Holland College’s Canada’s Smartest Kitchen Helps Cedar’s Eatery #Springboarding Forward
July 17th, 2017
After owner Ryan Abdallah discovered that his father Maroun’s original garlic spread recipe was so popular with customers in their restaurant and they learned all the way people use it, they decided to take it to the next level and work towards the goal to offer their well love product for sale at a major retailer. Reaching out to Holland College and with the help of an IRAP CTO the idea was further developed.
In order to ensure that the taste from the restaurant experience translates into the bought product, Mr. Abdallah spent countless hours perfecting the recipe for large scale production and enlisted the help from product development experts at both Bio Food Tech and Canada’s Smartest Kitchen in Charlottetown.
The final push to establish a relationship with Sobeys came when Mr. Abdallah won the top prize of $30,000 in a contest by the Food Island Partnership designed to help P.E.I. food entrepreneurs develop new products. Supported by Springboard’s Innovation Mobilization Industry Engagement Fund, organized and executed by Holland College’s Canada’s Smartest Kitchen and partners, the Food Xel Workshop Series goal was to introduce companies looking to innovate with research institutions, funders and food product development experts. It included working individually with each company to help them understand the food product development cycle including packaging, branding and market research.
The Original Maroun’s is now available for sale on Sobeys selves.
Project partners in the Food Xel Workshop Series included Bio Food Tech, Maritimes Bioenterprise, Emergence, the Startup Zone, and Food Island Partnership
To read the full CBC article, click here.