In 2002, award-winning chef Caren McSherry did something many people thought couldn’t be done – she opened Vancouver’s largest wholesale culinary emporium stocked with “super unique” items she’d picked up during her world travels. She dubbed her ambitious venture Gourmet Warehouse. “When I first opened everyone thought I’d be broke in a month,” she says. “Fear was my best motivator; it made me work harder and made me stay on my toes.”
Today, Gourmet Warehouse sells upwards of 30,000 products sourced from across the globe, including oils, spices, cheeses, vinegars, nuts, unique gadgets and gizmos, as well as Le Creuset cookware. “In the late 1990s, foodies who really appreciated specialty ingredients were paying way too much,” she explains. “I wanted to offer premium gourmet food products at fair prices.”
Caren sees herself as a missionary of sorts, “bringing really good food and unique cooking equipment to home cooks and chefs." For example, Caren notes that Gourmet Warehouse was the first Vancouver store to stock balsamic pearls. “They look like black caviar and when you put them on top of a salad or appetizer and bite into them, they burst into your mouth with the sweet flavours of balsamic."
