@ForkReport Hour 2 | Hoffy Brand

Hoffy Brand and Summer go together like hot dogs and a grill. Hoffy is making it delicious and making us happy. PLUS what is up with lab grown meat? Would you try it? It's all on KFIAM-640!

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 Report,
all Things Food, beverage and beyond. We get together every Saturday for
three hours to talk about food,the people that make it, the culture
behind it, science and everything inbetween. I am your friendly neighborhood for

(00:23):
reporter Nil Savedra. How do youdo? I have the honor to introduce
you to someone today and we're gonnatalk about not only the brand and the
brands that you are most definitely familiarwith. But to start that as I
introduce the president of the Hoffey Brands, and I guess this would be Square

(00:45):
H Brands as a whole. Thatwould be our corporate name. Yes,
okay, there big. There aremany many different names, but the name
that goes along with the voice youjust heard is Henry Haskell. Henry.
Before we get into the brands,let's talk about you as the president it
What brought you to Haffey. Well, that's a good question. My business

(01:07):
career has all the origins in food. I first came out of school.
I went to UCLA by the waygo Bruns. My wife will hate me
for as a trojan, but sobe it. Let it be. And
right out of school I joined MarsIncorporated. Okay, the candy bar company

(01:30):
that we all play, the ricecompany, and in fact, the pet
food company. A lot of peopledon't know that last part is that's exactly
right? Is that? No,it's in today's language. It's pedigree and
Whiskas and a whole variety of products. Of course, in my era it
was a long long time ago thosebrands didn't exist. But in any event,

(01:53):
Mars is the world's largest pet foodcompany. It's the world's largest candy
company. It's a wonderful place tolearn how to do great business, and
I think it has served me verywell. I grew up on the finance
side, had an opportunity to moveinto the selling side, and in fact

(02:15):
it taught me. That experience taughtme the most important element of my I'll
call it corporate learning. When Iwas in the finance side, I thought
that everything was answerable. So ifyou were to do if you were to
do an analysis of something, youwould write numbers on a piece of paper

(02:38):
and you would get an answer,and that answer would be either black or
it would be white in that onesand that would be fine. And then
I moved into sales, and Ilearned the exact opposite. And what I
learned was there was no black andthere was no white. Ever, everything

(03:00):
on the selling side is a shadeof gray. And that the balance of
the learning that I accumulated, Ithink between finance and sales has allowed me
to imagine that one day I couldown and run a company. And in

(03:21):
fact, in nineteen ninety five webought Hoffman Brothers Packing, which is the
genesis of the Hoffee brand. Sothe original brand was it hot Dogs?
Then? Is that what the brothersdid in those days? And I,

(03:42):
of course wasn't around in those days, but I grew up on Hoffe.
I have seen photographs of ancient days, back in the thirties and forties of
products and vehicles that are labeled HoffmanBrothers, So I think they traded under
the Hoffman brand in those days.Haffey emerged in I believe the seventies.

(04:06):
Again, it was well before mytime. And sure Pat Boone pitching Hoffey
Dogs, you got it, havea Hoffey, Yeah, have a Hoffey.
And you know what, and it'snot much different now in the sense
that that's the simple thing is trythis. We stand by the quality and
the product, have a Hoffey right. Trial is the game, and unfortunately

(04:30):
the brand fell on hard times andlost its luster in this marketplace, even
though when we acquired it the productquality was still there and it's local,
and a lot of people may notknow that that it's a Southern California Darling.
That's certainly the case. We haveour factory here in Los Angeles Vernon,

(04:54):
to be exact, and we reallyonly sell in Southern California. There
There, of course is plenty ofopportunity for us to sell products to people
who want those products in other markets, but our entire focus in terms of
concentrating our efforts is in Southern California, and at this point in time only

(05:18):
in Southern California. Reminds me ofanother great brand that we all love here
in Southern California, in and outBurger, and that concept of be home
first, perfect home first, andthen whatever comes if it's if it appeals
and you can still control that quality, then we'll talk about it. I

(05:39):
believe in that. So you talkedabout Mars and how in their current state.
They have you know, candy barsand dog food and some people might
raise an eyebrow when you think aboutyou know, square H brands, you
think about Hoffe brands, when youthink about the brands you do you have

(06:01):
any other brands are part of thisthat doesn't seem like it it connects with
it or is it all? Youknow? Meat products proteins. Is that
the heart of it. In ourbusiness, we are a meat processor,
uh and that is where we willstay for this business application. We own

(06:28):
other brands and we manufacture other brandsthat we own. For example, our
Bill Bailey's brand, a very significantbrand in the what we refer to as
the whole muscle segment, the marinatedmeat segment of the marketplace. The Blarney
Stone brand one of the largest cornbeef brands in this Western United States.

(06:54):
That's a good example of us takingour product where people want it as opposed
to going out to sell it.And that and those brands are at the
heart of what we what we do. We we don't have a view to
go beyond. That's what our assetbase allows us to go into and that's

(07:15):
where we intend to stay. Youwere kind enough and your son Noah to
give me a very thorough walk throughand tour of the processing plant. And
you know that to see the cutsof meat, the quality of it coming
in the way it is handled,and the kind of harmony between humans and

(07:43):
the necessity of the machines too.But the way it was, it's watching
people hand butcher and refine these cutsis impressive as hell. It really is.
Well, thank you. It isa complicated thing, and and bringing
together the people and the machinery withthe vision that we are going to make
the best product we know how tomake and serve the market accordingly is a

(08:11):
very important part of how we've evolvedas a company. All right, we
come back. I have so manymore questions. I'm speaking with my guest,
Henry Haskell. He is the presidentof Hoffey Brands. Yes, that
Haffey brand, those hot dogs thatyou love so much, and so much
more. When we come back,we'll talk about how many things fit into
that brand. What are some ofthe different offerings and varieties that you may

(08:35):
not think about or didn't know existed. So go know where it's Neil Savadra.
You're listening to the Fork Report onKFI. You're listening to The Fork
Report with Nil Savedra on demand fromKFI AM six forty. I'm sitting here
with my guests, Henry Haskell.He is the president of Hoffey Brands,
and we're talking hot dogs and beyondwith this local brand that really you don't

(09:00):
find anymore. And to have thisin our own backyard and to be able
to go out to your local grosserand pick these things up that we're just
created miles from where you live isa thing that still impresses me. Got
to do a walk through of theplant, which was really cool, and
I just I'm filled with questions,so we're gonna chat some more. One

(09:22):
of the things is, Henry,the varieties, whether it's hot dogs or
other things that are offered, differentflavors, anything in development that people should
know about that they may not knowthat hoffeymakes. We are very interested in
serving the meat, the process,meat demand in this marketplace. That is

(09:43):
the result of only a vision thatsays we want to make the best product
in class. Our best in classbelief is at the core of what we
are. We are not that wedo not we are not the low cost
producer. We believe deep in ourhearts that we make the best products,

(10:07):
and those products with that in mind, those products can serve a substantial uh
spread of demand. For example,a beef hot dog, a chicken hot
dog, a turkey hot dog,a hot dog with a natural casing like
Pink's uses for example. Yeah,we all know and love and even a

(10:28):
million times our our our Hoffey brandof bacon all built off that belief that
we want, that we are andwe always want to be best in class.
We wouldn't bring a product to marketif we didn't think it was best
in class. And we've recently brought, for example, almost ready to launch

(10:52):
in this marketplace, a brand ofcocktail, a Hoffee brand of cocktail Franks
that that are coming to market withthe good graces of our grosser partners in
the next several months. So howdoes that come to be? Like,
I don't find you to be incorrect me if I'm wrong, not a

(11:13):
trendy brand where you're going, Oh, this seems to be the thing that
everybody's into now, but it isdoing this expectation we have when you bite
into a hot dog, when youhave carne asada, when you have these
things, you have to meet thatand exceed that expectation. So what makes
you go, you know what weneed cocktail weenies. You know what puts

(11:37):
you in that mindset? We seean opportunity in a market segment that is
growing, where we believe the competitionallows for a superior product to resonate in
this market. And that is exactlyhow it occurs. I've earlier, just
a minute ago, said that weare not the cheapest, we are not

(12:01):
the low cost producer, but weare in fact believing that we could bring
a cocktail frank into this marketplace.The dominant player is Little Smokies, and
we are bringing a product into thismarket that we anticipate will be well received

(12:22):
because it will be better. Look, let's go back to my roots.
I think that it is important foryou to for your listeners to appreciate that
I can over simp. It soundsover simple, but it's really true that
in developing a business segment or aproduct for business, there are really only
two things that you can do.It really comes down to two things,

(12:46):
one or both of two things.One is you can make a product cheaper,
and the other is you can makea product better. And if you
can make a product better and cheaper, You've got the Holy Grail. We
focus on making products better and that'show we look to identify where the market
opportunities are and design products accordingly.And this would be true for our Bill

(13:11):
Bailey's marinated meat brand, our cornedbeef brand, everything the Blarney Stone brand,
and everything else that will bring themarket under those three brands. I
have this vision. And we've metonce before and had a conversation, and
you've been kind enough to sit downwith me today. But I have this
this vision that you're the type ofperson who bites into something and goes we

(13:35):
could do better than this. AndI like that. I like that from
a mindset of of you know,somebody that oversees a product that it's eventually
going to get to my door.Let me tell you that there are a
lot of people in this company,uh that that see it that way.
It is way more than me bitinginto someone's got to lead. Well,

(13:58):
we'll humility. So we set thestage. We set the stage. You
you saw the people on the tour. They all contribute. Oh and you
can you can feel a passion fromyou know people, you could I just
see pride when I when I goin and you walk and you smile at
somebody in the work they're doing.Yeah, everybody takes pride in that.
All right, uh uh, We'regonna do another segment. So so stick

(14:22):
around as I talk with Henry Haskell, the president of Hoffee Brands. You
know them well, but they're notjust hot dogs, and you might be
surprised where you might find them.It's grown and grown. I used to
have to search them out and hunta little bit, and now you can
find them all over the place,which is a blessing to all of us
who love this brand and live byit and throw it on our grills all

(14:45):
the time. So stick around.We've got more to come. It is
the Fork Report. I'm Neil Savedra. This is KFI AM six forty.
You're listening to the Fork Report withNeil Savedra on demand from KFI AM six
forty. We're hanging out with HenryHaskell, the president of Hoffee Brands.
I like to think of myself asa pretty decent guy. But when I

(15:07):
was in the the bacon section ofthe factory and the processing area earlier today,
I was like, I wonder howfast I can get away with one
of those big, big o' slabsof bacon. You know, one of
the things that I noticed by theway in the in the processing plant is

(15:28):
the wonderful smells that come off ofthe smoking ovens and the high tech you
know. So let me paint thispicture. You've got these massive, massive
ovens and I could only look throughlike this four by six piece of double
paned glass, very thick into thisdark area, but you could still smell

(15:52):
the smoking process. And then there'sthis caged area with a key card accessibility
that allows the personnel here to controlthe ovens that you could even watch,
I'm told, like you can seethem from another location. You can see
who's dealing with this. But thesmells of the spices, the smells of
the ingredients were wonderful. Now,how do you source the ingredients for the

(16:18):
products? Here at Hoffee Brands?We have a very close partnership with primarily
one, but other spice companies aswell that provide us to our custom formulation
the spices and smoke that we useto manufacture all of our products. We're

(16:41):
spending most of our conversation here talkingabout bacon and hot dogs from Hoffe.
But the sophistication of the spice blendson our marinated meatline is really amazing.
I and certainly one of the mostclosely held secrets of how we manufacture our

(17:03):
product are the spice formulations, whichare truly our own. And there's these
I don't know that they're tumblers.I don't know if you call them vacuums
or whatever they are, but thereis a process during the marinating to help
speed up correct that is quite impressive. So the ingredients go in there,
the protein goes in there, andliquid as well and marinates, and it

(17:29):
is marinated under a vacuum. Andthat vacuum draws the appropriate amount of marinade
and spice into each of the piecesof protein that we're marinating, and it
dramatically accelerates the process of marination.And it also standardizes the quality the intensity

(17:56):
of the spice piece to piece,eliminating you know, all the variables,
all of the variabilities where we wherewe find reasons why sometimes competing products don't
Consistency is the hardest thing in foodbusiness, no question. The amount of
any restaurant, I'll tell you thatthe amount of product that you give away,

(18:18):
the amount of variability and the productquality that that you manufacture is crucial
to your success. Now to kindof for those playing the home game today,
you've heard me talk about souv.Suv is a French term means under
pressure. It's a process of cookingusually done in a vacuum bag and so
at very high end restaurant Thomas KellerScheff Thomas Keller from the French Laundry very

(18:45):
popular for this. They are doingthe same process with their meats under pressure
that you are doing here at HoffeeBrands for your muscle beats for it on
a larger scale, and that's impressiveas hell. That's the Yeah, that's
actually the difference. Right. Therestaurant here is doing it for one hundred

(19:07):
pounds in a batch, and we'redoing it for a batch of thousands of
pounds. And achieving the quality standardis what we're both all about. It
is a challenge for us. Youknow, I come from a large family.
I got five brothers, one sister, so seven kids in my family,

(19:27):
and you often wonder, at whatpoint could my parents not handle?
I mean, how many kids istoo many? Right? So I'm walking
through this. There's a point tothis I'm walking through the factory and the
processing plant, and I was veryimpressed with how big and efficient it is,
but also how accessible it all was. It didn't seem like anything could

(19:49):
get out of your attention, theattention of Noah, who's the director of
operations here, and your son andthe other leaders that you have in there.
Everything was you could get a goodview on it, and nothing is
hidden, and I like that.It just made me feel like there's no
nook and crannies here that cannot beseen, observed or understood. We we

(20:14):
literally record with dozens several dozen camerasevery important element of the manufacturing process.
Looking ahead besides cocktail, Weenie's what'sthe what's the future? Is it more?
I know? We can go toCostco right and we can get the

(20:34):
the the muscle cuts or whatever.You can get your your carne asada,
you can get these thripes, trytips, all those and they're under different
brands. No, they're under BillBailey's brand. Bill, I don't want
to confuse people think they're going tosee it under Hoffey. No, no,
no, they're all under the BillBailey's brand, and in fact,

(20:56):
at Costco's here in Los Angeles ina few weeks time, you're going to
be able to buy on a trialbasis. Our first product launched using the
skirt steak. We have a Koreanbarbecue skirt steak that is coming out at
Costco's in the Los Angeles area ina few weeks. And in fact,

(21:22):
you can today find that that productbeing launched in market on a trial launch
in the San Diego area as wellfor those of your listeners that may be
in Arizona, Utah, and Coloradothose markets as well. I'd be lying
if I said I didn't catch myeye was the first thing I saw as

(21:45):
we went into that part of theI was like, and your son was
kind of enough to explain, Oh, what's coming soon? Yeah, the
Korean barbecue is a killer. Yeah, it's just really it's I would say
it's on trend, but it's nota trend. It's just that there's an
awakening of people understanding how great itis in the flavor base and all of
those things. Uh, you yougrill yourself at all? Not me?

(22:10):
No, No, who grills inthe family? My boy? Yeah,
no, was the one that throwsone that wouldn't have it any other way,
And Lastly, UH, the I'mtold that the last part of the
process here at Hoffee Brands is thetastings that there is it once a week,

(22:30):
or it's every morning, every morning, every every morning we met,
we taste every product that we madeyesterday. And in fact it's one of
the most critical parts of our evaluation. In almost every test, cutting in

(22:52):
the morning cutting the the the reportcomes out, and the report almost always
says typical. We don't want tojudge our product as great or not.
We want to we want our productto be typical. Once in a while,
a sampling will come out too saltyor not salty enough for whatever the

(23:15):
criticism is, and we're able tovery quickly react to explore the cause of
that and remedy if in fact,there is a problem that results from it.
It almost always is an uncharacteristic outcomeof a product that is that is

(23:38):
marginal for some reason. And itis just a great way to run business
a business in my opinion, becauseit humanizes it beyond what the numbers on
a quality control report say the saltlevel was, or the pepper level was,
or whatever the measurement is. UH, And the human element is very,

(24:00):
very important, like a doctor thatsays, I don't you know,
the numbers aren't my patient. Theperson is I like you know, and
you balance out the two you're Iguess my My last question is are you
hiring tasters? No? Okay,that's fine. We can talk that off
the air. I don't want toput you on the spot. Henry Haskell,
president of Hoffee Brands. What apleasure. Thanks for taking the time.

(24:22):
Thank you, this was really great. We're gonna gotta have you back
on again. All right, stickaround more to come on the Fork Report.
I'm Neil Savedra. This is KFIsix forty. You're listening to The
Fork Report with Neil Savedra on demandfrom KFI AM six forty. I'm Neil
Servadra. Howdy, howdy, howdy. Don't forget. You've got Tawalla Sharp
coming up at five with so CowSaturday. You've got at seven o'clock Unsaulved

(24:48):
with Steve Gregory. Check that out, won't you? Tomorrow at six is
the Jesus Christ Show Live, Somake sure you get up for that because
Tony works the bore and I produce. That means you need to get your
fanning up as well. You mighthave heard in the news that there was
an approval by the FDA for cellgrown manufactured meat. In this case,

(25:17):
it was chicken, and the Foodand Drug Administration confirmed that the lab grown
meat was safe for human consumption.So it's gonna be crazy. Oscar Ramirez
and I yesterday he sent me avideo and we sat there watching it about

(25:38):
the development in the process of makingthis meat. Now, this is not
a meat analog. This is meat. It's still is cruelty free in the
sense that it's used cells from theanimal. But those cells, they can

(26:00):
they continue to generate those cells.I'm not going to pretend to understand the
entire process, but continue to generatethose cells and to use them to build
and grow lab grown meat. Andit takes time for the process, but
I think you're looking at it acouple three weeks. When you're looking at

(26:23):
years for animals to grow to amaturity that they can be used for food,
you're looking at a minuscule amount ofwater being used to produce the same
amount of meat. And also youdon't have to make the whole animal.
If you're gonna grow breasts, you'regonna grow white meat, and you grow

(26:45):
white meat. Why'd you just smileat breath? I know what you're saying.
I'm a child. I'm saying youare just the breast. Please,
but you know you could make whateveryou're making. Now, there's going to
be issues because you're you know,there are byproducts we use from the animals

(27:08):
as well, you're not using.We've learned to use the entirety of the
animal, so the meat is onlypart of what we end up using.
You use bones and cartilage for gelatin, you use them for stocks, you
use them all kinds of things.But as far as being able to cut
down the production of animals and keepingthat, you know, the large production,

(27:33):
which along with that comes antibiotics,you're not going to need that stuff
for this. I think this isgoing to be the true jump, not
the meat analogs or meat made fromhighly processed vegetables. I think this is
going to be the thing. Sothese these cells, these stored cells from

(27:57):
a, yes, a once livinganimal. They take these cell lines,
they're selected, they're combined with kindof it's like a broth. I guess
that includes amino acids, fatty acid, sugar, salts, vitamins, other
elements that cells need to grow andthen the meat is grown inside a steel

(28:18):
tank and formed into shapes like nuggetsor cutlets, cutlets. Basically, the
breasts or what I sawt they lookedlike a regular breast without actually without the
side fat or the cut marks arebeing pulled off of a bone. I
mean, it just looked like acleanly fabricated breast. And you know,

(28:41):
we saw a couple prints of theso called steaks which looked a little weird,
but they said that's just the waythey look after they are three D
printed, and you heard right,and they can change the fat so they
can make more fat less fat.It's crazy. Now. The printed stuff
for the stakes looks, I mean, looks like eight bit cartoons. But

(29:04):
if they're they say they have toform and grow into themselves, and I
haven't seen that yet. But it'scoming, man, I think this is
going to be the real change.We're gonna find a balance in all these
things. Slowly, but surely,we're gonna just have meat printers at our
house. Who wants a steak?I want a ribbi, I'll take it.

(29:33):
So it's coming. It's coming.It'll probably be some time before we
see it on the shelves. Butit's gotten the AOK from the FDA.
It is the Fork Report. I'mNil Savedra. This is KFI and kost
HD two Los Angeles, Orange County. You've been listening to The Fork Report.
You can always hear us live onKFI AM six forty two to five

(29:56):
pm on Saturday, and anytime ondemand on the iHeartRadio app