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June 02, 2008
The SaffronKing offers a new level of service to an ever growing audience of clients, online ordering and on-site sampling..
For the past six years, Mr. Sharifi has quietly filled a crucial niche in Manhattan, helping chefs complete intricate menus with his coveted spices.
In a recent article published in at the nysun.com website, Mr Sharifi's story is told by a reporter for the associated press.
:Mr. Sharifi is more than just a salesman. He's a throwback to a time in New York when chefs never bought products from vendors until they had a chance to touch, feel, and taste them. Along the way, he has become indispensable for many chefs.
Mr. Sharifi's spice route stretches from China to Turkey. His exotic inventory includes Aleppo pepper from Syria, Indian pine nuts called Chalgozeh, and Lebanese red hibiscus, among many others.
The erudite and gregarious Mr. Sharifi, who came to America in 1981 after spending time in England, never intended to get into the spice business.
It just sort of happened. While he was studying for his master's degree in New York City, Mr. Sharifi focused on mystical Iranian poetry. He found food-related passages dotted with saffron references.
Saffron dates back more than 3,000 years and was originally used as a dye and not in dishes. Cleopatra was said to put it in her baths, so did Nero in Rome; some have suggested it's an aphrodisiac. "The word saffron is imbued in Persian poetry," Mr. Sharifi said. "It's not just a culinary ingredient."
It's also a commodity. And Sharifi realized that if he tapped his Iranian connections, mainly his family, he could sell it. But there was a hitch. The U.S. had a trade embargo against Iran.When sanctions against Iran were finally eased in 1999 allowing the sale of food and medicine Mr. Sharifi soon went into business.
He bought the domain name SaffronKing.com and began figuring how he was going to import the spice. He turned to his family in Iran, relying on his cousins and their resourcefulness."Logistically it's a nightmare," he said. "Bribes aren't unusual." Mr. Sharifi says he managed to get his first shipment of 220 pounds of saffron about six years ago from eastern Iran.
Since then, he has slowly established a rapport with chefs who buy the saffron for as much as $88 an ounce.
Chefs say it's worth the steep price.
"It was not like any saffron I had ever seen before," WD-50 chef Wylie Dufresne said. "It was fantastic."
Mr. Sharifi lists more than 250 restaurants as clients in Manhattan.
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