ArtiHearts & Chef Butters Make You An Instant Kitchen Pro

Having kitchen hacks that make home-cooked meals crazy tasty is a good thing. Creating them also happens to be a core competency for Monterey Farms.

Monterey Farms and its owner-operator Jane Hayes come at that from two different directions, but the landing place—big flavor, modest price point, small effort—is the same.

Direction number one could be called artichokes without the work. Natural ArtiHearts deliver fresh, steamed and roasted Castroville thistle destined to elevate a pasta, salad, pizza, tacos, toasts, you call it, in a matter of seconds.

The system Hayes has developed to produce them is a wonder to behold at Monterey Farms’ Salinas processing plant. Artichokes are hand-sorted, hand-cut, precision-cooked in the steamer then finished on an antique charbroiler that’s outdated but delivers flavor just how Hayes prefers, then they are sealed immediately to lock in both the farm-freshness and just-cooked edge.

It’s hard to argue with the results. A pack of segmented hearts cannot mathematically survive long once open. Marinated artichokes just don’t compare. 

And given the ease of use—with none of the elbow grease or time required to clean and prep and steam them on your own—means their under-$6 price would still be a good deal at 150% the cost.

And that doesn’t factor in the karma kickback. Hayes and her team of 20 rescue the hearts from artichokes that would otherwise be deemed food waste because their leaves are bug- or frost-bitten. They’re rescued, and they’re lifesavers.

Newer ArtiHearts sibling item ArtiQs borrows from a similar playbook, providing halved artichokes vacuum-packed right after they’ve been cooked. 

Direction number two: Chef Butter. This range of gourmet compound butters enchanted Edible Monterey Bay managing editor Mark C. Anderson so much he dedicated a Found Treasure column to their versatility in dishes and pop on the palate.

Hayes, a former executive chef at a range of celebrated restaurants, teamed with fellow decorated chef and friend Janet Melac to develop their portfolio of flavors: Shiitake Ginger, Roasted Shallot, Basil Garlic, Cabernet Porcini, Serrano Lime, Lemon Dill, French Herb, Blueberry Lemon and Orange Cardamom. 

There isn’t a miss among them.

When Edible reached Hayes for the purposes of this sponsor profile, she was applying some Serrano Lime Butter to finish off pork loin quesadillas. 

Her most recent Chef Butters also serve as taste cases that speak to the possibilities: some Basil Garlic with pasta and sausages, and some seafood cheffing with one of her five grandkids, this one a devotee to the Shiitake Ginger, which they put on salmon.

“It’s fun working with him—he’s a little cook,” she says. “And he can’t get enough of the Shiitake Ginger Chef Butter. He’ll drink. It.”

The wise play on the butter front is to 1) assemble a six-part Butter Wheel—for yourself or for a friend with the holidays on the way—to stoke your own or a loved one’s creative flames, with personalized card and charismatic packaging available; and 2) Remember they freeze very well, so you can drip irrigate recipe enhancers for weeks off one wheel.

Another holiday strategy is to build a Chef Bundle from the suite of Monterey Farms products incentivized with a tidy 10% discount, now streamlined for user-friendliness with a brand new website.

All of the above include free shipping, and it’s safe to guess all those reading this far have a culinarily inclined friend who would be hyped by the hookup.

For her part, Hayes acknowledges she has a ton of fun with her never-ending experiments with compound butters and artichokes, and stands ready to describe inspiration behind them indefinitely. 

Only that would distract from the experience itself.

“I could talk about my ArtiHearts and Chef Butters forever,” she says. “But I like to have them speak for themselves.”

More at montereyfarms.net.