Our story

angelo garro founder of Omnivore, San Francisco food company


 

THE MAN BEHIND THE SALT

Omnivore was founded by Angelo Garro at the end of 2013, thanks to the enthusiastic support of thousands of Kickstarter contributors and the San Francisco food community. 

Known for his role in Michael Pollan’s book “The Omnivore’s Dilemma”, Angelo is a master blacksmith by trade and a passionate hunter, forager, cook and Slow Food icon.

While foraging as a child in Sicily, he learned the wonder of herbs like the wild fennel that grew around his childhood home, and spices like the chili peppers his grandmother hung to dry in her kitchen—when mixed with salt, they give character to any food and make cooking simple. This inspired the launch of our first product Omnivore SALT, a spiced salt blend defined by Alice Waters as “indispensable”, and drew us to experiment with new salt blends (Limone, Porcini and Tartufo, hot sauces (Vulcano- Classic and Ginger) and our cooking base (Sicilia) and Condiment and Spread, Pepata.

 

Veronica Ronchi , ANgelo garro, Beth Malik for Omnivore

GOOD FOOD IS ABOUT GREAT INGREDIENTS COMBINED WITH LOVE AND CARE.

We want to inspire a new relationship with food, and aim to transform a food category that is too often related to low nutritional value, and highly processed, poor quality ingredients. Our seasonings and condiments, are Organically Certified, made in micro or small batches and when possible, locally sourced—we are inspired by our grandmothers' sensitivity and respect for nature's bounty, not by food trends

Our salt blends are made using only 100% organicFair Trade Certified, GMO FREE, OU Kosher, SQF and HACCP Certified herbs and spices. Our salt is pure—NO flowing agents, minerals or anti-caking agents are added—and our sauces are sugar free and made with 100% California produce.
 omnivore salt and renaissance forge

omnivore headquarter in San Francisco. Angelo Garro's Renaissance Forge

OUR MISSION?

To craft seasoning and condiments that with their incredible versatility will replace the overwhelming choice on the supermarkets’ shelves. We believe that cooking should be rewarding and simple—all our blends will enhance the natural flavors of your dishes, and are easy to use across any type of cuisine, by anyone—from the novel cook to the expert chef.

Omnivore is not only a food company, but also a lifestyle. By sharing our culinary knowledge we want to inspire people to cook more, and to create community around the table.

We are a small-scale operation that we think of as a family: Omnivore is the two of us (Angelo and Beth), and three small co-packers. Between us, and with the support of a large community of friends and foodies, we make everything happen from the Renaissance Forge, in San Francisco: marketing, sales, deliveries, and distribution.

Click HERE to know more about our life at the Forge.

Photographies by Laurie Frankel and Roman Cho