About us | THE GHEE-K SQUAD
VRESH
Chief GHEE Officer
I’ve been a foodie for as long as I can remember. Whether it was experimenting with béchamel at age 13, watching Hell’s Kitchen reruns in the middle of the night, or cooking side by side with my mum - I love to cook. It’s one of the few parts of my personality that hasn’t changed in decades. When I moved solo to Canada in 2009, I was disappointed by the lack of high quality, locally-made Indian pantry staples. Most of the products were either imported, or were extremely low quality. When the 2020 Pandemic hit, I found myself laid off from a cushy corporate role, with no alternatives on the horizon. Thus began my journey of reconnecting with my culture's cuisine, and working with Thomas on various experiments which ultimately led to the launch of Vresh Foods and OG GHEE, in 2022.
THOMASDIRECTOR OF GHEE-ks
My earliest memories of family life are of the dinner table. My parents being of Dutch and Greek descent meant that milk, cheese and butter were front and centre at all mealtimes. Food was such an integral part of our bond. When I made the big move to Calgary, AB in 2013, I found myself missing something - a piece of home. When the pandemic came around, I reconnected with the side of me that had been missing - the home cook. Part way through the lock-downs, I found myself laid off, and looking for a project that resonated close to home. I threw myself into my passions -food, digital media, and fitness. The culmination of this came when Vresh and I decided to put our efforts together to create OG GHEE and build a brand that helped people find their way back to the family dinner table.
Our mission
At Vresh Foods, we are on a mission to educate Canadians on the hidden side of South Asian cuisine. 4,000 years of culinary excellence, nuance and tradition, passed down through generations has been reduced to a single word — Curry. We're here to change that through high quality, domestically source pantry products.
Meet our team
Vresh
Co-founder and Chief Ghee Officer Favourite Ghee?
OG Ghee
Thomas
Co founder and Director of Gheeks Favourite Ghee?
Chai Spice Ghee
Winner
Media Maven Favourite Ghee?
Coffee & Vanilla Ghee
Yasmin
Content Queen Favourite Ghee?
Italian Garden Ghee
Garret
Doctor of Design Favourite Ghee?
Chai Spice Ghee
You have questions? We have answers
What is ghee?
The result is a golden, caramelly cooking oil that can be used in a multitude of ways!
How do I store my Ghee?
Can I replace Ghee for Butter in my baking recipes?
Is Ghee healthier than butter?
From a nutrition stand-point, the free fatty acid profile, calorie count, vitamins and mineral profiles are nearly identical. The only real ‘health benefit’ comes to those who have traditional dairy allergies (lactose, casein, whey) and cannot consume those commonly found components in butter - as they are filtered out in ghee.
Lastly, cooking at high temperatures with butter leads to milk solids burning, which can be unhealthy in the long term with prolonged use. Ghee’s higher smoke point (485F) makes cooking with ghee a lot easier and healthier.
Why should I buy OG Ghee over others?
What is the real difference here (isn’t all ghee the same?):
We disagree wholeheartedly.
Ghee is a type of clarified butter that is heated past the point of clarification until it caramelizes, giving it a brown buttery, nutty, rounded flavour profile. Most brands in North America stop their cooking process at clarification, often making an undercooked ghee that smells and tastes milk/ raw.
OG GHEE is well caramelized making it a completely different flavour profile to almost every single ghee product on the market. This recipe was formulated through the founders experience of cooking with his mother during his childhood.
The founder’s unique perspective of being a south Asian immigrant, brings authenticity and legitimacy to this product, when most other brands of “premium” ghee are founded by folks with no traditional ties and upbringing in the culture.
When you compare OG Ghee to other low-cost value brands, there really is no competition at all. The value brands are lackluster in flavour profile, visually unappealing with their semi-solid, semi liquid texture, and are packaged in the worst possible format – plastic jars.
When will my product be ready for pick-up?
Free shipping?
Where do you source your Butter?
Our company’s core philosophy is sourcing our ingredients domestically, and therefore supporting the world-renowned Canadian dairy industry. Canadian Dairy is some of the best in the world. Not many people are aware of supplement/medication use in dairy, and automatically assume that because something is not organic, it is filled with hormones and antibiotics.
We work with family owned creameries who source their cream from small-medium sized dairy farmers across the country, ensuring a high quality benchmark, and minimal industrial optimization.
Is OG GHEE Organic?
If it’s not Organic, doesn’t Dairy contain hormones ?
It is good to note that a lot of media claims regarding hormones and antibiotics are true for the United States of America, and people often mistake that for the same in Canada. It is NOT the case for Canada at all - quite the opposite. Our agricultural programs and requirements are FAR superior to those of our neighbours down south.
Here are some recent articles and notes on antibiotics and hormone use in dairy cattle:
Doesn’t Conventional Dairy contain GMOs?
There are some crop cuttings that may contain GMOs (alfalfa, corn stalks etc) that are used in the feed, but it is important to know that any claims of GMO components being found in milk are FALSE. GMOs have never been detected in dairy, even if they are used in cattle feed. At the best, microscopic fragments of this (which do not constitute an organism) have been detected in negligible quantities. Here are some third party, and science supported articles on GMOs in Milk/Dairy products.
Is OG GHEE Grass fed?
Can’t we get Grass-Fed Butter from abroad?
We currently source from small-medium, family owned creameries who source their dairy from local dairy co-operatives. Most cattle in local dairy co-operatives are pasture raised (as Canada is blessed with land as a key natural resource) in the late spring summer and early fall), and are supplemented with wheat grass, barley and other forage+silage over the course of the colder months.
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