Chef Jim Taugher
Working as a fine-dining chef for nearly a decade, chef Jim Taugher has learned quite a bit about developing layers of flavor. The most recent restaurant that Jim worked at had a hunter and gatherer theme. The idea was based on one question. If you went for a walk in the woods with the chef, what would you eat when you got home? This led Jim to suggest that the menu should follow what people did in history throughout the seasons. The fall and winter menu should rely heavily on preserved food. Dried, pickled, and cured items became important to the menu and Jim was tasked with creating pickled items. He started with “quick pickles”. Obviously, we put more into ours, but at the most basic level, quick pickles are hot vinegar and sugar poured over an item. In an effort to expand the pickle department, he began to study “old school” fermented pickles. Being passionate and a bit obsessive, he devoured books on the subject, followed famous fermenters, and found any videos he could on the subject. He then combined his new skills with his years of studying flavors and BOOM gourmet, creative, unique pickled items were on hand. Customers and friends alike all said, “You should sell these”. A lot of hard work, research, and personal expense later, and Fermentation Station was born.
To begin, there will be 6 products available. The eventual goal is to have a base of products that are always available, but also offer short runs of local products, that are either grown or foraged locally and picked at the height of ripeness. When they are gone, they are gone. Our hope is that people will look forward to the different seasons and specific products becoming available.
“My favorite thing about pickles is the same thing that I love about cooking. It’s watching and hearing people’s reactions. I love to hear people say things like I wasn’t expecting that or wow, there is so much going on in there.”