Passionate chef brings healthy from scratch meal options to Kamloops
A Kamloops chef who's passionate about health has launched a new business and is offering nutritious and delicious whole food meals.
Alicia Graham opened Pickle & Sprout a few weeks ago to help better the health of her community by providing gut healthy soups, salads and meals built around seasonal ingredients.
“A lot of chronic illnesses are linked to our gut health and we’re eating a Canadian diet that involves ultra processed foods coming from ultra processed ingredients,” she said.
“We’ve gotten away from eating whole foods and legumes. There are chronic illnesses in my family and I wanted to learn more about what I could do as a chef to make people healthier.”
Graham is part of a growing movement in Kamloops of entrepreneurs making meals from seasonal ingredients and connecting with local farmers and producers. She makes everything from scratch and uses local ingredients whenever possible.
She currently works out of The Stir, a shared kitchen operated by the Kamloops Food Policy Council.
“The Kamloops Food Policy Council has been working for years toward food sustainability here and offers many great programs,” she said.
Born and raised in Kamloops, Graham graduated at the Culinary Institute of Canada in Prince Edward Island a decade ago. After working various jobs there for six years she returned to Kamloops and spent time working as a cook in logging and wildfire camps but it wasn’t the right fit.
“It’s fun but not sustainable long-term, it takes a lot out of you,” she said. “You’re not making the kind of food you want to make, it’s a meat and potatoes budget-conscious style of cooking. It’s not what you want, being away from family, cooking food you don’t really love.”
When she got laid off from a logging camp job, Graham went through the Community Futures program and designed her business plan for Pickle & Sprout.
“I was kind of disillusioned with the whole restaurant industry,” she said. “I was getting older and didn’t want to be a line cook and didn’t want the stress of being a head chef.”
Launching in the winter time, Graham was limited in what vegetables she could source locally so she's based her meals around vegetables that keep well like carrots and cabbage, and sourcing greens and beans from a farm in Armstrong. She sources local honey but is still having to use out-of-season fruits for now while she develops the business.
She's collaborating with a local Kombucha company Wild Mountain Jun & KMK Living to add probiotic beverages to her menu.
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She's also developing a system for sustainable packaging that includes reusable glass jars, containers and bags.
While she's working out of The Stir’s shared kitchen, a kitchen in Dallas is under construction that she will be sharing with the Salty Fig Catering company in the future.
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Graham admitted starting a new business has been challenging.
“I’m really tired,” she said. “As an entrepreneur I was told you can’t do everything on your own. I thought ‘yea, yea, I totally can,’ but it turns out I could probably use some help. It's taken a long time to get to this point but now that I’m here I’m optimistic it will work out.”
A launch event for Pickle & Sprout is taking place time 3 p.m., Feb. 25, at The Stir at 185 Royal Avenue in Kamloops.
Customers can order online here and choose what meals they want for the coming week. Both delivery and pickup options are available and Graham does her best to accommodate dietary requirements.
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