# BLiS Gourmet on Great Lakes Caviar, Wild Flavors, and Giving Back

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-perfect-bite-7237404/blis-gourmet-on-great-lakes-caviar-wild-flavors-and-giving-back
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-perfect-bite-7237404/blis-gourmet-on-great-lakes-caviar-wild-flavors-and-giving-back.md
Podcast: [The Perfect Bite](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-perfect-bite-7237404)
Published: 2026-07-16T12:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://the-perfect-bite.cohostpodcasting.com/episodes/blis-gourmet-on-great-lakes-caviar-wild-flavors-and-giving-back
Audio file: https://pdcn.co/e/audio-delivery.cohostpodcasting.com/audio/3619c374-2f55-4f02-9bc6-33f11b7b3c6c/episodes/7e5a7c26-4c86-4bc7-be0b-1d66b5f05773/episode.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-perfect-bite-7237404/episodes/blis-gourmet-on-great-lakes-caviar-wild-flavors-and-giving-back
Duration seconds: 3341

## Resource

Because life is short. That is what BLiS stands for. And after 23 years of bourbon barrel aged maple syrup, wild Great Lakes caviar, smoked soy sauce, fish sauce, vinegars, and tamari built from a single forager's obsession with wild flavor and zero waste, it is hard to argue with the philosophy. Chef Steve Stallard and Sarah Sherman are the co-owners of BLiS Gourmet, a Grand Rapids, Michigan-based artisan pantry brand that started with a bucket of live brook trout, a handful of barrels sourced from a trip to Kentucky, and a conviction that the most extraordinary flavors in the world are hiding in nature and in the bottom of a good bourbon barrel. In this episode, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Steve and Sarah for a conversation that is as layered and complex as a BLiS product itself. From Steve's childhood garden where he learned what a perfectly ripe heirloom tomato actually tastes like, to washing dishes at 14 while fishing and hunting everything he could find, to watching Grant Achatz walk through his kitchen at 17 years old and knowing immediately he was watching a future superstar. From Sarah's flight from pilot training to nursing school to bartending, and the moment she shoved her foot in the door at BLiS and never looked back. And from a bucket of brook trout roe that started an entire Great Lakes caviar program, to bourbon barrels reused so many times they eventually end up as planters for petunias. This is a story about respecting what nature gives you, building a business around the life you want to live, and finding that the most loyal customers in the world are the ones who have tasted the difference and can never go back. In this episode, we cover: Steve's childhood in an organic garden his dad kept expanding with "cheap child labor" Sarah's childhood…

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