Unexpected Pairings
Creating great pairings takes food to the next level. If you get it right, the sum of two flavors is most certainly greater than the whole. A killer wine can completely take your meal to a new level. The right blend of coffee beans can send your taste buds (and energy) soaring. Sea salt and caramel are a beautiful marriage of well, salty & sweet. Bacon & chocolate? Some might argue that bacon is the perfect pairing to just about anything! When it comes to food, there are endless flavor combinations to play with. At least Clare and Matt at Quince & Apple think so when it comes to their artisan jams. With flavors like Strawberry Rosemary, Figs & Black Tea, Pear with Honey & Ginger, Orange Marmalade with Lemons and Shallot Confit with Red Wine, you’re sure to be thinking – ‘Wow, I wouldn’t have thought to put it together, but man this is good!’
Husband & wife owners Clare & Matt are a pretty unique pair as well. Matt is the man in the kitchen. He ran an organic food co-op, got his culinary degree and worked in high-end dining before moving into food production. Clare is the brains of the operation working on business strategy, order management and marketing. To run a food business, you certainly can’t have one without the other! They are offering Free Shipping on orders Today Only with a Minimum order of $23. To learn more about this food-loving pair and their artisan jams from Madison, WI read our Q&A with Clare.
1. Your business is a labor of love. You and your husband Matt run Quince & Apple. How do you guys balance the work?
We really do love our business. Matt always says, “My job is my hobby!” We sometimes stay late just for fun. Other times, because we have to – but that means we’re busy, so either way it’s rewarding. To balance Quince and Apple with our relationship, we try to be really clear about what our expectations are – who’s supposed to be doing what and when. It’s amazingly not easy at all! So that’s a real priority. We also try to be intentional about when we’re working and when it’s just us. Mostly, we try to have fun at work and bring work home when it’s fun to do.
2. You come up with really unique flavor combinations. Are there any that have failed?
We are in a constant process of development and each flavor undergoes rounds and rounds of scrutiny before it’s finished. I would say about every other flavor we work on doesn’t make it through the process. A lot of times the final recipe is totally different from our original idea. Sometimes we start and stop for months until we hit on something. So far our biggest challenge has been with tart cherries. Wisconsin produces some of the world’s best tart cherries, and we would love to put them in a preserve, but nothing fits! We’ve tried chocolate, cocoa nibs, cocoa, lemon, even star anise. I would bet we’ll keep coming back to it. Matt has to be really inspired by the flavor for it to work. Even if something seems like a great idea, sometimes we just can’t create it if we’re not passionate enough. In the case of the cherries, we haven’t hit on a concept we’re really moved by. We’ll see!
3. So you’re based in Madison, WI. What is the food scene like there?
Funny you should ask, because we spent the weekend in Chicago and were talking on the way home about the difference between the two cities. Chicago is a lot more scene-y than Madison. In Madison, people who work in food seem to all know each other and hang out at fun and fabulous events. In Chicago there are so many people and high expendable income, so it’s a lot bigger scene. Madison is so tiny in comparison! It’s almost like the whole city is the scene. There’s a very agrarian feeling to the region, because it’s just filled with small farms. We have the biggest producer-only Farmer’s Market in the country, and there’s a seven or eight year waiting list to sell there. It’s huge, and tons of our restaurants here use their produce in seasonal menus. Also, the state of Wisconsin is this huge supporter of small food businesses – they do everything possible to make it easy to work here, from giving out grants to offering helpful health inspectors to maintaining a state-run marketing board. I think that really helps. Basically, I love Wisconsin.
4. What are three adjectives that describe your products?
We say “small-batch preserves from the upper midwest” – which I think captures it pretty well. I also think there’s a boutique high-end feel to our products.
5. If you weren’t making jams as Quince & Apple what other job would you like to be doing?
Well, we’d definitely be running some sort of business! We love to get all involved in everything. Matt has always thrown around the idea of opening a cafe, and we also talk about other product lines. I’m interested in how organizations work and running them well, so I’d find something fun to dig my hands into.
