@ForkReport Hour 3 | Hoffy

Hoffy Brand plant. Watermelon!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hey, it's Neil Savedra. You'relistening to kfi EM six forty the four
Purport on demand on the iHeartRadio app. Hey everybody, it's the four Purport
all Things Food, beverage and beyond. We get together every Saturday for three
hours to talk about food, thepeople that make it, the culture behind
it, science and everything in between. I am your friendly neighborhood for reporter

(00:22):
Nil Savedra. How do you do? I have the honor to introduce you
to someone today and we're gonna talkabout not only the brand and the brands
that you are most definitely familiar with. But to start that as I introduce
the president of the Hoffey Brands,and I guess this would be Square H

(00:44):
Brands as a whole. That wouldbe our corporate name. Yes, they're
big. There are many many differentnames, but the name that goes along
with the voice you just heard isHenry Haskell. Henry. Before we get
into the brands, let's talk aboutyou as the president. What brought you
to Haffe. Well, that's agood question. My business career has all

(01:10):
the origins in food. I firstcame out of school. I went to
UCLA. By the way, gobronze. My wife will hate me for
as a trojan, but so beit. And right out of school I
joined Mars Incorporated. Okay, thecandy bar, candy that we all need,

(01:30):
the rice company, and in fact, the pet food company. A
lot of people don't know that lastpart. That's exactly right. No,
it's in today's language. It's Pedigreeand Whiskas and a whole variety of products.
Of course, in my era itwas a long long time ago those
brands didn't exist. But in anyevent, Mars is the world's largest pet

(01:53):
food company. It's the world's largestcandy company. It's a wonderful place to
learn how to do great business,and I think it has served me very
well. I grew up on thefinance side, had an opportunity to move
into the selling side, and infact it taught me. That experience taught

(02:16):
me the most important element of myI'll call it corporate learning. When I
was in the finance side, Ithought that everything was answerable. So if
you were to do a if youwere to do an analysis of something,
you would write numbers on a pieceof paper and you would get an answer,

(02:38):
and that answer would be either blackor it would be white in the
ones, and that would be fine. And then I moved into sales,
and I learned the exact opposite.And what I learned was there was no
black and there was no white.Everything on the side side is a shade

(03:00):
of gray. And that the balanceof the learning that I accumulated, I
think between finance and sales has allowedme to imagine that one day I could
own and run a company. Andin fact, in nineteen ninety five we

(03:23):
bought Hoffman Brothers Packing, which isthe genesis of the Haffee brand. So
the original brand was it hot Dogs? Then? Is that what the brothers
did in those days? And I, of course wasn't around in those days,

(03:43):
but I grew up on Hoffey.I have seen photographs of ancient days,
back in the thirties and forties ofproducts and vehicles that are labeled Hoffman
Brothers, So I think they tradedunder the Hoffman brand in those days.
Haffey emerged in I believe the seventies. Again, it was it was well

(04:08):
before my time. And sure,Pat Boone pitching Hoffey Dogs, you got
it? Have a Hoffe, Yeah, have a Hoffey And you know what,
and it's not much different now inthe sense that that's the simple thing
is try this. We stand bythe quality and the product. Have a
Hoffey trial is the game. Andunfortunately the brand fell on hard times and

(04:33):
lost its luster in this marketplace,even though when we acquired it the product
quality was still there and it's local, and a lot of people may not
know that that it's a Southern CaliforniaDarling. That's certainly the case. We
have our factory here in Los AngelesVernon, to be exact, and we

(04:56):
really only sell in Southern California.There of course, is plenty of opportunity
for us to sell products to peoplewho want those products in other markets,
but our entire focus in terms ofconcentrating our efforts is in Southern California,
and at this point in time onlyin Southern California. Reminds me of another

(05:20):
great brand that we all love herein Southern California, in and out Burger,
and that concept of be home first, perfect home first, and then
whatever comes if it's if it appealsand you can still control that quality,
then we'll talk about it. Ibelieve in that. So you talked about

(05:41):
Mars and how in their current statethey have you know, candy bars and
dog food and some people might raisean eyebrow when you think about, you
know, square H brands, youthink about Hoffe brands, when you think
about the brands are you do youhave any other brands are part of this?

(06:03):
That doesn't seem like it it connectswith it or is it all?
You know? Meat products proteins isthat the heart of it. In our
business, we are a meat processorand that is where we will stay for

(06:25):
this business application. We own otherbrands and we manufacture other brands that we
own. For example, our BillBailey's brand, a very significant brand in
the what we refer to as thewhole muscle segment, the marinated meat segment
of the marketplace. The Blarney Stonebrand one of the largest corn beef brands

(06:50):
in this Western United States. That'sa good example of us taking our product
where people want it as opposed togoing out to soil it. And that
and those brands are at the heartof what we what we do. We
we don't have a view to gobeyond. That's what our asset base allows

(07:12):
us to go into and that's wherewe intend to stay. You were kind
enough and your son Noah to giveme a very thorough walk through and tour
of the processing plant. And youknow that to see the cuts of meat,
the quality of it coming in theway it is handled, uh,

(07:39):
and the kind of harmony between humansand the necessity of the machines too.
But the way it was it's watchingpeople hand butcher and refine these cuts is
impressive as hell. It really is. Well, thank you. It is
a complicated thing, and and bringingtogether the people and the shenery with the

(08:01):
vision that we are going to makethe best product we know how to make
and serve the market accordingly is avery important part of how we've evolved as
a company. All right, wecome back. I have so many more
questions. I'm speaking with my guest, Henry Haskell. He is the president
of Hoffey Brands. Yes, thatHoffey brand, those hot dogs that you

(08:22):
love so much, and so muchmore. We come back, we'll talk
about how many things fit into thatbrand. What are some of the different
offerings and varieties that you may notthink about or didn't know existed. So
go know where you're listening to TheFork Report with Nil Sevedra on demand from
KFI AM six forty. Hey,everybody, it's the Fork Report, all

(08:46):
Things Food, beverage and beyond.I'm sitting here with my guests, Henry
Haskell. He is the president ofHoffey Brands, and we're talking hot dogs
and beyond with this local brand thatreally you don't find anymore. And to
have this in our own backyard andto be able to go out to your

(09:07):
local grosser and pick these things upthat we're just created miles from where you
live is a thing that still impressesme. Got to do a walk through
of the plant, which was reallycool, and I'm just I'm filled with
questions, so we're gonna chat somemore. One of the things is,
Henry, the varieties, whether it'shot dogs or other things that are offered,

(09:30):
different flavors, anything in development thatpeople should know about that they may
not know that hoffeymakes. We arevery interested in serving the meat, the
processed meat demand in this marketplace.That is the result of only a vision

(09:50):
that says we want to make thebest product in class. Our best in
class belief is at the core ofwhat we are. We we are not
the we do not we are notthe low cost producer. We believe deep
in our hearts that we make thebest products, and those products with that

(10:11):
in mind, those products can servea substantial uh spread of demand. For
example, a beef hot dog,a chicken hot dog, a turkey hot
dog, a hot dog with anatural casing like Pink's uses. For example,
we all know and love have eatena million times our our Hoffey brand

(10:33):
of bacon all built off that beliefthat we want, that we are and
we always want to be best inclass. We wouldn't bring a product to
market if we didn't think it wasbest in class. And we've recently brought,
for example, almost ready to launchin this marketplace, a brand of

(10:56):
cocktail, a Hoffee brand of cocktailFranks that that are coming to market with
the good graces of our grosser partnersin the next several months. So how
does that come to be? Like, I don't find you to be in
correct me if I'm wrong, nota trendy brand where you're going, Oh,

(11:16):
this seems to be the thing thateverybody's into now, But it is
doing this expectation we have when youbite into a hot dog, when you
have carneisada, when you have thesethings, you have to meet that and
exceed that expectation. So what makesyou go, you know what we need
cocktail weenies. You know what putsyou in that mindset? We see an

(11:41):
opportunity in a market segment that isgrowing, where we believe the competition allows
for a superior product to resonate inthis market. And that is exactly how
it occurs. I've earlier, justa minute ago, said that we are
not the cheapest guy, we arenot the low cost producer, but we

(12:05):
are in fact believing that we couldbring a cocktail frank into this marketplace.
What the dominant player is little Smokies. Uh sure, And we are bringing
a product into this market that weanticipate will be well received because it will
be better. Look, let's goback to my roots. I think that

(12:28):
it is important for you to foryour listeners to appreciate that I can over
simp. It sounds over simple,but it's really true that in developing a
business segment or a product for business, there are really only two things that
you can do. It really comesdown to two things, one or both
of two things. One is youcan make a product cheaper, and the

(12:52):
other is you can make a productbetter. And if you can make a
product better and cheaper. You've gotthe grail. We focus on making products
better and that's how we look toidentify where the market opportunities are and design
products accordingly. And this would betrue for our Bill Bailey's marinated meat brand,

(13:16):
our corned Beef brand, everything theBlondie Stone brand, and everything else
that will bring the market under thosethree brands. I have this vision.
And we've met once before and hada conversation, and you've been kind enough
to sit down with me today.But I have this this vision that you're
the type of person who bites intosomething and goes we could do better than

(13:37):
this, right, And I likethat. I like that from a mindset
of of you know, something thatoversees a product that it's eventually going to
get to my door. Let metell you that there are a lot of
people in this company, uh thatthat see it that way. It is
way more than me biting into Uh. Someone's got to lead humility aside.

(14:01):
So we set the stage. Weset the stage. You you saw the
people on the tour. They allcontribute. Oh and you can you can
feel a passion from you know people, you can I just see pride when
I when I go in and youwalk and you smile at somebody in the
work they're doing. Yeah, everybodytakes pride in that. All right,
uh uh, we're gonna do anothersegment. So so stick around as I

(14:24):
talk with Henry Haskell, the presidentof Hoffee Brands. You know them well,
but they're not just hot dogs,and you might be surprised where you
might find them. It's grown andgrown. I used to have to search
them out and hunt a little bit, and now you can find them all
over the place, which is ablessing to all of us who love this
brand and live by it and throwit on our grills all the time.

(14:46):
So stick around, We've got moreto come. You're listening to the Fork
Report with Nil Savedra on demand fromkf I am six forty everybody. Neil
Savadra here, your friendly neighborhood Forkreporter. Happy to be with you on
this Saturday as I am every singleSaturday from two to five, count them
three hours that we get to celebratefood, the people that make it,

(15:07):
the culture behind it. And todayis no different. As we're hanging out
with Henry Haskell, the president ofHoffey Brands, and you know what I
would be remiss if we didn't mentionthis, because next or this coming Friday,
the twenty six you have a fivedollars special going on that I want

(15:28):
to make sure people know about.Thank you for asking five dollars Fridays at
Albertson's and Vonds. Oh I loveit. Next Friday, Yeah, so
the twenty sixth, get to yourlocal Vaughn's and your local Albertsons and you
can buy Is this a pack ofhot dogs? What is this? I
think everything that sells for five dollarsFridays? Really? Yeah, I'm in

(15:52):
Is there a limit? Or canI bring a truck? Can I beg
there? Like? Who's this guy? Beebe? I like to think of
myself as a pretty decent guy.But when I was in the the bacon
section of the factory and the processingarea earlier today, I was like,

(16:15):
I wonder how fast I can getaway with one of those big, big
o' slabs of bacon. You know. One of the things that I noticed
by the way in the in theprocessing plant is the wonderful smells that come
off of the smoking ovens and thehigh tech you know, So let me

(16:37):
paint this picture. You've you gotthese massive, massive ovens, and I
could only look through like this fourby six piece of double paned glass,
very thick into this dark area,but you could still smell the smoking process.
And then there's this caged area witha key card accessibility that allows the

(16:59):
person here to control the ovens thatyou could even watch, I'm told like
you can see them from another location. You can see who's dealing with this.
But the smells of the spices,the smells of the ingredients were wonderful.
Now, how do you source theingredients for the products? Here at
Hoffee Brands, we have a veryclose partnership with primarily one, but other

(17:27):
spice companies as well that provide usto our custom formulation the spices and smoke
that we use to manufacture all ofour products. We're spending most of our
conversation here talking about bacon and hotdogs from Hoffe But the sophistication of the

(17:49):
spice blends on our marinated meatline isreally amazing if and certainly one of the
most closely held secrets of how wemanufacture our product are the spice formulations,
which are truly our own. Andthere's these I don't know that they're tumblers.

(18:11):
I don't know if you call themvacuums or whatever they are, but
there is a process during the marinatingto help speed up correct that is quite
impressive. So the ingredients go inthere, the protein goes in there,
and liquid as well, and itmarinates, and it is marinated under a
vacuum. And that vacuum draws theappropriate amount of marinade and spice into each

(18:38):
of the pieces of protein that we'remarinating, and it dramatically accelerates the process
of marination. And it also standardizesthe quality the intensity of the spice piece
to piece, eliminating you know,all the very all of the variabilities where

(19:02):
we where we find reasons why sometimescompeting products don't Consistency is the hardest thing
in food business, no question.The amount of any restaurant, I will
tell you that the amount of productthat you give away, the amount of
variability, and the product quality thatthat you manufacture is crucial to your success.

(19:23):
Now to kind of for those playingthe home game today, you've heard
me talk about souv. Suv isa French term means under pressure. It's
a process of cooking usually done ina vacuum bag and so at very high
and restaurant Thomas Keller Sheft Thomas Kellerfrom the French Laundry very popular for this.

(19:45):
They are doing the same process withtheir meats under pressure that you are
doing here at Hoffee Brands for yourmuscle beats for it on a larger scale,
and that's impressive as hell. That'sthe that's actually the difference, right.
The restaurant here is doing it forone hundred pounds in a batch,

(20:08):
and we're doing it for a batchof thousands of pounds and achieving the quality
standard is what we're both all about. It is a challenge for us.
You know, I come from alarge family. I got five brothers and
one sister, so seven kids inmy family, and you often wonder at

(20:29):
what point could my parents not handle? I mean, how many kids is
too many? Right? So I'mwalking through this, there's a point to
this. I'm walking through the factoryand the processing plant, and I was
very impressed with how big and efficientit is, but also how accessible it
all was. It didn't seem likeanything could get out of your attention,

(20:49):
the attention of Noah, who's thedirector of operations here, and your son
and the other leaders that you havein there. Everything was you could get
a good view on it and nothingis hidden, and I like that.
It just made me feel like there'sno nook and crannies here that cannot be

(21:10):
seen, observed or understood. Wewe literally record with dozens several dozen cameras
every important element of the manufacturing process. Looking ahead besides cocktail weenies, what's
the what's the future? Is itmore? I know we can go to

(21:32):
costco right and we can get thethe the muscle cuts or whatever. You
can get your your carne asada.You can get these things, try tips,
all those and they're under different brands. No, they're under Bill Bailey's
brand. Bill, I don't wantto confuse people think they're going to see
it under Hoffe. No, no, no, they're all under the Bill

(21:52):
Bailey's brand. And in fact,at Costco's here in Los Angeles in a
few weeks time, you're going tobe able to buy on a trial basis.
Our first product launched using the skirtsteak. We have a Korean barbecue
skirt steak that is coming out atCostco's in the Los Angeles area in a

(22:18):
few weeks and in fact, youcan today find that that product being launched
in market on a trial launch inthe San Diego area as well for those
of your listeners that may be inArizona, Utah, and Colorado those markets
as well. I'd be lying ifI said I didn't catch my eye was

(22:41):
the first thing I saw as wewent into that part of the I was
like, and your son was kindof enough to explain, Oh, what's
coming soon? Yeah, the Koreanbarbecue is a killer. Yeah, it's
just really it's I would say it'son trend, but it's not a trend,
just that there's an awakening of peopleunderstanding how great it is in the

(23:03):
flavor base and all of those things. Uh you you grill yourself at all?
Not me? No, No,who grills in the family? My
boy? Yeah, no, wasthe one that throws that wouldn't have it
any other way. And lastly,uh, the I'm told that the last
part of the process here at HoffeeBrands is the tastings that there is it

(23:29):
once a week or it's every morning, every morning, every every morning we
met, we taste every product thatwe made yesterday. And in fact,
it's one of the most critical partsof our evaluation in almost every test,
cutting in the morning, cutting thethe the report comes out, and the

(23:56):
report almost always says typical. Wedon't want to judge our product as great
or not. We want to wewant our product to be typical. Once
in a while, a sampling willcome out too salty or not salty enough
for whatever the criticism is, andwe're able to very quickly react to explore

(24:19):
the cause of that and remedy ifin fact, there is a problem that
results from it. It almost alwaysis an uncharacteristic uh outcome of a product
that is the that is marginal forsome reason, and then it it is

(24:41):
just a great way to run businessa business in my opinion, because it
humanizes it beyond what the numbers ona quality control report say the salt level
was, or the pepper level was, or whatever the measurement is. Uh,
and the human element is very veryor like a doctor that says,
I don't you know, the numbersaren't my patient. The person is I

(25:06):
like, you know, and youbalance out the two. You're close.
I guess My last question is areyou hiring tasters? No? Okay,
that's fine, we can talk thatoff the air. I don't want to
put you on the spot. Don'tforget five dollars Friday. Coming up on
the twenty six Vaughn's, Albertson's,get in there. All of the brands
that are under Hafey that are partof Hoffey Brands you can find and you

(25:29):
will find them for five bucks fivedollars Friday, the twenty sixth, coming
up this coming Friday, get intoVaughn's, get into Albertsons and take that.
Henry Haskell, President of Hoffey Brands. What a pleasure, Thanks for
taking the time. Thank you,This was really great. We're gonna gotta
have you back on again. Allright, stick around, more to come.
You're listening to The Fork Report withNil Savedra on demand from KFI AM

(25:53):
six forty. Everybody, Happy Saturdayto you. It is the Fork Report,
All Things for beverage on beyond.I am your friendly neighborhood Fork reporter
Neil Savader. How do you doyou know? I would love for you
to join us on social media ifyou are so inclined on Instagram, you

(26:14):
can find us at Fork Reporter atFork Reporter on Instagram. And that's probably
the one I'm on the most.But threads and X you can find us
at fork Reporter as well and onFacebook. I'm not on Facebook much,
but you will find us there aswell. And I always like the interaction.

(26:36):
And if you want to see whatI looked with look liked with hair
back in the late eighties, gush, I don't know in this group of
pictures. Maybe I was eighteen possiblyeighteen years old. There, goofy bastard.
Anyway, anyways, if that issomething that you'd get a kick out
of, you can go to atfork Reporter on Instagram and check that out.

(26:59):
I posted it yesterday a four flashbackFriday. Alrighty, and don't forget
mister Tuala Sharp coming up moments fromnow at five o'clock, so go nowhere.
So if you've ever wondered if youcan ripen a store bought watermelon that
is not quite ready yet, no, sorry, that's a short answer.

(27:19):
No. It's not like tomatoes oran avocado or something like that where you
can speed things up in a paperbag, even bananas. Once a watermelon's
picked, that's it. It won'tget any sweeter. It is done doing,
it's growing, it's ripening, andit's not going to get any sweeter.
As a matter of fact, accordingto Rachel Singo from the National Watermelon

(27:44):
Promotion Board, they're picked and packedwithin twenty four hours of being right,
so there shouldn't be any waiting game. They should be good to go if
you pick a decent one. Thereare a couple of tips we've talked about
them on the program before. Avoidto avoid picking unripe watermelons at the store.
And that is the yellow belly orthe ground spot. So this is

(28:10):
where the watermelons sat on the groundwhen it's ripening. That spot turns kind
of a buttery sometimes slightly pale yellow. That will tell you, hey,
this thing is good to go.So look for that spot. That's important.
I know a lot of people tryand look for a green one all
the way around, like it's painting. You don't want that, You want

(28:30):
that green spot. That ground spotis telling. Some also use the two
finger trick. You put your twofingers there, and ripe watermelons tend to
have stripes that are about two fingersapart. Unless you have tiny, little
baby fingers, you're got friggishly largefingers, and I imagine that would throw

(28:51):
everything off. Maybe not. Anyways, that's one trick. Now, if
you don't end up with a ripemelon and you get one of those unripe
ones. Again, there's nothing youcan do to ripen it, but there
are things you can do to makesure you utilize it. There's no reason
to throw it away. You cansalvage it in one way or another.

(29:11):
If you sprinkle some salt on it. I know this sounds counterintuitive, but
it actually brings out its sweetness.Remember, salt enhances flavor. Pepper changes
flavor, So salt should make thingsmore whatever they are. If you put
it on meat, they should tastemeteor. If you put on something sweet,
it should take taste sweeter. Andthat's how you can kind of pump

(29:36):
up the sweetness. Pump up thesweet No, okay, so sprinkle some
salt on it bring out its sweetness. Strangely enough, that's the magic of
salt. You can try squeezing somelemon or lime juice over it to give
it, you know, brighten someof its flavor. Some people will put
the taheen on it, give ita little zesty kick. I've done,

(30:00):
you know, I would probably goahead and salt it, maybe a tiny
bit of olive oil and grill itover high heat on both sides and then
you can put some balsamic vinegar onthere and it's delish. But if eating
it plane isn't going to cut it, you can put it in in smoothies.

(30:23):
You can do watermelon selsu's believe itor not, that works out wonderful,
or whip up some you know,watermelon dakrese, make a cocktail or
something. You can pickle the rindand utilize it. The key here is
that you can do stuff with it. There are recipes that use both the
flesh and the rind, so youcan look them up. Nothing has to

(30:44):
go to waste, is what I'msaying. I think that's that's a theme
for today's program. I think throughoutthe show has been don't let things waste.
You've been listening to The Fork Report. You can always hear us live
on KFI AM six forty two tofive pm on Saturday, and time on
demand on the iHeartRadio app.