The Simply cookbook with the accompanying spice line.
It’s not every day that you find a mother-son team bringing an idea to the market. But that’s exactly what happened with Simply Gourmet Spices.
I had the pleasure to speak to Rabbi Moshe Yehuda Kleiman, the marketing guru for his mother’s recipes that have been placed in a bottle. He has a halacha kollel in Lakewood, called Zichron Yitzchok, under the direction of Rabbi Reuven Feinstein shlita.
Interestingly enough, he gained his advertising and marketing skills from his wife, who, for seven years, was representing clients in the food industry by developing concepts and ideas for them. Three to four years ago, Yehuda, after seeing his wife in action, recommended to his mother that she spread her impact with her cooking talents.
Rivky Kleiman started off as a teacher in a Hebrew Day School, and she was very much involved in kiruv. But she was always a chef and known throughout the community for her good palate. She wrote the Bais Yaakov cookbook about ten years ago, which made waves throughout the Jewish world and catapulted her into the upper echelons of the food industry. She started to become known for her recipes and shared them in many mediums, including Mishpacha magazine.
She then composed her first cookbook called Simply Gourmet, followed by her second called Simply. She has been able to bring her unique ideas to the cooking industry, namely, cooking gourmet, but simply. In other words, she uses spices and ingredients that are easily accessible that can be used to create a gourmet meal, or as Yehuda says, “offer gourmet without making it complicated.”
The culmination of this vision has come to life in her bottled spices that come in three flavors: Chili Lime, Smoky Coffee, and Big Bold BBQ. These can be sprinkled on foods to create a new gourmet taste. These spices can be put on a range of products to up their level of taste to a gourmet style. For instance, Yehuda told me that if you are having guests for Shabbos and you want to impress them with a unique and exquisite gourmet taste without having to take hours to prepare, you can simply pour on one of these spices and realize a ritzy taste.
Yehuda and Rivky Kleiman have showed that breaking into the food industry can be a collaborative effort between mother and son. Yehuda takes care of the management, and Rivky continues to deliver her innovative skills to the market. This is a balanced model that has brought growth and success to all corners of the Jewish milieu.