Ask our chef any food or recipes questions! It’s like having a personal chef at your fingertips!
Spices & Herbs
As any cook knows, the right spices and herbs can make a recipe. We have selected a wide range of spice and herb resources. From a small farmer making the freshest paprika, to merchants offering virutally every spice you could never use in a recipe. Just about any hard to find spice/herb will be uncovered at Food411! We have also uncovered fresh wasabi resources, homemade miso and many varieties of fresh garlic. In addition, we have found many outstanding salt resources. Recently high quality salts and salts blends are being discovered by the home chef. Using a excellent salt can truly bring out the flavors in foods. Look no further, the spices and herbs you need are available from one of these special resources.
Ask Chef Sylvia
Olio & Spices - Excellent spice blends, innovative sauces such as BBQ Fig or Lemon & Mint Chili - they enable you to change your meals from ordinary to gourmet by just adding one of their sauces or spice blends.
Whole Spice - Selection ranges from common household staples to rare and exotic varieties and spice blends. They guarantee that their herbs and spices have not been treated with chemicals or MSG. Kosher certified.
Just Simply Good Stuff - All natural, homemade rubs, spice blends, seasoned salts. Wonderful combinations - fresh flavors shine through in these time saving creations. They offer gift packaging that is charming. We have been impressed with each of the products we have sampled.
tsp Spices - Organic spices in measured, freshly sealed, single use packages. Very nice concept - package in beautifully designed tins. This makes a beautiful gift for any cook. The spices have fresh birght flavors, we also enjoyed the lemon and orange zest!
In A Pinch - Spice Blends, grilling rubs, baking spices- family-owned business. We enjoyed their unique espresso rub, it gave wonderful flavor to the steak we grilled.
Penzeys Spices - 250 spices and seasonings.
Kalustyan's - Spices, herbs, sweets, coffee, tea and healthy snacks. Imported from all corners of the globe.
World Spices - Fresh herbs, spices, spice blends such as the middle eastern blend Zaatar.
Adriana's Caravan - Every ingredient for every recipe; 1,400 items from the world's great store of cuisines. All of the world's culinary exotica may be found here.
Vann's Spices - Collections of spices, blends and rubs.
Seasoned Pioneers - Finest authentic Spices, Chillies, Herbs and Exotic Spice Blends of every Major World Cuisine.
Oregon Spice - Fresh, high quality herbs and spices from around the world. Over 500 different herbs, spices / seasonings, large selection of fully organic spices.
The Epicentre - Fresh spices available alone or in blends. Clean packaging makes a nice gift. This site offers a great deal of background information on spices and many recipes.
Spice Barn - Chef's quality spices, extracts/seasonings.
Spices etc. - Gourmet flavoring/spices.
The Great American Spice Co. - Fresh Spices at a good value.
Scandinavian Spice - Large variety of spices/seasonings.
Zach's Spice Company - Flavorful seasonings and spices.
Bayfield Spice Company - Bread machine mixes, spice blends.
Pure Spice - Spices/rubs from the most selective regions of the world. They produce their own spices.
Saffron Imports - A direct importer of high quality Persian Saffron based in California. 100% pure at competitive prices.
Saffron - Vanilla, Saffron Imports is based in San Francisco, California. Direct importers of saffron and vanilla beans from Iran. Their mission to provide the highest qulaity saffron and Vanilla.
La Tienda - Spices from Spain.
South River Miso - Made in MA just like traditional Japanese artisians - unpasteurized certified organic miso products. Website shows the entire labor intensive process and has many recipes for this protein rich flavoring.
Emmy's Garden - Fresh leaves of Keffir Lime and fresh Keffir Limes in season! The fresh leaf is an essential ingredient in Thai cooking. Whole / cut leaves for soups, and stews, chopped leaves in salads, stir-fries, pastes.The leaves & the zest have an unmistakable aroma and flavor that is a signature of traditional Thai dishes.There is no substitute for Kaffir Lime!
Fallsbrook Organic Farm - Organic Hungarian Boldog Paprika, harvested August - Oct. The Peppers are grown in Lyme, CT. They harvest the mature red peppers by hand. Then grind the dried peppers this makes an intoxicating paprika,intense in flavor and very aromatic.
Weslyn Farms - Great source for fresh bay leaves, also sell potted herbs - a NJ farm.
Costal Goods - They unearth the most sublime flavors and ingredients to make their sensational seasoned salts/ peppers, organic spices, and other artisanal foods.
Napa Style - Grey salts/rubs.
Gourmet Sleuth - Unusual/hard to find cooking tools/ingredients, ethnic specialties.
Uncle Bill's Spices - Gumbo File' - family recipe for 96 yrs. Use in gumbo to season and thicken. Use in soups, sauces, gravy & stews to thicken and season. Marinate meat, poultery and fish.
White Jasmine - Premium spices for Pakistani dishes and teas.
Pecos Valley Spices - Pure New Mexican chiles, corn mases, posale, beans and vanilla.
Liberty Natural - Essential oils source; alternative to to ground spices, depth and intensity of flavor is much greater. Examples include: corinander oil, spearmint oil, tarragon oil, etc.
Rafal Spice Company - Spices and more.
San Francisco Herb Co. - Culinary herbs/spices, extracts, teas, dehydrated vegetables, nuts, seeds.
Salt Works - Premium gourmet salts from around the world - they offer the largest selection available. We have had the expereince of tasting many of their varieties - what a difference a high quality sea salt makes! We also enjoyed grating our own sea salt from a large crystal , what a conversation piece.
il Buco - Sea salts, olive oil and vinegar from Italy. Beautiful gift packaging.
il Buco - Sea salts, olive oil and vinegar from Italy. Beautiful gift packaging.
Brown Trading - Fleur de Sel from Isle du Noirmoutier, Maine sea salt. 3 mixtures from salts harvested by hand.
Cayman Sea Salt - Cayman Island 100 percent natural, produced by evaporation, rather than boiling, which increases size of crystals.
Ritrovo - Real black truffle salt. This blend of ground Italian black truffle and sea salt is irresistible in the kitchen. Try over cooked egg dishes, tossed in pasta, on pâté!
Nirmala's Kitchen - French Basque, Japanese and Australian salt blends, spice belnds & rice blends.
Salt Traders - Purveyor of hand-harvested natural salt. Large collection of natural, specialty, rare, artisan, smoked and gourmet sea salts from around the world. Blended salts, gifts sets, Gourmet peppercorns.
Maine Sea Salt - Made by evaporating sea water to 60% in pans over a Maine hard wood fire.The reduced sea water is placed in shallow pools in green houses, and solar evaporated to coarse salt crystals. Available in Natural, Alder smoked, Apple Smoked , Hickory smoked, Mesquite smoked and Maine Sea Salt with Dulse Seaweed.
Soul of the Sea - Whole sea salts from Molokai, Hawaiian black, red, white gourmet sea salts.
Chef Stefan - Salts of the world, Peppers of the world.
Pelindaba - We found this wonderful lavender farm on a biking trip on San Juan Island, WA. Wonderful culinary lavender, lavender herbs de Provence, lavender vinegars -honeys-syrup. What a wonderful suprise to find fields of lavender after a long uphill ride!
Pelindaba - We found this wonderful lavender farm on a biking trip on San Juan Island, WA. Wonderful culinary lavender, lavender herbs de Provence, lavender vinegars -honeys-syrup. What a wonderful suprise to find fields of lavender after a long uphill ride!
Fredericksburg Herb Farm - Herb products/herbs/edible flowers. We spent a very enjoyable day many years ago on this herb farm.
Pacific Farms - Fresh 100% Wasabi paste: the clump on the side of your sushi dish is rarely real wasabi, commonly it is ordinary horseradish with food coloring. Real wasabi is one of the rarest and most difficult vegetables in the world to grow.
Wasabi - The only commercial grower of Wasabi (Wasabia japonica) in North America. Fresh authentic sawa-Wasabi is a highly prized culinary ingredient used mainly in elite restaurants and sushi bars in Japan. The rhizome (root-like stem) is finely grated to produce a light green creamy paste that creates a fragrant peppery flavour that quickly dissipates, leaving a lingering smooth sweet taste with no burning sensation.
We Grow Garlic - Karen & Mike having been growing garlic (about 20 different strains) for over 7 years. It will be ready to ship in early August, send them an email and they will let you know what varieties will be in this years harvest, if like they will send you some garlic scapes also (green stalk of hardneck garlics).
Garlic Man - Brent & Karen Cambell offer 2 varieties of hardneck garlic - "german brown" and "chesnok". They also offer a limited amount of "'jumbo white softneck". no chemicals are used. They will will be shipping in early August and are taking reserve orders prior to August. From their farm to your door!
Garlic Garden - Famous for their homemade natural whipped garlic spreads (great use for rubs or in a sauce) , also offer spices, condiments,pickled garlic, stuffed olives.
The Garlic Store - Everything garlic.
Ronald Reginald's - Premium vanilla and fine flavoring.
Vanilla Company - Organic extract and beans, a wonderful source for all things vanilla. Home of the Vanilla Queen's blog.
Vanilla Company - Organic extract and beans, a wonderful source for all things vanilla. Home of the Vanilla Queen's blog.
The Vanilla Shop - For over 1/2 century, the Tatienne 's of Madagascar, have grown, cured & exported vanilla. Vanilla in Madagascar is an essential resource of the economy. They select flowers & pollinate the fruit of the orchid by hand. Each blossom last only one day, if not pollinated by afternoon, the orchid dies. When the green pods begin to turn yellow, they are mature & ready for harvest. Then the long curing & drying. This is the vanilla that is sold to you.
Arizona Vanilla - We found this organic vanilla source at the NY Botanical Garden's Orchid Show. Their vanilla was highlighted in the cooking segment. Organic Mexican, Madagascar, Tahitian and Bourbon vanilla bean, extract and products.
Boston Vanilla Bean - Only Grade A vanilla beans are used from around the world -carefully grown and sun cured.
Oyster Creek Mushroom - Wild mushroom; dried, oils, powers, mustards, salsas.
JR Mushrooms & Specialties - Dried mushrooms, spices, extracts, white truffle flour, honey, paste, etc.
Bulk Foods - Nuts, died fruits, spices.
Site of the Month
Cookstr
Cookstr provides recipes from the best chefs & cookbook authors. All of the participating chefs/authors have their own profile pages: read about them, their restaurants, & see a selection of their great cookbooks.
Editor’s Pick
Love Street Living Foods
They offer organic, raw, vegan foods, free from all genetically modified or processed ingredients. We sampled their raw chocolate with goji berries - it was delicious. Their concept take a semi superfood like dark chocolate and make it a true super food by offering it raw with only organic ingredients (no proceed sugars). Terrific resource.
Featured Sites
Chocolate Cravings
Recchiuti Confections
Wonderfully inventive chocolate creations. Tops of our latest tasting their slivers of green apple/lime drenched in deep dark chocolate & Asphalt Jungle Mix ( burnt caramel almonds & hazelnuts, cherries & PB pearls all dipped in chocolate. Oh, and their seasonal flavor lavender vanilla is dreamy.
