14 Entrepreneurs Who Built Food Empires | Big Business | Insider Business

Business Insider

Business Insider

105 min, 44 sec

An in-depth look at various food entrepreneurs and their businesses, explaining the intricacies of their products and production processes.

Summary

  • The video features multiple segments, each focusing on different food entrepreneurs, their unique products, and the detailed processes involved in creating them.
  • Segments cover a diverse range of products including meats, bakery items, pasta, babka, and more unconventional items like cricket-based food products.
  • Each entrepreneur's story is highlighted, showcasing their passion, expertise, and the challenges they face in their respective niches of the food industry.
  • The video provides a comprehensive understanding of what goes into making each product, from sourcing ingredients to crafting the final items.
  • The featured entrepreneurs have turned their culinary skills and innovative ideas into successful businesses, contributing to the food culture and economy.

Chapter 1

Pat LaFrieda Meat Purveyors: Crafting America's Premium Meats

0:18 - 8 min, 27 sec

Pat LaFrieda Meat Purveyors specializes in high-quality meats, supplying America's top restaurants.

Pat LaFrieda Meat Purveyors specializes in high-quality meats, supplying America's top restaurants.

  • The company, located in New Jersey, is headed by Pat LaFrieda and is renowned for its dry-aged steaks and master butchery.
  • Their dry aging room is crucial for developing flavors in the meat, requiring precise temperature and humidity control.
  • Master butchers, trained by Pat himself, skillfully prepare cuts like Tomahawk steaks and New York strips, customized to each restaurant's specifications.
  • The company also produces handcrafted burgers, including a special blend for Shake Shack, using a state-of-the-art burger machine.
  • Pat LaFrieda's success story, from taking over his father's butcher shop to achieving annual sales of $270 million, exemplifies the growth of a family business.

Chapter 2

Junior's Cheesecake: Baking New York's Iconic Dessert

8:46 - 10 min, 23 sec

Junior's in New York City is famous for its rich and creamy cheesecakes, a New York institution.

Junior's in New York City is famous for its rich and creamy cheesecakes, a New York institution.

  • Junior's uses a 1950s family recipe to create millions of cheesecakes annually, utilizing cream cheese, sugar, eggs, heavy cream, and vanilla.
  • The cheesecakes feature a sponge cake bottom, a divergence from the traditional graham cracker crust.
  • Each cheesecake is baked in a water bath to ensure even heat distribution, preventing burnt bottoms and ensuring a perfectly cooked dessert.
  • The company has expanded beyond its original Brooklyn location to include restaurants and a mail-order business, making it the biggest cheesecake company in New York.
  • Despite facing challenges like the pandemic and cream cheese shortages, Junior's continues to thrive through diversification and maintaining the original recipe.

Chapter 3

Tabasco: Spicing Up the World from Louisiana

19:23 - 7 min, 8 sec

Tabasco sauce, produced by the McIlhenny family in Louisiana, is a globally recognized hot sauce brand.

Tabasco sauce, produced by the McIlhenny family in Louisiana, is a globally recognized hot sauce brand.

  • Tabasco grows peppers specifically for seeds, cultivating a variety six times hotter than a jalapeno, and requiring special conditions in their greenhouse.
  • The peppers are hand-picked, mashed with salt, and aged in white oak barrels for three years to develop the sauce's unique flavor.
  • The aged mash is then blended with vinegar and mixed for weeks before being strained and bottled.
  • Tabasco's factory can fill up to 700,000 bottles every day, producing various flavors including the fastest-growing Sriracha sauce.
  • The McIlhenny family's story, from the company's founding in 1868 to its current status as a world-famous brand, is a testament to its enduring legacy.

Chapter 4

The Halal Guys: Turning a Food Cart into an International Franchise

27:21 - 8 min, 11 sec

The Halal Guys started as a New York food cart and grew into an international franchise known for its chicken and gyro platters.

The Halal Guys started as a New York food cart and grew into an international franchise known for its chicken and gyro platters.

  • The Halal Guys became famous for their generous servings of rice, marinated chicken, gyro meat, and famous white sauce and red sauce.
  • Founded by Egyptian immigrants, the food cart catered to Muslim cab drivers looking for halal food and quickly gained popularity.
  • Their success led to the opening of multiple locations, with an express line for cab drivers at their original cart.
  • The Halal Guys' menu features Middle Eastern inspired dishes with a signature New York twist, making it a staple in the city's street food scene.
  • Their iconic white and spicy red sauces are key to the flavor profile of their dishes, maintaining the authenticity and quality that made them a legend.

Chapter 5

Entomo Farms: Leading the Edible Insect Revolution

42:59 - 12 min, 33 sec

Entomo Farms in Ontario specializes in farming crickets for food, offering a sustainable protein source.

Entomo Farms in Ontario specializes in farming crickets for food, offering a sustainable protein source.

  • Entomo Farms harvests about 50 million crickets weekly, producing cricket powder and whole roasted crickets for consumption.
  • Crickets offer a high-protein, nutrient-dense food source with significant environmental benefits over traditional livestock farming.
  • The farm utilizes a manual process to raise, harvest, and process crickets, aiming to automate more operations to increase production.
  • Cricket-based products are gaining popularity as a superfood ingredient in snacks, dog treats, and even used for cricket manure as fertilizer.
  • Entomo Farms aims to scale up production rapidly to meet growing demand and contribute to a more sustainable future in food production.

Chapter 6

Missy Robbins' Pasta Mastery

57:46 - 19 min, 34 sec

Chef Missy Robbins' restaurants in Brooklyn are celebrated for their handcrafted pasta dishes.

Chef Missy Robbins' restaurants in Brooklyn are celebrated for their handcrafted pasta dishes.

  • Missy Robbins, a Michelin-starred chef, creates pasta dishes inspired by her time in Italy and personal culinary journey.
  • The restaurants feature a pasta room where various types of fresh pasta are made daily, visible to both diners and passersby.
  • Signature pasta dishes like chickpea pappardelle are carefully crafted, combining traditional techniques with unique, refined flavors.
  • Robbins' cooking philosophy involves creating dishes that evoke familiarity while presenting them in a sophisticated manner.
  • The success of her restaurants, Lilia and Missy, is a testament to Robbins' passion for Italian cuisine and her ability to innovate within the genre.

Chapter 7

Green's Bakery: New York's Babka Empire

77:50 - 5 min, 18 sec

Green's Bakery is renowned for its babka, a traditional Jewish pastry, becoming a New York staple.

Green's Bakery is renowned for its babka, a traditional Jewish pastry, becoming a New York staple.

  • Green's Bakery has been producing babka for 70 years, based on a family recipe brought over from Hungary.
  • With an output of 4,000 loaves daily, Green's is the largest babka wholesaler in New York City, supplying to various stores.
  • The bakery offers two flavors of babka, chocolate and cinnamon, with chocolate being the most popular.
  • Green's babka is made through a combination of handcrafted techniques and machinery, ensuring the quality and consistency of each loaf.
  • Despite not always bearing the Green's name, their babka is widely consumed across the city, solidifying its reputation as a beloved treat.

Chapter 8

Casa della Mozzarella: Crafting Italian Delicacies

83:18 - 5 min, 14 sec

Casa della Mozzarella in the Bronx is famous for its hand-pulled mozzarella and Italian sandwiches.

Casa della Mozzarella in the Bronx is famous for its hand-pulled mozzarella and Italian sandwiches.

  • Owned by a Sicilian father and son duo, the shop has become a destination for those seeking authentic Italian mozzarella.
  • The mozzarella is made fresh daily using traditional techniques passed down through generations.
  • Customers can watch the mozzarella being hand-pulled, contributing to the shop's charm and authenticity.
  • In addition to mozzarella, the shop offers a variety of Italian sandwiches, using their cheese as a key ingredient.
  • The success of Casa della Mozzarella is a testament to the owners' dedication to quality and their ability to maintain culinary traditions.

Chapter 9

Sultry International: Transforming Cassava Crop

88:54 - 16 min, 31 sec

Sultry International in Nigeria has revolutionized the cassava industry, producing valuable products from the crop.

Sultry International in Nigeria has revolutionized the cassava industry, producing valuable products from the crop.

  • Yamisi Iranloye founded Sultry International to process cassava into starch, sweetener, and other products, boosting farmers' incomes.
  • Sultry has partnered with thousands of farmers, introducing new cassava varieties and machinery to improve yields and efficiency.
  • The company operates near cassava farms to reduce spoilage and has become one of the largest processors in Nigeria.
  • Despite Nigeria being the top cassava producer, Sultry faces challenges in exporting due to supply chain issues and lack of awareness.
  • Sultry's success shows the potential of cassava as a versatile source of income for farmers and as an export product for Nigeria.

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