Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / How Do You Create a Product in the Culinary Industry with Toni Johnson

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How Do You Create a Product in the Culinary Industry with Toni Johnson · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

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  Three, two, one, zero.
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  Ignition.
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  Lift off.
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  Ending small business failure.
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  Welcome to the Small Biz Chat podcast with the number one small business expert, Melinda
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  Emerson.
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  Melinda's goal is to end small business failure, and she'll give you the information
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  you need to succeed and live the life you dream of.
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  Now here's your host, the small biz chat lady herself, Melinda Emerson.
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  Have you subscribed to the small biz chat podcast?
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  Well, it's time.
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  Every Wednesday, we offer listeners bite sized actionable tips to start and grow a successful
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  small business.
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  In just twenty minutes or so a week, you can get a ton of insight and resources to propel
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  your business forward.
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  Be sure to subscribe to the Small Bitch Chat podcast today.
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  Everyone, I would love to introduce my guest, Ms.
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  Toni L.
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  Johnson, known as Doctor.
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  Brownie.
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  She is the founder, CEO, and head chef of the Jamaican Potty Shop.
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  She is a plant based culinary innovator and business powerhouse.
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  She's turned her passion for Caribbean flavors into a nationally recognized blend with deep
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  roots in cultural heritage and a bold entrepreneurial spirit.
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  Toni is redefining authentic comfort food in today's market.
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  Toni, welcome to the Small Bitch Chat podcast.
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  You so much.
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  Thank you for having me.
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  I appreciate that, ma'am.
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  All right.
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  Now I got my first question for you is I love Jamaican patties, you know this, but when you
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  say to me plant based Jamaican patties, I'm like, wait, because I just know the beef patty,
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  right?
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  So tell me what inspired you to start the Jamaican Patty Shop and then how did you turn
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  it into a product based business?
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  Because basically you're a restaurant or caterer and now you have a product line.
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  So tell us about it.
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  So it actually started in the pandemic.
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  I have a vegan son and during the pandemic, you know, everybody was in the house and he was
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  like, mom, I really wanted Jamaican patty.
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  I said, well, that's not going to happen, honey.
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  You know, you can't buy them in the store.
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  And so and they weren't readily available in the city that we were living in.
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  And so I just said, you know what, let me try my hand at it.
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  And I started making it and I started to have to relearn everything vegan because I'm not
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  vegan, right?
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  And just really learning, you know, the vegan products, what are the binders, what's this and
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  how you use that.
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  And so after, you know, some experimentation and I already had a patty recipe, a beef patty
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  recipe, and I said, you know what, I can make this work.
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  And I was already a caterer.
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  And so what I did was I test marketed the puppy with people I knew throughout The United
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  States.
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  Said, hey, I'm gonna send you something.
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  And I would send things through the mail, through dry ice and keep them frozen.
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  And then, you know, as time progressed, and I saw that people really wanted them and they
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  were vegan and people who aren't vegan were ordering them.
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  And I said, You know, I can actually make this thing work here.
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  Yeah.
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  And then in the midst of all of this, I actually got into Target's Forward Founders
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  program.
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  So that actually helped me in a lot of ways of understanding how to really scale this
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  business.
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  Talk to me about Target's program and what, you know, what what did what were your key
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  takeaways and how did you even get into it?
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  Takeaways, man.
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  Listen, there were so many takeaways.
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  Target's Forward Founders program was amazing.
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  I met 30 other founders throughout the country and it really showed us, you know, the
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  logistics of getting your product on the shelf.
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  Getting your product on the shelf is one thing, but keeping it is another.
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  And I think a lot of people don't understand that.
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  And so my takeaway is if if I wanted to go in a target, had to build my customer base and they
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  had to come with me on the journey, man.
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  So I think that was, like, my key takeaway and really actually all the fees that were
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  involved.
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  And, you know, if you're late, your shipment's late, you get you get a fee.
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  You know?
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  If it's on sale, you get a fee.
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  Like, I'm like, whoo.
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  This is a lot of money here, honey.
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  I get it.
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  I get it.
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  But talk to us about talk to us about your food.
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  Talk to us about your flavors.
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  And, you you did something with oxtails that blew my mind because you were like, you gave me
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  an oxtail patty.
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  And then you told me it was vegan.
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  And I was like, shut up, shut up.
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  Should possibly be vegan because it tastes like the beef, but anyway, so talk to us about your
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  flavors and your most popular, you know, food because you do do traditional, patties and
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  stuff too, right?
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  But you have one of your vegan and gluten free options as well.
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  I think that one of the things on this journey that I learned is that even though I eat meat,
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  there's a lot of people who don't.
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  And there's a lot of people who consider themselves flexitarians.
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  And because there's so many flexitarians, people who eat meat but like to dabble more on
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  the vegan side, I created, like, the Jamaican not beef beef patty.
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  That was the first one.
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  The Jamaican not beef beef and people would say the whole word, and that would just it would
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  just tickle me.
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  So we have those.
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  We have, like, our curry chickpea and jackfruit, and you really think it's like curry
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  chicken is a version of curry chicken.
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  And then but we also have, like, our pescatarians.
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  We have a sweet chili shrimp and a sweet chili salmon patty.
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  So those are the patties that people what we do is our flavors are based off base basically is
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  worldly flavors.
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  Flavors that I've traveled the world, flavors that everybody knows, but I'm giving you a
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  taste of Jamaica.
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  So it's all wrapped up in a patty.
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  So even like roast beef and gravy.
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  So Philadelphia is a roast beef and gravy town.
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  So put that thing in a patty.
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  So it's something both things you're familiar with.
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  So really just bringing expanding Jamaica's flavors to the world.
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  So talk to us about, so the Jamaican Patty Shop is actually a restaurant, right?
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  People can come there and get food, but you do a lot of catering work too as well.
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  Yeah.
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  So base so I would say if I break down our, business, I would say 80% is catering, and 10%
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  is wholesale.
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  And then the other 10% is our pop ups and retail and people who order on the website
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  because people do order on the website across the country.
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  But I think that the catering aspect, because we are so different, because we offer plant
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  based.
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  So we have plant based.
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  A lot of people don't under are maybe a little bit confused because there's plant based stuff,
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  but there's gluten free stuff and gluten free plant based stuff.
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  So really all of those dietary needs when, a corporate vendor will say, oh, well, have
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  people are vegan.
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  I was like, what?
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  We we got you covered.
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  And so the catering aspect so you can get traditional, Jamaican food or you can get
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  traditional Jamaican vegan food.
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  So we have those vegan the voxtails that we have.
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  And people sometimes people don't even know the vegan oxtails aren't meat.
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  And that that's the purpose of it because I eat them because I never give anybody and my team,
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  we won't give anybody anything that we won't eat.
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  And we love the vegan ox tails.
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  It's actually like, it's better for the environment.
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  And we're like, yes, sign us up, man.
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  So we sell a lot of ox tails.
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  All right.
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  So I wanna slow you down a little bit.
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  I want you to talk about what were your biggest challenges that you faced when you were
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  developing a product, right?
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  Because you were still like running your restaurant and doing catering, and then you're
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  like, now you're like, you know, I wanna be like Chef Boyardee, I wanna have someone to
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  show.
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  So tell me, I mean, what was that process like and how hard was it for you to develop a
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  product line and then figure out how to manufacture?
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  I mean, because manufacturing food is a lot more difficult than let's say, manufacturing a
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  product, I mean, because there's so many more rigid standards that you have to meet, right?
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  True, very, very true.
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  And I'm very grateful of the city that we were manufacturing in.
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  We started manufacturing in because getting a food scientist.
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  I'm not a food scientist.
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  Really understanding the nuts and bolts.
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  So we're from taking something from your house that you made in your house and then you're
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  elevating it to your restaurant.
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  So you scaled it a little bit.
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  But now instead of making, you know, a 100 patties, you need to make 10,000 patties.
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  And how do you scale that recipe?
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  And I think that for me, it was really about understanding who I needed to have on my team.
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  And so there's Drexel Food Lab is a partner of ours and has really helped us in, really
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  getting like the pH and the, you know, all of the the scientific stuff that you need for for
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  food packaging because you have some like, ever see food that could like, you suck the air out
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  of, like, sous vide.
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  Like, there's so many different terminologies that we had to learn in this process.
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  But as a partner, Drexel Food Lab really helped us out, and they help a lot of different small
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  businesses across the country.
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  It's not just local.
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  So, yeah, that's what we were, we had to do first.
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  When you decided to launch your product line, did you launch with one flavor?
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  One flavor of mine, one flavor, the Jamaican not beef patty.
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  I love it, I love it.
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  So then, what has been your process to scale?
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  Like, I know you're still sort of like in that process, but was Target the goal?
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  Was Whole Foods a goal?
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  Was it just getting it in regular grocery stores and I can go and buy 24 and come home
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  and warm them up in my own oven?
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  When you designed your product and your product to go for sale to the mass market, who who were
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  you trying to market to?
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  So first it was the it it has actually always been the vegans.
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  I think that people who are vegan are flexitarian.
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  However, going into Target's program really showed me that I didn't wanna go into retail at
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  that moment.
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  And I think that making and and and I I have nothing bad to say about Target.
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  I'm not being paid to say it, but I think that really giving you the full picture of the
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  possibilities, I think that was really helpful for me.
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  That was like one of my key takeaways.
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  So when I decided to do it, then I said, do I wanna go into Whole Foods?
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  And then saw a Whole Foods program.
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  I didn't go through it, but I realized it was kind of similar.
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  And I realized, you know what, let me build this puppy from scratch.
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  Let me build this puppy and then we can reconsider further down the line.
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  But our wholesale, right now, how we tested it, how is this a viable product?
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  We tested it through our pop ups and we people just kept coming back and kept saying, are you
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  at?
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  They would hit up.
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  So Instagram, where are you going?
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  Where let's come, you know, and then we would do like different festivals.
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  We've done the roots picnic.
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  We've done, you know, other different festivals and different pop ups and on the East Coast.
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  And so I think that I knew it was the vegans who when we looked at the numbers, it was the
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  vegan patties that were outselling the other traditional beef and jerk chicken patties.
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  Now this is prior to us doing our pescatarian patties, but we knew we have a strong, vegan
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  following.
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  Okay.
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  Well, I love it.
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  I know you did Vegan Dale too.
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  Right?
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  Because I remember I saw you at Vegan Dale down in Baltimore.
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  So yeah, no, I mean, I think that really developing a niche product for a niche audience
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  is the way to get paid.
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  And I have said this for years, but I'm gonna say it again right now.
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  Y'all have to niche to get rich.
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  You heard what Ms.
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  Tony said.
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  And now Tony, someone wanted to just order some stuff from you, you are
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  thejamaicanpattyshop.com.
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  I I need you to spell it out for us because
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  I wanna make sure
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  Yeah.
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  It's a long word.
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  It's a it's a long word.
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  I didn't wanna shorten it because I wanted people to know exactly what they're getting is
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  the Jamaican patty is p a t t I e.
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  Because traditionally, people say p a t t y, but it's the the Jamaican, pattie,shop.com.
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  So one long whole word, is just that I believe pati is, there's a whole history of the word
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  party.
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  We'll come back about the job and explain it, man.
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  All right.
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  I love it.
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  I love it.
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  And listen, I want you to tell me what is the best business advice you have ever been given
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  in your business?
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  I think it was one of my mentors.
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  And he said to me, he said, Whenever you start a business, I want you to look around to the
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  left and to the right of when you start your business.
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  He said 90% of the time, the people to the left and to the right can't help you scale.
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  I didn't realize that until I was deep in the minutiae of my business.
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  And I said, wow.
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  And so he said, that's why you have to have mentors.
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  That's why you have to build your circle and really understand that there's no shade as the
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  kids say, but you have to be able to in order to scale, you have to put yourself in different
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  rooms and and to be able to do so.
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  So, that was the best business advice I've ever gotten.
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  Well, my hat is off to you, Toni L.
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  Johnson.
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  She is the CEO and chief chef of the jamaicanpettyshop.com.
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  But I also just wanna congratulate you too, because I remember when you were in your food
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  truck, right?
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  I remember when you transitioned to your restaurant.
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  I remember when you started mass producing your patties.
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  And so I've seen the whole evolution of your business.
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  And so that's why I was so excited to have you on because I feel like a lot of times when I
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  have people on my podcast, their stories are informational and inspirational.
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  And so I wanna give you your flowers today, Mama.
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  I wanna tell you that I think your story is amazing and most importantly, your food is
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  amazing.
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  But thank you so much for being a guest on the Small Bitch Chat podcast, and we will
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  definitely be checking out your latest pescatarian flavors very soon.
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  Thank you.
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  I appreciate you having me, and I can't wait to to for you to taste these new patties, man.
• 15:09
  Thanks for listening to the Small Biz Chat podcast with Melinda Emerson.
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  Subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen to podcasts, and join us next Wednesday for
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  more fantastic information and interviews.
• 15:21
  You can find more sources and small business success strategies by visiting Melinda's
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  website, succeedasyourownboss.com.
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  Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you next week.