By Mark Ramadan, CEO Kensington & Sons, LLC
During my senior year at Brown University, my friend Scott Norton asked me over lunch one day, “Mark, how is it that when I go to the supermarket, I see hundreds of mustards, salsas, relishes, jams, jellies, etc… but only one ketchup?” I had no good answer for him other than, “Let’s do something about it.”
Our venture became a cross between a college economics project, a foodie passion, and a mad cooking experiment, but over the course of 4 months, Scott and I were able to bring a new gourmet ketchup into the world: Sir Kensington’s Gourmet Scooping Ketchup.
Mark Ramadan sampling
Sir Kensington’s is produced in small batches with all-natural, gluten-free ingredients, such as vine-ripened tomatoes, apple cider vinegar, coriander, and lime juice. It’s sweetened with honey, agave nectar and raw brown sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup, so it’s much healthier than your standard ketchups.
From the beginning, Scott and I were committed to two things: all-natural ingredients and fun packaging, both of which have remained very important to us. With a clear, ambitious, and strange goal in mind, Scott and I began by throwing ketchup tasting parties. We invited our 30 closest friends to sample the 8 ketchups we made from off-the-shelf, natural ingredients. Following the ketchup parties, we took our two best recipes (classic and spiced), cooked batches in our dorm room kitchen, jarred them while suffering significant forearm burns, labeled them by hand, and finally had a launch party. We created the fictitious character Sir Kensington (a Victorian-era Oxford graduate, the details of whose life are outlined on our Web site), and we managed to sell all 200 jars on campus in short order.
Now, two years later, Sir Kensington’s has come a long way from its dorm room beginnings. Our ketchup is still produced in small batches with all-natural, gluten-free ingredients. We believe the quality of our ingredients is fundamental to who we are. We hope Sir Kensington’s will help show the world that gourmet ketchup doesn’t have to be a myth!
An 11-ounce jar of Sir Kensington’s Gourmet Scooping Ketchup is $9 at Dean & DeLuca markets and at www.deandeluca.com.
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Comments ( 5 )
[...] at the time, decided to do something to change that. That’s when they went to work in their dorm room to create the Sir Kensington [...]
Ketchup Goes Artisanal | Nutrition Unplugged added these pithy words on Jul 21 11 at 10:29 pmSir Kensington's "Spiced" scooping ketchup has changed the way I view eating any sausage or burger – it's perfect for a tailgate, a dinner party, or any other fun get-together with friends.
condiment enthusiast added these pithy words on Sep 08 10 at 8:58 am It's changed the way I cook. I scooped 3 T. of Classic Sir Kensington's into chopped okra that I was sauteing, added a little lemon juice and voila! Delicious. My mouth is watering right now as I write this.
Diane added these pithy words on Sep 09 10 at 8:05 pm What took so long for America to come up with something so good & especially so much healthier!
Krissy added these pithy words on Sep 13 10 at 6:20 pm I was at the demo in Charlotte & tasted & BOUGHT both. Amazing. It really re-defines ketchup.
Jeremy added these pithy words on Sep 13 10 at 6:22 pm 
