, no kitchen, yet they were able to prepare our food with deep, rich flavors.

How did they do that?

While strolling through the streets in Istanbul, I watched the vendors prepare simple meals using fresh meat mixed with a punch of deep complex flavors that excited every one of my taste buds.

How did they do that?

It's simple: spices! They are able to transform simple and healthy ingredients into a complex and deliciously flavorful meal.

Aha! So why couldn't I?