Interview with Renée Unger, founder of
Renée's Gourmet

Renée Unger talks with HILARY Magazine about her passion for cooking

By Heather Riccio

      Renée Unger's passion for cooking led the now 61 year-old, former teacher, to create a $45 million a year company with award-winning products like their sauces and salad dressings.
The business that Renee started 20 years ago is a family affair with Renee's ex-husband and daughters working alongside her and is recognized as one of the 50 best managed in Canada.

HILARY Magazine recently sat down with Renee to find out how she got started and how she has managed to grow her company

HILARY Magazine: Why did you choose the profession you are in, was it always something you had in mind?

Renée: Actually, it's a very interesting question because if you did a survey you would find not many people would be practicing in the profession they either trained for or they decided to go in when they were younger. I'm a teacher by trade, got my teaching certificate and when my children were born, I went back and taught part-time. As a hobby I always liked to cook for relaxation. Some people paint, some people fix up houses and I cook. I was always taking cooking courses. There's a place here called the Academy of Culinary Arts. It's not Cordon Blue certified, but it's as close to it as you can get in Toronto and I took cooking courses there. I was always reading, always learning and I had an extreme fascination with cooking, which I have no idea where it came from, by the way, but I was always, always interested in doing the very best job I could and always made delicious meals.
It was a hobby to me, but what I think I didn't realize at the time was that it was more than a hobby. In the winter of 84'-85'…[as a holiday present] I gave my poppy seed dressing and I put the poppy seed dressing in bottles and put them in the Cottage Country time type crates that said from the kitchen of Renee. At about the end of January people that I had given these presents to had come up to me and said that it was absolutely delicious, can I get more? And I said no, it was a present, I'm glad you really liked it and they said liked it, we'll pay anything for it and I said anything? And that was the genesis of going into business.

HILARY Magazine: Can you tell us a little bit about your products, what makes them special and so wanted?

Renée: I only use fresh garlic, fresh cheese, fresh buttermilk, everything in our products is fresh, and it would be exactly like you would get at home. I knew that if we were going to come out with a dressing we wouldn't come out with a self stable product because we couldn't compete with someone like Kraft. You always have to be different [from you competitors] otherwise you're just a new product and it's not going to last. At the time, nobody was eating Caesar dressing, nobody was eating Greek, and our first four products were Caesar, Greek, blue cheese and poppy seed dressings. They revolutionized the salad dressing industry people were having the French, thousand island, Italian, and the Catalina. There was nothing else on the market and when we came in to this there wasn't a template or model we could follow. We had to go by the seat of our pants and what really were instincts and gut feelings on this.

HILARY Magazine: Why have you chosen to specialize in salad dressings, and have you ever thought of doing anything else?

Renée: Actually, before we went into business, we did cookouts and I made the best soups in town. Being Jewish you couldn't beat my chicken soup, vegetable soup, and borsht. I made all kinds of soups and I actually wanted to go into the soup business but Arnie [my ex-husband] at the time said, “Are you kidding? No ones going to pay that kind of money for soups”. Soup was the only thing I wanted to go into, but we didn't.

HILARY Magazine: What does your job entail, day in and day out?

Renée: The most interesting and exciting thing about my job is it doesn't entail the same thing, day in and day out. As far as routine, it isn't. When I first started, it was just RAD, which is research and development, and it was making new dressings. Today, one day I can be up on the mezzanine making a new product, I can be in the lot discussing what would be the next hot product, and I do a lot of the administrative work, everyday there's something different.

HILARY Magazine: How have you managed to grow your company, what are some of you company's core beliefs, and how do you keep your employees motivated?

Renée: We are a company that is more than sales oriented. We value our employees. When you walk into the place you can feel the atmosphere. Everyone is pretty much equal. There isn't that corporate ladder and everybody's suggestion is taken seriously.
We have an employee of the month and we've just established a new award: the above and beyond award, which is somebody has done something in his or her area that we consider above and beyond the call of duty. It doesn't necessarily have to be the employee of the month, but someone who does something exceptional and gets recognized. Before that, we gave them each a plaque and they were recognized. There's a lot of recognition for a job well done here. I would say that is the core and essence of our company, is recognizing, promoting great employees and giving them a high standard to adhere to. The other thing I feel we do here differently is there really isn't negative motivation like fear of being fired. I find that the motivation comes from inspiration and I think one of the finest compliments I've ever received is people telling me that I inspire them.
Our employees internalize their strong sense of excellence; so therefore, it doesn't have to come from the employers anymore. They embrace it and wear it. Almost to a person, this is how a company works. We've had a number of people leave, take other jobs, and then come back, which to me is the finest compliment we can get. They miss the family atmosphere. I think this is one of the reasons we've been so successful is we really value our employees.

HILARY Magazine: What advice do you have for anyone who wants to get into this profession or any other profession?

Renée: I think the first thing you need is a brilliant idea. I think you need a strong sense of self so that you can support your ideas when other people might not think they're great. You have to realize that nothing is handed to you on a silver platter and that usually luck is the end result of really hard work, being smart and knowing what the future will hold. You can say you are in the right place at the right time, but I believe that one is smart enough innately to know when the time is right. It's a combination of so many things because I think you have to have the entrepreneurial spirit, but I also think you need to have the discipline to see the job through. You have to understand your strengths, you have to acknowledge your weaknesses and hire someone to look after that area for you. I think that one of the strongest words I can use is tenacity, the good tenacity. That means that you've got to believe in yourself enough to go after what you want. To not take rejection personally, also to be steadfast in what you're doing and to surround yourself with a very strong support team because you can't do it yourself.

HILARY Magazine: Some people give up right away if their business comes under hard times as most businesses do, what kept you going, throughout all the hard times?

Renée: You realize it's a strong belief in not only yourself, but in what you can offer. You have to realize that perhaps you have to hold on a little longer; maybe the world isn't waiting for its stage just yet. You have to be a bit of a visionary and know you are on the right track and that if you do hold on it will work out. You have to make it work out. You have to find out where the best place is for you to start and how you can open up doors. I think that you succeed in business when you're confronted by new challenges and you have to meet them head on and solve them. I think that it's how you handle this that shows what you're made of.