The Culinary Innovations Team has been working with Chef Tim Ziegler and Italco Food Products, Inc. for the last year developing Beef Checkoff beef rubs. A steak and burger rub was made available to State Beef Councils last summer and a holiday roast rub is under development. Learn more about Chef Tim below:
Chef Tim Ziegler is Gran Cucina’s Master Blender of spices. In this role he has created an entirely new spice line for Italco Food Products, Inc. that is as high quality as any spice program found in the United States. He developed this skill as founder and former President of Colorado Spice, Inc., and over the last 19 years has, matched, improved and manufactured thousands of seasonings. His creative blends have provided the backbone flavor elements for natural foods, snack foods, sausages and food service formulations for some of the finest food companies and restaurants in the country. Four of his flavoring mixes were awarded the prestigious American Tasting Institutes' 1999 Gold Taste Award for best beef jerky in America.
Chef Ziegler’s seasoning creations have been enjoyed from the soaring heights of Mt. Everest expeditions to some of the most prestigious Colorado Mountain ski-resorts and Carolina and Hawaiian Coastal restaurants. In Colorado, the Grouse Mountain Grill, The Fort, and Hotel Jerome, Oskar Blues, Steubens, Vesta Dipping Grill, among others, proudly feature his creations. Tim developed his company after a stint as chef of a seafood restaurant, where he discovered the lack of quality spices and seasonings available in the Rocky Mountain region. His intensive study of herbs, spices and seasonings has been augmented by extensive Asian and East Asian travels where he has visited spice growing regions and spice markets indigenous to Asia. Tim is the co-author of the “Spices” poster published by Ten Speed Press. Along with Brian Keating, Tim created a beautiful, informative and decorative poster for the world’s largest publisher of food posters. The photography on “Spices” is by renowned food photographer Lois Ellen-Frank and designed by Barbara Flores – the same design and photography team that collaborated on Chef Mark Miller’s wildly successful “Chili” Posters for Ten Speed Press. Chef Ziegler has a Bachelor of Arts in Southeast Asian History from Oregon State University and a Culinary Arts degree from Western Culinary Institute in Portland, Oregon. He has taught thousands of other chefs, apprentices and students at selected institutions including: Colorado State University; the University of Colorado; Metro State College – Denver, Colorado; Metro Community College - Omaha, Nebraska; Emily Griffith Opportunity School; Johnson and Wales University; The Art Institute of Colorado; Iowa Western Community College; and Red Rocks Community College. Tim also teaches younger students in Elementary and High School culinary programs about spices, herbs, history and entrepreneurship. Tim has written extensively about spices for the Restaurant News of the Rockies and has been featured in The Boulder Daily Camera, Denver Business Journal, Rocky Mountain News, Denver Post, Atlanta Journal and Constitution, Los Angeles Times and Westword Newspapers.
