A WALK IN THE WOODS - University at Buffalo

alumniprofileJustin Marx, BS ’00: Culinary entrepreneur hunts down unusual flavors to satisfyboth restaurant chefs and creative home cooksEXOTICFOODFINDERJUSTIN MARX, BS ’00, starts picking through thelatest ingredients, liquors and foods waiting on theshelves of his Seattle store. His fingers brush acrossrhubarb sauce, orange blossom champagne, pepperjelly and barbecue bitters. It’s not your typicalassortment of culinary accoutrements.“For this retail shop, we’re focusing on two mainareas—one is finding new and interesting flavor profilesand ingredients, things that surprise even jadedchefs,” Marx explains. “And then also, for the moremainstream items, we’re trying to find the best ofeverything. The best pasta, the best ketchup, thebest oils and vinegars.”To that end, Marx travels from Seattle farmersmarkets to green pastures in New Zealand, expandingthe items on the shelves of his tiny,modern loft on a busy street betweendowntown Seattle and Fishermen’sTerminal to the north.The items he looks over on thisday are headed to an eight-person tastingpanel that will give a thumbs-up,thumbs-down or neutral. The verdictmust be a near-unanimous positivereview for the product to make it into the inventoryof ingredients. “Somewhere around 5 percent endsup passing,” Marx says.Marx’s foray into bringing rare ingredients to themasses is the culmination of a family food-importingbusiness, Marx Imports, based out of NewJersey that dates back to 1895. Marx himself startedout working at the family slaughterhouse at age 11.Since then, through his own business, MarxFoods, the family business has exploded online, andin the last year, expanded into supplying your homekitchen, where those barbecue bitters may somedayend up. “It’s changed, obviously, so much over theyears.”Marx’s part of the family journey—and thewestward expansion—involved a slight detour toWashington, D.C., for law school. A business lawclass at UB inspired the industry jump. (“The professorblew our minds,” he recalls.) But then loveled him to the west coast and eventually back intofood.Marx Foods began with a desk and computer inhis apartment. He challenged chefs: “Give me yourmission-impossible sourcing,” a food item they justcouldn’t seem to find. Requests came in for rareoregano, Colombian chilies and anchovy oil.Marx confesses that most of the time getting thoseitems means tapping into his family’s vast networkof import connections—a good business move, if notquite as romantic as donning a fedora and headingto the jungle to track down a rare spice.In addition to expanding his family’s businessonline and getting into unusual foods like wild boar,Marx is trying to make importing foods eco-friendly.“One of my biggest pet peeves is green-washing,”he says of the practice of feigning eco-friendlinesswhile pursuing actions that can be environmentallydestructive.Shipping beef from as far away as New Zealandhardly passes muster in locavore-minded Seattle,as Marx readily acknowledges. “That is a line we’vedefinitely had a hard time navigating.”Take the New Zealand beef—yes it travels far,but “they are the best,” he says. He reconciles theconflict in part by the condition of the cows: “[NewZealanders] love their animals and they also reallylove the land,” he says. And to top it off Marx Foodsbuys carbon offsets for shipping the meat home.“We have a lot of local products and we’re workingreally hard at finding them,” Marx says. “Butthey have to pass the panel.”Never one to rest, Marx is expanding the company’sdomain to include monthly subscriptions andgifts. But the secret to his success, Marx says, isn’trapid growth, it’s growing the business right: “It’s allabout the little nuts-and-bolts things.”Well that, and perfect flavor.Story by Laura Onstot, with photo by Ryan Clarkof MarxFood.comElderflower CordialFor more recipesincorporating unusualingredients go toMarxfood.com40 elderflower heads4 lemons6 cups of sugar6 cups of boiling water1 ½ oz of citric acidCut flowers off flower heads. Then add flowers to a metal container. Wash the lemons andcut in very thin slices. Add the lemon slices to the container. Then add sugar and citric acidon top and pour over nearly boiling water. Cover the container with a clean kitchen towel orlid and put in a cool place for three-four days. Stir once in a while to ensure sugar is mixedwith the liquid. Add a piece of cheese cloth to a sieve and pour liquid through. Then add tothoroughly cleaned and sterilized bottles and keep refrigerated. The finished elderflowercordial is served mixed 1 to 6 with sparkling water. The cordial can also be frozen.www.alumni.buffalo.edu UBTODAY Fall 2013 33