Posted by WTOL, OH on July 20, 2010 at 16:05:08:
3 folks win big in food product contest -- and are now onto the big time!
By Lauren Lowrey TOLEDO, OHIO (WTOL) - The three winners of the food product development contest sponsored by the Center for Innovative Food Technology have been announced.
Iris Lauber, Johnathon Bush and Alison Payton each won, which means their products will eventually be headed for the mass market.
Iris Lauber's product is a silky smooth chocolate she calls Oh My Ganache. "Ganache is basically... the creamiest, most amazing chocolate that you'll ever taste."
Alison Payton took her father's old pepper butter recipe and spent the last 18 months toning it down -- "it was super hot!" -- and selling it at area farmers markets.
Seventeen-year-old Johnathon Bush, a senior at Central Catholic High School, has been making and marketing his baked goods since the age of 13. His all natural Turtle Cookies won the award for him.
"Any school district, like Toledo Public, who's interested in raising money could order cookie dough," Johnathon says.
Winning the contest means one full year of free testing, coaching and product support. From there, the only thing standing in the way of them and putting their product on the mass market is time.
Iris Lauber's company is An Occasional Cookie. After 20 years of doing hair, Iris left work in 1996 to raise children. She had a lot of great feedback from some cookies she made with ganache, so she licensed her kitchen and created An Occasional Cookie, LLC.
Alison Payton's husband tried Papa Ed's Pepper Jelly (named for Alison's dad) and said, "This is fantastic! You guys should sell this." So, Alison spent some time making the recipe more palatable -– since her dad takes things spicier than most people -– and they've since developed 3 flavor structures: mild, medium and hot.
Johnathon Bush has a web site: www.notjustcookies.com. He spends 30 hours a week baking cookies and pies.
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