Saveur's savory tapenades make gourmet cooking easy
By Suzanne Cristallo
Think of tapenades as epicurean perfume. That's how owner Bette Mermis of Saratoga defines the product she markets under the name Saveur, meaning savory. Bette and husband John introduced tapenades to the United States five years ago.
Bette has created a product that has evolved from the finely pureed and somewhat salty European version. Her version is made with olives, artichokes, mushrooms or hot peppers, coarsely chopped with fresh herbs, lemon juice, shallots, garlic, vinegars and oils. No preservatives are used. A protracted shelf life is achieved through acid balance and just the right amount of water to prevent bacterial growth.
The Mermises, outfitted in immaculate white aprons, offer tastes of their tapenades at the Los Gatos and Mountain View farmers' markets on alternating Sundays.
Tapenade is a term that originated centuries ago in Provence, France. It means a concentrate made from foods that are pickled--like capers--and bottled to give a special "zing" to sauces, condiments, dips, appetizer and sandwich spreads or to use as flavoring agents for meat, cheese and pasta. Once defined, the analogy of tapenade as perfume seems logical.
Bette creates recipes around her products, demonstrating through them the variety of tapenade uses. There are mushroom canapés stuffed with cheese, green onions and kalamata or green olive tapenade; wild rice mixed with artichoke tapenade, pimentos, parsley and green onions; Italian hot sausage cooked in tapenade, tomatoes and pimento, then cooled and mixed with cheese, wine, broth, lemon and bread crumbs to make strudel.
The list goes on, conveniently published in a series of Saveur brochures.
Bette, a Connecticut native from a big Polish family of eight children, grew up with her mother's cooking expertise and the influence of the Italian, French and Hungarian families that four of her sisters married into. She started her professional life as a nurse, joining the U.S. Air Force and working at various bases. It was at a base in Iceland that she was inspired to cook by watching and then joining the base staff sergeant who prepared meals "fit for a cruise ship." Iceland was also where she met her future husband, John, a civilian from Kansas who was teaching electronics engineering.
Bette spent the years after her 1961 marriage and discharge from the service as a nurse caring for the terminally ill, eventually settling in Saratoga in 1970. In 1973, she was hit by a car, resulting in three years in a body cast. "I couldn't sit more than 20 minutes at a time," she recalls. Her positive outlook found her seeking a new outlet for her energies, which were limited in nursing by her difficulty with lifting.
Soon she was at West Valley College studying science and cooking, which went on for 14 years. Then she was teaching cooking classes, doing market research on food products and finally, with the insistence of friends who enjoyed her culinary creations, starting her own business. "It was mainly to get them off my back," she laughs.
"I take the work out of it for them," she says, pointing to the 20 different tapenades, relishes, marinades, dressings and the unpickled "Top 'n Nod" products she markets in delis, grocery stores and wineries throughout the United States and in Singapore. They are contained in jars she designed to signify the "subtle elegance" she wants her products to convey.
Saveur Specialty Foods, Inc., P.O. Box 503, Saratoga, 95071. Their next appearance at the Los Gatos Farmers' Market is Aug. 22. 867-2289 or (888) TAPENADE.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
