When she was just 12 years old, Leslie Stowe cooked her first meal – a beef bourguignon and apple charlotte for a dinner party. The party was small, just her parents and four of their friends, but understanding the immense undertaking by the 12-year-old, the adults dressed for a black-tie affair and Stowe’s father purchased a special wine to celebrate his daughter’s efforts.

“I read a newspaper article about a 14-year-old boy who was spending all this time in the kitchen and learning to cook, and I thought, ‘I can do that,’” Stowe said. “So I poured over my mother’s cookbooks, and I spent all afternoon in the kitchen. I think if you’re a foodie, [cooking] is in your blood.”

Years later, Stowe learned how to perfect the French dishes of her chef-debut while attending L’École de Cuisine La Varenne, the famous culinary school founded by acclaimed chef Anne Willan in Paris, France.
 
When Stowe returned to her native Vancouver, recognizing the immense lack of specialty-type food stores in the city, she capitalized on the opportunity and opened Leslie Stowe Fine Foods in 1990. The shop quickly became a destination for foodies and those in search of both international and house-made gourmet items. One of those house-made gourmet items was a dark-grain bread, sliced thin and baked to a crunch, which Stowe developed specifically for the catering business she was running in conjunction with her retail store.

“A good percentage of the events we were doing were cocktail parties. When you cater cocktail parties, there is room to experiment; you need to be creative to please the clients. Smoked Salmon is huge out here on the West Coast [of Canada]; we needed something to serve it on.”

The original flavor of Raincoast Crisps was born.

 “People at the cocktail parties loved it. We started selling it at the store.”

 Sixteen years and five new Crisps flavors later, Stowe took a “leap of faith,” shutting down her retail store to focus efforts on what was dubbed A Crispy Conversation Starter.

“It wasn’t that the Crisps were doing so well that we decided to focus on them. We decided to focus on them because we thought they could do well.”

And do well they did. When Raincoast Crisps first entered the retail market in December 2006, Stowe held an in-house competition – employees bet on how many boxes of Raincoast Crisps they would sell during the busiest food month of the year. They estimated between 13,000 and 14,000 total units for the month, and the actual total was just above that at 15,000 units. Today, the operation is equipped to produce that same quantity in just one day of production.

Stowe says her favorite way to eat a Raincoast Crisp is to evoke the classic salty-sweet combination that makes foods like chocolate-covered pretzels so addicting.

“I love pairing the Salty Date and Almond [Raincoast Crisp] with Italian prosciutto and Saint Agur cheese.”

Though much of Stowe’s culinary style comes from her Parisian education, she also draws inspiration from her travels and says she is partial to Italian cuisine. The self-proclaimed ‘carbohydrate girl’ said if she had to choose a ‘last meal,’ it would be, “handmade pappardelle with great olive oil and truffle shavings. And a glass of wine of course…a good glass of wine.”
And her company for this meal? The man who inspired her whilst attending Ecole de Cuisine La Varenne, Chef Chambrette, now passed.

Though Stowe says she misses the dynamics and the direct interactions with customers while operating her retail store, she loves the challenges a new business presents.

Stowe is pleased with the success of her Crisps and says, “I feel fortunate that I can be doing something I believe in and love. It’s wonderful to hear testimonials from customers who are just thrilled with the product.”

Raincoast Crisps Flavors:
Original
Rosemary Raisin Pecan
Cranberry Hazelnut
Fig and Olive
Salty Date and Almond

       
 

Lesley Stowe’s Aubergine & Kalamata Olive Spread

This is fantastic served with soft goat's cheese and Original Raincoast Crisps. An instant hors d'oeuvre that keeps refrigerated for several days.

Ingredients
1 small Japanese eggplant (aubergine) cut into 1/2-inch slices
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp fresh oregano, chopped (1/2 tsp dried)
1/4 tsp Tabasco
1 cup Kalamata olives, pitted
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp fresh basil, chopped
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Directions
Grill or broil the eggplant and roughly chop. Transfer the eggplant to a food processor. Add the olives, garlic, cumin, oregano and Tabasco. Pulse on and off until the mixture has a consistent texture but not too smooth. Add the vinegar, basil and enough olive oil to just blend together. Season with salt and pepper.

© 2011 Lesley Stowe Fine Foods

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