August 26, 2020
In a world on the brink of environmental catastrophe there is no shortage of causes to align yourself with to help turn back the clock. From reducing carbon emissions, waste reduction and management, preserving ecosystems, protecting endangered species and tackling consumerism. One area of activism is undoubtedly food. The choices we make surrounding what we eat and where it comes from significantly impacts the mark we leave on the world. Stefan Grosberg, the man behind Del Mano Food, is steeped in the philosophy of Slow Food, a movement that advocates for good, clean and fair food for all. It champions consuming food that is locally grown, seasonally available, farmed in a manner that respects the environment and sold at a rate that supports the livelihoods of local farmers.
Stefan had a roundabout journey getting to this point, having been initially trained as a Chemical Engineer. When his post-graduate plans fell through, and the economy collapsed, he found himself going in a radically different direction. He was privileged to spend several months working on farms in Ireland and Italy, where he fell in love with their artisanal lifestyle, rich in history and tradition.
When he returned home, he started a pesto-making business out of his parents’ kitchen, which evolved into the hub of our favourite, local gourmet sausages.
Perhaps the concept of Slow Food is more relevant now than ever, with the world under the siege of a global pandemic, people losing their jobs and global supply chains being interrupted. We have no choice but to foster internal growth and diversify local economies. This is especially true for Trinidad and Tobago- a country overly dependent on the Oil and Gas industry. Now is the time for the agricultural sector to make a comeback.
It is on that note we bring you the story of local food entrepreneur Stefan Grosberg.
So tell us what goes into making your famous Del Mano sausages?
STEFAN: Famous? We’re working on that.
We use Berkshire Pork because it is a slow-growing breed, puts on great fat and produces delicious meat. These pigs are humanely raised on family farms, on a vegetarian diet. Importantly, they have never been treated with antibiotics or growth promoters, and are therefore referred to as ABF (antibiotic-free) pigs. If an animal gets sick, it is separated from the group and treated, but does not re-enter the ABF program.
Unfortunately, in the world of pork, you’ve got commodity pork which can be the stuff of nightmare food documentaries. Animals housed in industrial conditions with no access to the outdoors, limited light, and an intense feeding regime aimed to get them as fat as possible. In these conditions, antibiotics are routinely fed to the animals to prevent them from getting sick. It has the added side effect of helping them put on weight.
This is not a system we want to support. We want the best tasting products, so we use high-quality meat. It’s the same for all of our seasonings and additives, and when I say additives, I mean spices and salts. We don’t add any chemical or artificial preservatives to our products.
Our spice blends have been tried and tested and are ground fresh for every production cycle.
Our top products are the Rustic Italian, Spicy Chorizo and English Banger. The Spicy Chorizo is made with our version of paprika which consists of local scorpion pepper and ripe, red pimentos. These get dried, smoked and made into a powder, which is blended with local thyme to provide a unique flavour.
The main seasoning used in the English Banger is fresh sage which is incredibly hard to grow due to its vulnerability to the weather. We dabbled in using dried sage, but it was not yielding the flavour we were aiming for.
Traditional English sausages include bread crumbs. I told myself I was not going to use just any bread crumbs. I had to find something that worked well with the product. So we did research on traditional flours and the origins of the sausage. After multiple taste tests, we ended up using a spelt flour from the UK. We make big loaves of bread inhouse, dry them and grind them, specifically for that one sausage. It’s expensive to add, but it’s not a filler, it’s an ingredient.
“There’s also a negative perception when people hear the word “sausage”. Typically they think low quality, inferior, undesirable parts of the animal – the things you would normally throw away – processed and littered with additives. We turn around and say it’s not like that. It could be- but that’s not what we’re offering.”
I’ve been importing meat from the same supplier for four years, producing sausages with great quality, flavour and consistency. They are based in Iowa, where there are more pigs than people. They have extremes in weather, so the pigs spend most of their time cosy indoors messing around in their hay and playing with their friends.
I feel like I owe it to my customers to visit my suppliers’ operations so that they have confidence in every ingredient we include in a Del Mano sausage.
What is your origin story?
STEFAN: I have always had an interest in food, but I did not realise or understand how you could make it a career. Engineering runs in my family. When it was my turn, I thought, ‘Okay Stef, same for you, but you have this interest in food, maybe you could be a Chemical Engineer.’
A degree requirement was to work in an industry, and I worked for a year on an oil refinery. A fantastic year, I learnt so much, but I ultimately discovered that I did not want to work in the Petro-chemical industry.
I graduated in 2008 when the financial crisis hit. At that time, they were building a methanol plant and more at home, so I figured I would still be able to get a job, but everything dried up. I was doing my final year research project on biodiesel. When the crisis hit, the talk of doing a PhD with my professor was erased. I came home upset that all my plans were destroyed.
So I joined the family company, not particularly enjoying it. One day I was watching television, and I heard about a group called ‘Slow Food.’ The concept of it intrigued me. For whatever reason, things just clicked.
I met Michael Milne, who invited me to an organic farmers meeting. That’s where I met Piero Guerrini, who expanded my network into Italy. This inspired me to plant my kitchen garden – an interest I was exploring with caution while working a 9-5.
I planted basil and started making pesto which I sold at Upmarket. I continued my research until I felt compelled and saved enough to travel to learn more about Slow Food.
On that first trip, I worked on a family-run farm in Ireland. It was quite a holistic experience. They were traditionally a dairy farm, but over the years had branched out into cheese, meat, vegetables and fermented products. They sold to farmer’s markets and smaller retailers- artisanal people, who appreciated good, clean and fair food. From there I got a good experience of production and realised I enjoyed being in the butcher’s room.
I spent the entirety of my second trip to Europe on an Italian farm that specialised in meat. There I got further butchering experience and learned sausage making.
It reaffirmed me in my choice to venture down this path. I had a new appreciation for all that went into it- time, investment, developing your process and market. I was still green, and I had no money. It was time to figure things out.
I think I bought and butchered my first pig in 2011.
A friend loaned me a sausage filler, a tiny hand-crank model that I had to clamp onto the table. It contained ten pounds of meat- a lot for that time. That’s how I learnt. It was all trial and error.
Del Mano Food Limited was born in April of 2013.
Between 2013 and 2014, we were making lots of pesto and supplying a few restaurants with custom sausages. We introduced our retail product around 2015, starting with two flavours- Chorizo and Garlic. By 2016 we went through a significant expansion that led us to offer fifteen flavours of sausages. Now we’re heading in the opposite direction. In trying to grow the business, we want to be more focused and selective in the products we offer.
We’ve whittled it down to nine flavours with two varieties of meatballs offered in a variety of meats, including lamb, turkey and beef. Slow food is all about diversity. There is a whole big meat world out there with all kinds of products we can make.
How did you come up with the name?
STEFAN: On my second trip to Italy, I stayed with a family who ran a restaurant that offered family dishes and traditional Italian food for the area, which is all about fresh pasta.
They made culatello (a type of boneless prosciutto), which could only be produced in the thirteen villages along the river Po. They believe that because these villages are located along the river, the humidity slows the maturation process of the meat. The longer the maturation, the better-flavoured the product.
When you make culatello there’s a particular way that the meat gets tied – it must be tight to give an even shape, so it dries properly. These guys were so skilled at tying they could have done it with their eyes closed. It became that their hands were doing it from muscle memory.
That concept stuck with me, and I wanted it to be in the brand. ‘Mano’ is hand in Italian and Spanish. It had a nice little ring to it. ‘Del’ was my ignorance. I suppose it should have been ‘De La Mano’ not ‘Del Mano’ but whatever- it’s mine. It was meant to emphasise the hand and handmade. That concept is what has motivated us and propelled us forward.
Recently we were revisiting our essence and the origins of the name. I am conscious not to be misleading, which can very easily happen in the food industry- in any industry, for that matter. Authenticity is vital to us.
Our process is very hands-on. While we have a machine to grind our meat and one to form the sausage, at every step of the way, it requires human touch. We prepare our meat by hand. There is a way you feel the meat to ensure that it is adequately mixed. When we’re making the sausage, you can’t just press a button and presto it’s made. A person is controlling the process, harmonising the machine and meat as it is stuffed into the delicate natural casing.
On a deeper level, that touch is also emotional. We are deeply connected to what we make – a product crafted with traditional techniques with an emphasis on high quality and attention to detail. Compared to an industrial sausage maker who is just buying a pack of powdered flavouring, that’s not artisanal. We want to make sure that we never lose that touch.
Tell us about Del Mano’s transformation from the evolution of the packaging and branding to the website and new factory. What are you trying to get out of these changes?
STEFAN: Ultimately, we want to serve a wider market. We have a strong following in North-West Trinidad. We have tried over the years to break into East, South and Central with limited success. So we have to open ourselves to larger retailers who have locations around the island.
Reaching the customer physically is one thing, but you also need to connect with them emotionally.
I think what prompts the customer to purchase a product the first time is attractive packaging. We realised that we had some deficiencies with our existing packaging and branding, so we upgraded them and worked on our company identity.
However, to get repeat customers, I think you need to share more of your story – our production process, the ingredients that we use and what we believe in. We want to share this information on the website with associated imagery for all our social media.
We are promoting a lifestyle choice, a conscious decision on what you choose to eat- this is the type of animal, this is the flavour, here’s how to prepare our products. All these things tie into the story, but you need to have an excellent product to back it up. So, from a production standpoint, it’s keeping your product consistent and offering variety, having seasonal flavours to keep people interested.
Other ideas we have in the mix are the launch of our website and an intensive sampling tour to get people familiar with the taste of the product (unfortunately postponed due to COVID-19).
The last aspect of our transformation is the construction of the factory. We’re converting a warehouse in Macoya.
It’s exciting. You know you can make sausage in your home with a couple of mixing bowls, a Kitchen Aid and a few kilos of meat. It works in a small space, but now we want to take the next step.
How do you continue to make the same product in a larger space? How do you move that meat from one step of the process to the next?
What standards do you need to follow? No cross-contamination, raw materials come in one way, finished products out another—certain sinks for specific tasks.
What’s in the future for the plant? You’re designing it for now, but how much more can it do? You’re testing the limits of all the processes. Sausage is one type of product. What else can we produce? Can we produce it in the same environment?
2019 into 2020 has been one heck of a journey. The team is working hard to bring everything to fruition so we can take a breath and appreciate all we have accomplished and gear up for all the great things ahead.
Switching gears a little bit, I want to look back on the Ted talk you gave in 2011 and the picture you painted of Trinidad’s relationship with food importation. How do you think the landscape has changed since you’ve been in operation?
STEFAN: In terms of general agriculture and people’s connection with and desire for local food, I can’t say that much has changed.
I think there is still a long way to go when it comes to consumers and what they expect food to cost. Local food is typically more expensive. An excellent example is our paprika. We buy local pimento peppers and process them. This is when they are in season, with plenty of sunshine for ripening and a glut on the market, and they are sold cheaply. But this is still three times the price of buying paprika from one of the best producers in Spain and shipping it to Trinidad with all taxes paid. It’s crazy. We can save a lot of money, hard work and stress!
We make that choice because that is what makes our Spicy Chorizo what it is. We’re very proud of it, and we will absorb the additional cost. I don’t know how we’re going to change the trend.
We produce a premium-priced product, but we’re charging what we are because that’s the cost of producing it. Plus, we pay our employees a fair wage, and the company still needs to make something at the end of the day. Then there are the retailers who put their markup. The product costs what it costs, and not everyone can afford it but, gosh, if that is the genuine cost of a quality product then something has to change. What goes in, and what does not, has to be valued.
From an island sustainability point of view, I fear it’s much of the same. It’s very easy to import, more so with the challenges to develop agriculture and industry seemingly being too many.
What advice do you have for new or aspiring food entrepreneurs?
STEFAN: I think you have to be passionate about what you’re doing and give it your best effort. Don’t settle for a mediocre product. If you push yourself, you will get better. I want to encourage more people to enter the sector. It’s not easy. No one is just going to hand you a stack of hundred dollar bills. You have to work for it. You get an incredible sense of satisfaction from taking pure, clean raw materials and making good quality finished products. Selling your products and seeing people enjoy them provides a real instant kind of gratification.
Interviewer: Bethany Milne Illustrator: Nicholas Huggins
