Sauce Magazine: The Sweet Life

The Sweet Life
Janet Shulman is sweettalking her way into the
local candy scene, one
chewy piece of hand-crafted
caramel at a time. Her
company, The Caramel
House, produces the artisan
from-scratch candies in six
flavors.
After years as an avid
home cook who cooked for
family, friends and events,
Schulman began to think
about applying her talents
on the professional level.
Though Shulman herself
enjoys all kinds of candy,
she eschews working
with chocolate – it’s too
expensive. And so she
first tried replicating her
grandmother’s caramelmaking, to no avail. The
Joy of Cooking failed her,
too, and eventually, even
the candy thermometer
was tossed aside as she
worked her way to caramel
perfection through intuition
and trial and error.
varieties, beer-and-pretzel,
bacon, and coffee among
them.
Shulman flies around her
borrowed kitchen at The
Women’s Exchange; timing
is everything. No talking is
allowed, especially when
pouring the golden stuff into
the molds. If anything slows
Shulman, it’s the individual
wrapping, labeling, boxing
and bagging the business
requires. Her caramels are
available through her website,
thecaramelhouse.com, and at
local shops, including Deer
Creek Coffee, Giddyup Jane
and Jennifer’s Pharmacy. Unflappable and sincere,
this family-centric candy
cook may eventually bring
her other addictive treats
out of the cupboard, too,
including her granola and
ambrosial brownies. It’s all
part of her pursuit to make
the world a sweeter place.
– Diana Losciale
Not simple candy, her handwrapped lovelies require
time, fairy tale-sized cooking
pots, some candy chemistry
and weather that, ideally,
would be a lot less mercurial
than STL summers. chef’s day off
Jon Lowe, executive chef
at oceano bistro
14 I SAUCE MAGAZINE I saucemagazine.com
“When I’m in the Creve Coeur area, my wife and I eat at La Salsa; we like the variety the
salsa bar has to offer. Also, it is an open kitchen so you can see what’s going on. When
we’re in the Chesterfield area, we frequent Jason’s Deli. We like the large menu; it’s mostly
sandwiches, soups and salads, but you can tell it’s fresh.” Read about Oceano’s menu in our
Old School review on page 26.
June 2011
photos by matt Marcinkowski
She uses local ingredients
– from vanilla to beer –
to infuse flavor into her