In 2017, Kaye Zubow Kharasch had an opportunity to open a unique hand roasted coffee shop to serve Deerfield and the North Shore. She pounced on it.
It’s not Kaye’s first time in the food industry. For decades, she’s been well known among some of the top chefs in the United States and across the globe. In the 1990’s Kaye Zubow was told about some of the high quality, all natural ingredients that chefs in Europe had easy access to, while American chefs were lacking.
At a time in America when the top chefs were looking for the same high quality, natural ingredients the chefs of Europe already access to, Kaye founded Wild Game, Inc. Wild Game was the first fresh game purveyor in the United States.
She worked directly with farmers all across the globe to provide fresh, quality game to a far-too-long list of some of the most famous American chefs: Jean Banchet, Gabino Sotelino, Didier Durand, Michael Foley, Tony Mantuano, Rick Tramanto, Emeril Lagasse, the list goes on.
She recalls with nostalgia her first sale to ‘a wonderful frenchman at Ciel Bleu’, importing fresh venison from New Zealand, eating a pizza prepared by Paul Barteloma of Spiaggia made with foie gras sourced by Wild Game, Inc. on her birthday.
“It was during those years that I developed a passion for coffee. It became an important ritual of daily life and I was lucky enough to be educated by my chefs on the importance of an excellent cup. I began traveling with my own Mocha pot and beans when I was in out of the way places. Eventually my curiosity lead me to roast at home.”
For that reason, she founded “The Wild Roaster.” At the Wild Roaster, she brings back her past Wild Game approach of curating the very best the world has to offer, but this time it’s coffee products serving the local communities like Deerfield, Highland Park, Northbrook, and the entire North Shore.
Just as she did 25 years ago, Kaye has devoted herself to bringing the very best ingredients right to you. Creating delicious, non-interruptive coffee roasts that can be paired with anything, using beans directly from the best sources the world has to offer.
