A pandemic is a dodgy time to open a restaurant, but chef Jason Bourgoin knew he needed to leave the oil patch and get back in the kitchen. The result is CHARBOYZ boxed local meats that come with cooking tips, sauces and seasonings, delivered to homes or picked up in the Halifax area.
Halifax-based Bourgoin started CHARBOYZ in May with his wife Katelyn Bourgoin, a well-known marketing expert. The two aimed to build a fun and food-focused business that would support local farmers and producers.
Every month since then, Bourgoin has created a new food box to incite interest and widen his circle of support. His current Ultimate Wing Box contains 5 lb of whole chicken wings, and two sauces as well as Mother Pluckers Seasoning – ideal, he says, for “safe” Super Bowl parties.
“Fathers’ Day in June was unbelievable, it got us going,” he said in an interview.
“We’re showing people how to compound flavours with our different sauces and seasonings. We’re trying to take the intimidation out of meat and make people feel they’re the bosses of their own kitchen.”
He and Katelyn have come up with some savvy marketing and visuals, much of it featuring Jason wearing his trademark MeatSweats. Awareness of the company is being boosted by a new feature, which sees Bourgoin presenting MeatSchool, live every Friday at 7 p.m. Atlantic time on Facebook.
COVID-19 is highlighting the importance of buying local. And in this region, local is good quality, he said.
“We don’t have to buy Alberta or U.S. beef. We have very good beef reared here, but only five percent of the beef consumed in the Maritimes is local,” said the chef, who is stocking his wing boxes with meat from Oultons and Meadowbrook Farms.
There are many competing companies delivering fresh food, but Bourgoin believes CHARBOYZ is carving its own niche. And, despite his very masculine persona, his market so far has been diverse, including families, young people and empty-nesters.
The public support is creating possible avenues for expansion. So far, the Bourgoins have bootstrapped the company and taken advantage of government development programs. They are now open to investment opportunities and strategic partnerships in order to get CHARBOYZ sauces into retail stores. Three of the sauces are currently being tested for shelf stability at the Perennia Lab in Kentville.
Scaling the meat boxes may be achieved through franchising. Bourgoin initially delivered his boxes around Nova Scotia but the pandemic has overloaded delivery companies and timely delivery could not be guaranteed.
His team currently includes Katelyn and three other female experts. He is hoping to hire a logistics manager within the next three months, and will hire a full-time marketer internally. So far, his boxes have been filled with meat, but fish may be on the menu.
It’s all a sea change for Bourgoin who grew up in Lunenburg but left at 18 to work as a chef. By the time he was 36, the long hours were taking a toll and he set up his own health and safety company called Big Fella Safety Services Incorp. – he named it on a dare because he’s 6’ 5”.
“I just called it BFSSI when bidding for contracts,” he said with a chuckle.
His aim was to work in the oil and gas industry and he achieved that in 2019, just before the pandemic closed everything down. In his new role, he has got in the habit of taking energizing cold showers because they are healthy and make him feel super alert. "It’s a bit of an adrenaline rush.”
He will need all the energy he can find -- in May, he will become a father, aged 44. “I’m getting used to the idea,” he said.
In the meantime, his focus is on growing CHARBOYZ by listening to customers’ needs and preferences. Each move CHARBOYZ makes, which may soon involve expansion into a nearby province, will be cautiously planned and implemented but Bourgoin doesn’t lack ambition.
“I want our Undercover Sauce to be the new Ketchup created in the Maritimes,” he said. “But we’ve got to crawl before we can walk,” he added with a grin.
