MEET CURIO SPICE
FOUNDED BY
CLAIRE CHENEY
Location: 2265 Mass Ave. Cambridge, MA 02140
www.curiospice.com
THE INTERVIEW
Written by Boston Women’s Market
BWM: Tell us a little bit about your shop?
Curio Spice Co.: We opened Curio Spice brick and mortar a little over a year ago, last November. Before that we were using a shared kitchen space. We outgrew it. We needed more production and storage space, and decided it would also be fun to have a spice shop. It’s our all-in-one space: our production kitchen, our storage, where we ship from. We do a lot with our small space! It’s been really great! We are on a block with other artisan businesses here in Cambridge. It’s a nice community and it’s nice that the city supports us.
BWM: I was looking at some of your products. It looks like you carry a couple different females from our area?
CS: It’s great! We love to partner with other like-minded businesses, whether they’re restaurants or other food producers. We work with Honeycomb Creamery and we just did a collaboration with the chocolatier Gâté Comme Des Filles We also make a couple blends for Juliet. It’s definitely one of our favorite things to do.
BWM: Why spices?
CS: Well, I love to cook and I love to travel, and when I travel I bring home spices and love that they are a kind of lens through which to learn about the world. They are these aromatic story tellers. I have had an interesting path towards getting to opening this spice business, from working in restaurants and on spice farms and writing about food. It’s kind of a combined passion.
BWM: You’ve got me interested: what’s your favorite place you’ve ever visited?
CS: That’s hard! Sri Lanka is one of my absolute favorites. It’s hard to get to, which was rewarding when I finally got there. It’s a really amazing place with an incredible history and an incredible spice culture. Everyone should go!
BWM: We work with a lot of young, female entrepreneurs who are just starting out. Our younger vendors are always super interested in gleaming some kind of advice from people who have been doing it longer. What’s something you wish you could tell yourself ten years ago.
CS: I think a good tip is to really stay focused on your passion and try to ignore the noise of your competitors or even the voices inside your head that might be discouraging you.
Just focus on what makes you happy about that thing you’re pursuing.
BWM: In the name of celebrating other women, what are some of your favorite female brands or shops, local or otherwise?
CS: My friend Rachel is the co-owner of Forty Winks and she started this great podcast called Keeping Shop that celebrates women opening brick and mortar shops. I really admire her work, especially in that podcast, because I think it’s important to talk about the challenges of brick and mortar retail. On a national level, I’m a big fan of Jeni’s Ice Cream. She is a leader in the culinary field, and she is outspoken and open-minded about sourcing from other women. She’s great!
One of my mentors is Mandy Aftel, who is a natural perfumer. She had a really big impact on my education and growth. She is a really amazing artist and person. She’s out of California.
And of course my bosses at Sofra and Oleana. Of my three bosses, two were women. Gary, Ana, and Maura were great bosses for me. Ana particularly has been really great about celebrating women in the food industry. She’s big on changing restaurant culture, particularly the parts that have been very male-dominated and macho and occasionally toxic.
BWM: What’s your favorite product in the store right now?
CS: Probably our new Edo spice. It has a little heat from the chili, it has refreshing citrus notes, and then it has a really sparkly flavor from a pepper called sansho pepper.
PRODUCTS WE LOVE
8-TIN CHEF’S PACK
The Chef's Pack makes the perfect unique gift, or a just a beautiful addition to your worldly pantry. These blends don’t exist anywhere else in the world - they are original Curio Spice creations.