Gourmet cooking made easy

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This article was published 18/02/2020 (2284 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Home cooks wanting to step up their culinary game without investing in an array of spices and other pricey ingredients can turn to Fat Iguana Chefs Kitchen’s at-home meal solutions.

Red Seal chef Steve Hunt-Lesage has taken his knowledge gained through years of experience working at top kitchens in Banff and Lake Louise, at Larters at St. Andrews and Winnipeg’s Rossmere Golf & Country Club, and running his own restaurants in Kelowna, B.C. and Winnipeg to develop the Fat Iguana line of five packaged entrees, including maple dill farfalle, Louisiana jambalaya and Jamaican jerk rasta pasta.

He promises that these entrees, which list the types and amounts of fresh ingredients required to be added, can be prepared quickly and will feed from four to six people.

“All the meals are ready in under 25 minutes,” he said.

Hunt-Lesage switched careers in 2004, leaving the kitchen to sell real estate, but gradually realized that cooking is his true calling.

“Food never leaves you. It’s a passion more than anything else.”

He tests his recipes in his Fort Richmond home but uses the commercial kitchen in La Salle’s Caisse Community Centre to measure and package his products. He said he can drive from his home to La Salle quickly and is pleased to be able to rent the kitchen.

Hunt-Lesage buys dried ingredients in bulk and has his children Tristan, Cora and Desiree help him. They can package 250 bags of meal mixes in about three hours.

“I build all the ingredients myself. All the meals and soups are ones I used to do in the cafes.”
He added three classic slow cooker soups, mixes for couscous and quinoa salad, French crepes, buttermilk biscuits, two salad dressings and garlic butter to the product line as well as Santa Margherita tomato and Kentucky barbecue sauces.

Hunt-Lesage is especially proud of the eight sauces he makes, ranging from a mild Anaheim pepper and tomato, to the very hot ghost pepper Georgia peach. He said he was inspired to start creating the sauces as Tristan loves hot sauces.

“It was costing me too much so I developed some,” he joked. “We’re working on a salsa sauce now.”

He’s going to pack up his sauce line to sell at this year’s Dauphin’s Countryfest and feels the music fans will appreciate his products. “We’re going to sell to 10,000 campers.”

He noted that men are mainly attracted to the sauces while women are more likely to buy one of his other products. “It’s probably 80 per cent male customers who buy the hot sauces.”

He offers gifts baskets featuring a mix of products and his sauces can be paired and packaged in various ways. Customers can also order customized smaller gift packages of Fat Iguana products for special events such as weddings.

Since launching Fat Iguana, a name that he’s favoured over the years, Hunt-Lesage has been a regular vendor at Pineridge Hollow’s weekly farmers’ market, at the Assiniboia Downs night markets, the annual Signature Handmade Market at the RBC Convention Centre, and many others. He will have a table at the Downtown Winnipeg Farmers’ Market in Cityplace (333 St. Mary’s Ave.) on Feb. 27 from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., at Rodarama, Red River Exhibition Park (3977 Portage Ave.) from May 1 to 3, and Momcon at Transcona Country Club (2070 Dugald Rd.) on May 9 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Hunt-Lesage also offers free delivery within the City of Winnipeg on orders over $40 and also mail service through Canada Post.

He has recently had his product labels expanded to include bilingual nutritional information required to meet retail standards. Some of his products are available in Winnipeg’s Miller Meats locations and he hopes to expand this to other local grocery retailers.

For more information on Fat Iguana Chefs Kitchen, see https://www.fatiguanakitchen.com