From Mark Masker’s interview with Heather Manley on the Burn! Blog.
When World Food Championships competitor Heather Manley dared me to plunge into the pool at the WFC’s meet and greet cocktail party, she could just as easily have been talking about diving right into creating a new recipe for bacon as daring me to jump into a pool. This just seems to be how Heather, who owns and operates Heather’s Dirty Goodness and her own bourbon company among other things, approaches life. Something pulls her interest, she has no qualms whatsoever about plunging in. At least, that’s the impression I got while picking her brain about the WFC, her culinary origin story, and competing in general.
“My spice company was an accident. I made a rub and it took off; everyone used it on everything. Then I cold-called a grocery brand in Minneapolis and the VP of operations was willing to sit down with me. I took a lot of notes, don’t like to do anything small, so from that I built a scalable company. It needed a brand, not just one product. That started me making rubs in the kitchen with wine, creating a product line low in salt with unique combinations of ingredients. That got me into the foodie industry locally. That made me aware of competitions.” Continue reading the interview with Heather Manley.
