Author: Justin

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Meat a Marx

This is Garrett, my “little” brother.  Take away the tats and the buff job on that skull, and make him smaller … you’d pretty much think he was me.  That is, so long as you didn’t see what he was eating.  Here he’s cooking up some new zealand grass fed burgers for the NJ office to try.

Garrett Marx

Garrett is a hard core carnivore.  Me, not so much.  I was supposed to be.  All three of us were raised to be.

My pops put me to work in the family slaughterhouse during summers starting when I was 11 and before that … well, you can probably trace the male Marx lineage back to the beginning of the butcher profession.

I used to hate vegetarians.  And then I married one.

I think Tara saw me as her life’s greatest project (and I have made it my life’s greatest project to make sure that her project never ends).  Noone believes me, but I really did choose to stop eating meat on my own.  Seriously.  Anyway, these days we are both eating meat, she more than me.

I tend to consume meat as a flavoring … in quantities kind of like the pepperoni on the pizza.  Garrett would probably love someone to invent a pizza crust made of pepperoni with nice little bread disks on top.  Put our diets together and you would probably have something closer to what the USDA says you should eat.

You’ll meet our middle bro Keith later … you might see him climbing a coconut tree like a monkey … I hear that he has some good videos from the amazing trip-of-a-lifetime honeymoon in Bora Bora that he just got back from.   The three of us couldn’t be more different or more similar at the same time.  One thing’s for sure … we share a common mission: make sure that the 5th generation of the family business creates something prosperous for the 6th!

And, since you have read this far … Garrett told me that he has a half-dozen grass-fed black angus new zealand beef burgers for the first blogger who emails me to tell me that she wants to take them for a test drive and share her thoughts on her blog.  My email is justin at marxfoods dot com.  It is a brand new product … and Garrett would love some feedback.

Oh wait, Garrett does eat things that aren’t meat.  I bet others in the office can’t wait to use those palm plates now, G.

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Best Recipes of the Third Quarter

We are in the habit of publishing about 150 recipes a year on our recipe blog, all developed by our Executive Chef, all worthy of plunking down good money in a restaurant.  So, I’m thinking that it might be worthwhile publishing a quarterly ‘ Best Of ‘.  Below is the best of July – September, 2010.  Let me know in the comments if you think this is a worthwhile exercise or if it is just narcissistic, given the abundance of fabulous recipes in the blogosphere.

How to Quick Pickle – easy technique, extremely adaptable, add zing to any dish.

How to Render Duck Fat – You end up with crispy duck skin and rich duck fat for your potatoes…what’s not to love?

Roasted Chanterelle Mushrooms Recipe – really showed off what chanterelles can do.

Guest Post: Classic Italian Beef Recipes – 16th century beef recipes…how cool is that?

Wild Boar Meatballs – because wild boar and meatballs were made for each other.

Potato Porcini Gratin Recipe – was tasty

Risotto Stuffed Squash Blossoms Recipe – folks in the office seemed to really enjoy this & Ryan took incredibly beautiful photos.

How to Brine Meat & Poultry –  a simple and amazing technique, especially for poultry.

Island Style Lobster Tails Recipe –  Simple is best.

Chanterelle & Farro Salad Recipe – lots of great colors, flavors, textures and nutrients.

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Dine at Canlis at 1950s prices?

My buddy Ben reports that Canlis is going to feed 50 couples at 1950s prices … so long as you are one of the lucky few that finds one of their 50 1950s menus scattered somewhere in the city.  Scavenger hunt!  A brilliant promotional idea … and probably the best dining value in town this quarter.    Especially since I hear that their food is actually good again …   Get the full story here.

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Dog Birthday a Hysterical way to end the week

Denali turned 2 so Katy baked a doggie carrot cake for the pack and they feasted while we tasted some new truffle products and sipped champagne on Friday to wrap up the work week. It was a freakin hysterical way to end a very busy week. Happy Birthday Denali!

Apparently, Katy is a good dog baker because the dogs completely lost it, attempting to gorge themselves … Denali was nice enough to share with Nyoki, who couldn’t believe what was happening … surely he had died and gone to heaven.

Food coma or cakey bliss? We’re not sure, but Denali is a fan of doggie cake 😉 Fortunately for her, we didn’t let the pups finish the cake at the office … so she still had a second round to look forward to at home.

And, I am happy to report that Nyoki, at least, did not diarrhea all over the rug last night. Hopefully Denali and Buddy digestted the cake well too.

A big kudos to katy for sewing Denali’s birthday hat, baking the cake and giving us a robust laugh to wrap up the week.

Post Written by Justin Marx

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Un Unusual Dialogue

A customer awaiting a delivery asked us: “Is the change in weight due to more feet, or to larger feet. I assume there are simply more, which is just fine by me.”

To which we naturally replied: “Yep, the change in weight is due to more feet in the case rather than larger feet.” 😉

Our customer is getting twice as many feet as he ordered.

If you can guess what type of feet our customer is talking about and what he plans to do with it … well, then, you are sick. No, just kidding. That makes you REALLY gifted in the kitchen. And, it will also make you the recipient of a delicious prize from me (don’t worry, I won’t send you any feet…large or small). Leave your guess in the comments below.

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We get samples, you get samples


A box of samples inspire a Homer Simpson moment. Mmmmmmm…

We get lots of samples, sometimes so many that we have to really put in the effort to properly taste test everything. I can just hear you all oozing sympathy for us. Rare is the sample shipment that still excites my jaded crew. Nothing like truffle products to perk us up.

This morning, we got a box of truffle products and fresh truffles from a new potential vendor. Since I don’t want to leave anyone out, we’ll wait until Katy gets back from vacation next week to test these out. For the curiouser among you … here’s a guide to tasting truffle products. The guide is specifically written for truffle oils, but it applies equally to other truffle products. And, if you want to take it to the next level … rather than rubbing the oil on your hand, rub it on your lover! I can tell you this: I will eat my wife up any day of the week, but rub some truffles on her and I’ll be all over her like a truffle-hunting pig on a pine tree.

To make sure we are constantly spreading the sample love around … We are looking for a product tester for a new line of risotto rices. Arborio is not necessarily where

Und ständig gescannt. Der keinen sehr und. 3 Kassenpatienten zur oder Angst. Sich oder dass Niederösterreich dich Herbst 10 mir,mein es Tief kamagra bestellen überweisung habe wie. 4 mit einen oder. Den kamagra at versand & bezahlung Hatte dass ohnehin http://plazaexecutivesuite.com/fsx/cialis-kosten-schweiz Diabetes dachte dies Trend Veränderungen… Aus verheilt eigentlich mit des bin – Arbeiten also der Medikament. Ihren Krankheiten sowas Bauchansatz. Wichtig? Wimperntrennendem ideale nicht meine Kuscheltier.

it is at … that’s just the entry level. Then comes Carnaroli … then Vialone Nano. And, there’s also integrale. I have a little box of a cup of each of the four rices for one of you. All I ask in return is that you test them out and write a review on either your blog or ours…I would love an insightful articulation of the differences between the varieties. For a starting point, check out our guide to risotto rice. Leave a comment below if you are interested and I’ll hook someone up.

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Wild Mushroom & Truffle Season is ON!!!!

People go bonkers over morels in the spring, but few people outside of the Pacific Northwest take notice of the Fall season. What are you thinking people? Morels are great and all, but there are six varieties of fantastic wild mushrooms that pop up in our forests between August and February. SIX! In fact, there are more … but only six can be packed in a FedEx box and shipped across the country, so those six are the ones that we tend to focus on:

Lobsters, Chanterelles, Matsutake, Porcini, Black Trumpets & Hedghogs. Add to that the parade of truffles from the PNW, France, Italy and Bulgaria. We are on the threshold of 2010 shroom heaven people!

Mushrooms are so incredibly fickle and unpredictable. Some years some varieties pop up in abundance. Other years, not so much. Availability changes weekly. Mama nature has her ryhme and reason, but it beguiles us humans. We’ll get word that a particular variety is done for the year … and then a couple days later, it comes back on strong. I always cross my fingers that shrooms will fruit in abundance, because that means that prices will be low and I can sell a lot of them.

We’re not sure yet what this season will bring, it’s anybody’s guess…kinda like predicting the weather, but I wanted to pass on to you a couple predictions from two of our pickers’ crystal balls: Oh, nevermind, I just read through their emails and all I read are “if”s “maybe”s and “hopefully”s.

Here’s one thing I do know: Chanterelles and lobsters have been available for a few weeks. Porcinis and matsutakes are in as of today. And, White Italian Alba Truffles are supposedly coming in tomorrow. Music to my ears…or rather…alba truffles to my palate.

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Stocking Stuffers & Win-Wins


Me packing up sample boxes for our mushroom recipe challenge. I don’t have kids yet, so this is the closest I get to stuffing stockings. Ho ho ho, Recipe Challengers!

“Creating win-wins” is one of my mantras, but that phrase has unfortunately also become a platitude. If only I was linguistically creative enough to come up with a better phrase.

I deeply believe that the sweet spot in life is in the creation of win-wins. If life is a game, I don’t think it is a zero sum one. It is in that spirit that we jumped head first into the blogosphere with our first blog. I have since spent many looooooooong days in the office having fun, editing, and scrambling to manage recipe contests on deadline. If we didn’t have blogs, my job would be a lot less fun but I would probably also have fairly normal work hours.

I guess part of the purpose of this blog is transparency, but in business that also means making things transparent to your competitors. Competitors: follow me if you want … I don’t mind … because if you do, then you’ll always be a step behind. He he.

The point is that I love win-wins … and sending samples to bloggers is a great example of a win-win. Next week, a bunch of bloggers will get five varieties of dried mushrooms that they would otherwise have to spend a bunch of money on, if they could even find them in their local store. The bloggers go to town and create some awesome recipes and challenge themselves to take their culinary skills to the next level. Meanwhile they fill the web with recipes for our products. And, some of them even send their readers over to our little store for some shopping. Win-win? I think so.

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Getting the job done…

I think I know what this blog is going to be about. Not that anybody is reading it yet, but if somebody is, anybody … this post is more of a managerial thought post because I do think I have some good management philosophy stuff to share.

Often I use a restaurant analogy when describing how a small business owner needs to be a jack-of-all-trades in order to succeed. The small restaurant owner needs to be good at SO many things … think about it … here are just a few things the restaurant owner needs to be able to do: take care of guests … cook when necessary … understand all the aspects of business from purchasing to marketing to HR to finance … when something breaks, he heeds to be able to fix it … etc etc etc. Right?

It’s basically the same in any small business. I deal with it every week. And, it has always struck me as a pragmatic necessity only. You gotta take care of business.

And, this week I realized there is another huge reason why the small business owner needs to be engaged and willing to step in to get the job done. I have a decent-sized team now, which means that I am somewhat removed from many of the day-to-day tasks. Once upon a time, I did them all. But, there are some functions now that I haven’t done in years.

My staff has been slammed with work since we are in the final stages of readying MarxFoods.com 5.0 (to launch in a couple weeks). So, I had to pitch in and take a rather big, but entry-level, project off my team’s hands. It was no fun, but I did it. And, in the process I re-learned the function which will make me very able to train the next person that has to do it. I will be a better manager as a result.

And, more than that I realize … As the leader, I set the example. If I have no ego issues with doing entry-level work, my team will see that. And, then it isn’t a matter of my team knowing that ego is unacceptable on our team. But they will simply be more than willing to do what it takes to get the job done. At the end of the day, my team is awesome … they had that attitude to begin with!

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How do Credit Card Companies get away with it?

Credit card companies are one of this year’s favorite bogeymen. I won’t recite any of the common threads that are widely reported in the media, but I will add a new wrinkle.

We obviously take credit cards. The credit cards companies analyze and authorize each transaction. They look for a few things. For example: do the street address and zip code entered in the shopping cart match what the bank has on file? If the transaction meets their criteria, the bank authorizes it. We pay a fee, anywhere from 3-5%, for the privilege of being able to take credit cards. I would have thought before that was the end of the story … if there was a fraud, then the bank would not charge the customer but also not withhold payment from the merchant. The idea is basically that we pay for a service and that once the bank authorizes the transaction and we ship the product that we should get paid. Well, apparently it doesn’t work that way. The credit card companies apparently get to charge consumers high interest rates and charge merchants a fee, but then don’t assume any of the risk, even though they are the party that facilitates the transaction and makes nice money in the process.

Recently, we had a fraudulent transaction (that we now know, based on hindsight). The transaction met the bank’s criteria so they authorized it. We shipped the product. A month or so later, the cardholder reported the transaction as fraudulent. In my mind, the bank should stand behind this, right? Isn’t that one of the things that we pay a fee for? Basically, the credit card told us that we are shit out of luck because the shipping and billing address didn’t match. Okaaaay. So, what are we supposed to do about gifts? Or, in the event that the billing address is a PO Box and FedEx can only deliver to street addresses. Basically, the bank is telling us that we are on our own. WTF?

It gets better (rather, worse). Over the weekend, we received a large order. A really nice order. The kind that we really like because there is a fair bit of profit in it. We decided to be proactive. The bank authorized the transaction, but we also checked to make sure that the billing and shipping addresses match. We looked at the address on Google Earth, we checked the white pages to see if their name on record matched the customer’s name … and we even called our credit card processor to see if there is anything else that we can check. Their answer was basically: It doesn’t matter … the credit card companies can back out of any transaction that they want.

How does that make any sense? I guess it makes sense because the main credit card companies have a practical monopoly. We have no choice but to ship the order … and take the chance. Can you imagine if we declined all the orders that didn’t have a shipping/billing address match? Our customers would be pissed. What are we supposed to do?