By Crissy Pascual

How did Sonoma Spice Queen get started?

I did a three-year wine program at the junior college and I developed a really good palate. I thought I was going to become a viticulturist but everything was funded by Monsanto and I wanted to be an organic viticulturist, so I went to school and studied social science. 

I got really interested in learning about different people’s food traditions and how we relate to each other through food and experience. 

So I just started doing all these theme parties where I would make big Indian food, big Middle Eastern food, big Moroccan food. It was my creative outlet. 

Then I had my daughter and became a stay-at-home-mom and thought I’d open a catering company. 

Then I thought – what’s special about my food? And it was the spices! I realized that nobody was making small batch organic spices locally. 

I was upstairs and I printed out this kindergarten kids crown and I cut it out and put “Sonoma Spice Queen” on it and came downstairs and told my husband I was starting a spice company.

I spent a whole year developing our first line of about 20 mixes and barbecue rubs. Then I found out I could have a cottage food license and make them at home. So I launched at the farmer’s markets. Eventually, I realized Petaluma needs a spice shop and we opened our first shop where we were for seven years. Then four years ago we moved here. (9 Fourth St., Petaluma)

Are there any spices that transformed a dish you made or surprised you?

Vadouvan French Indian Curry is our No. 1 selling item in the whole store. It’s the hardest to make. It took me about six months to develop because it has so many different ingredients. It’s a very layered flavor, but no heat. The French twist is the garlic, shallots, and onions, which makes it more sweet. There’s like 15 ingredients and you have to intricately balance all of it. 

Same with our mole. When you’re representing a culture, I want it to be like the same as somebody would make it from that culture. Since I was a social science major, I really care about the cultural part of the spices and who we are representing. 

How has working with spices enhanced other aspects of your life?

Unfortunately, I don’t get to do as much traveling as I thought. I do speak a little bit of French, Spanish, and German. I like to read cookbooks but because I am a business owner, you will find me reading more books on business management and marketing instead of all the fun stuff. 

I do completely immerse myself in the cultures and make sure that when we’re representing spices from around the world they're actually culturally appropriate. I like learning about their food histories. I want to be able to talk about an Italian spice or Ethiopian spice when people want to know.

One thing we’re really proud of is that most spice companies don’t list all the ingredients. But we don’t have anything to hide so we like everybody to know exactly what's in our spices.

What’s up with pumpkin spice? And what are other trends in spices?

We love pumpkin spice! We jumped on the bandwagon. It’s an American cultural experience. People look forward to it. It’s part of a tradition. 

We make our own pumpkin spice which we sell year-round – pumpkin spice hot chocolate, pumpkin spice sugar. We have pumpkin spice caramels and pumpkin spice toffee. We really do embrace pumpkin spice. 

I think a lot of people that don't like pumpkin spice, it’s because they’ve had a really bad version. Pumpkin spice got a bad rap because of Starbucks and Trader Joe’s. But try ours! It’s really good, you’ll like it.

I think people are becoming more and more adventurous. More and more people are trying curries or berry spice or a Moroccan spice. All they need are simple ingredients that they have in their refrigerator or their pantry and then they can become a culinary adventurer too. They can take themselves to India or Morocco. 

We do follow trends and ube has been super popular in the last couple of years so we jumped on that bandwagon and made ube sugar. You can put it in a smoothie or use it for a cocktail rim or put it on sugar cookies. I actually made ube whipped cream for Easter and it turned out like a really pretty pastel purple. 

What is something that people don’t know about you?

I really like birds. I’m a bird nerd. I used to do a lot of birding when I was younger and I haven’t had time recently. I love the soothing chirps of birds and I like to be able to identify them. In my yard, I have a lot of flowers that bloom that different birds like and feed off. 

I also have a large art collection called “Fat Birds.” They’re done by a California pop artist and I have about 20 of them and I love to look at them and they make everybody happy who comes into the store.

I really do hope in the future after I settle myself with both our locations that I could take more personal time and go birding.

This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and readability.

Crissy Pascual is a photojournalist and co-founder of Petaluma Voice. She can be reached at photos@petalumavoice.org.