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July/August 2006 Features

Dress(ings) for Success

by Karen Gibbs

Allison Cousins had a dream. She wanted to sell her bleu cheese salad dressing at Mandeville’s farmers market. She wasn’t looking to start an empire; she simply wanted to help husband Jack support the family. This is her story, just the way she and Jack shared it with me.

“At the time, Jack was running a bar and pool hall in Ponchatoula. I was helping my dad on his farm, and on Saturdays, I’d sell my produce. I wasn’t making much money, but I was able to stay home with the kids, cook and clean,” she begins. “Things took a really bad turn when Jack lost his job. We had zero money. Our families brought us food. We were lease-purchasing our house, so I called the landlady and told her I didn’t have any money…just three years ago…you have no idea.” Allison stops to regain her composure; the memories are obviously all so raw. She takes a deep breath as she shifts gears emotionally.

A smile now lighting up her face, Allison recalls those days when she was working with her dad during the week and selling freshly picked vegetables from his farm on the weekends. While she appreciated the extra money she made, it still wasn’t enough.

“I decided to make bleu cheese salad dressing and sell it along with the produce at the farmers market on Saturday,” she says, pleased with herself. “I’d farm on Friday, pick everything, then make my dressing Friday night to sell the next morning. The kids—Taylor, 12, and A.J., 11—would come with me to help.” For the next couple of months, Allison sold an average of nine jars a week at $5 a jar.

Then, one Friday night, Allison realized she didn’t have any money to buy the bleu cheese. Determined not to miss out on that extra income, she got creative. “I started seeing what I had and what I could do. My dad had sent me home with fresh Creole tomatoes, peppers and stuff, so I came up with a Creole tomato dressing. The next morning, I said to my daughter, Taylor, ‘Gosh, what should we call this?’ because we didn’t have a name. ‘It’s got Creole tomatoes in it, so let’s call it Creole Tomato Salad Dressing.’” And a legend was born.

That Saturday, Allison put out a sample bowl of her newest creation, and the customers ate it up. She sold a record 12 jars that day. “I was excited, but I never planned to make the Creole tomato dressing again. I was hooked on the bleu cheese,” she adds. The next two weeks, she went back to selling only the bleu cheese dressing, but her customers begged for more of the Creole tomato. Allison recalls thinking, “Gosh, I hope I remember how to make it.” Lucky for us, she did.

Interrupting herself, Allison changes direction with, “I have another story that’s very, very special.” Then, leaning forward as if sharing a confidence, she tells her tale. It was around Christmas, and money, once again, was pretty scarce. With only a handful of change, Allison went to the grocery to purchase ingredients for the salad dressings. She was trying to figure which items she could afford and which she had to put back when she realized a woman in line ahead of her was watching her.

“She saw I was worried about my money,” Allison continues. “She’d bought some stuff—I think it came to $10.04. I said, ‘Here, let me give you the four cents.’ She said, ‘Oh, no!’ But I said, ‘Don’t worry about it. All I’ve got is change,’ joking with her. Both of us were laughing.”

The woman paid for her groceries with a twenty-dollar bill and Allison’s four pennies. She left the ten dollars change on the counter, turned to Allison and said, “Honey, you go buy what you need.”

Surprised, Allison said, “I can’t do that.”

“Oh, yes you will,” the kind lady said, as she headed for the door.

“I went and bought everything I needed to make a bigger batch, because I knew I could sell it,” Allison continues, with passion in her voice. “I’ll never forget that wonderful lady,” she says, as she wipes away a tear.

A few weeks later, in January 2003, Allison found out she was pregnant. The impending need for even more income propelled her to expand into the New Orleans farmers markets. On her first day in the Crescent City, the expectant entrepreneur sold 12 jars of dressing in the first half hour. At that point, Allison says she knew she was on to something good.

Four short months after Cousins Salad Dressings began, Jack made the decision to quit his job and work the family business. (Originally called “Taylor’s Happy Oaks Farm 4th Generation,” it became Cousins Products, LLC in mid-2005.) Noting the growing customer base and having faith in his wife’s products, he wanted to merchandise them full time. Allison shifted gears and made salad dressings four days a week in her kitchen. In the spring, she perfected a new dressing, Spinach Vinaigrette, which was a take-off on a special dressing Jack had made when they were first married.

October 1, the night before Allison’s scheduled C-section, she gave Jack a crash course in making the dressings. He made all three in copious amounts to sell the next day. Indeed, after baby Savannah made her entrance into the world, Jack reluctantly left East Jefferson Hospital, ID bracelet still on his wrist, and sold a whopping $250 worth of dressings.

Over the next three months, both baby and business grew bigger and better. Jack quit selling produce and devoted all his market space and efforts to promoting Cousins products. Together, he and Allison worked their business, alternating watching Savannah with selling salad dressing. Times were good—their name was getting around. Little did they know, however, just how far their fame had spread.

“It was January 15, 2005,” says Jack. Allison nods her head and turns the floor over to her husband. “On that Sunday, while Allison and Savannah were napping, I was watching the NFL playoffs. When the phone rang. I was aggravated because I thought the phone would wake the baby. Looking at the caller ID, I saw ‘John Smith’ and figured it was a customer.” As expected, it was a person inquiring about having a case of the Creole tomato dressing sent to his home out of state. “I told the buyer we operated on the honor system and I would include a bill with the order.”

The distinctive voice on the other end of the phone resonated, “Ever heard of Emeril Lagasse? That’s who you’re talking to.”

Jack remembers being so overwhelmed by hearing Emeril’s name that the best he could do was respond something to the effect of, “Really? Oh, that’s nice.”

“Tell your beautiful wife she does a great job,” Emeril added, ending the conversation.

Heady with excitement, Jack rushed to Allison’s bedside and, careful not to wake the baby, whispered, “You’ll never guess who called!”

“Oh my God!” Allison cried, as much a prayer of thanksgiving as it was an expression of delight. And with that single phone call, she knew her salad dressings had made it. She immediately made two decisions: first, to market her products in grocery stores and second, to have the labels professionally printed.

To achieve her first goal, Allison bartered with one of her good customers, Bridget Aronson, owner of Covington’s Back Porch Grill, to swap salad dressings in exchange for a place to prepare them. Tapping into the kindness of other customers, Bob and Maureen Greer, who run Greer Equipment in Abita Springs, Allison and Jack ordered 40,000 labels. Included on the new labels was the distinctive C-tomato logo designed by Allison (“I just saw it in my head”) and drawn by daughter Taylor.

With a professional kitchen, professional labels and their own professional logo, Jack made his first retail sale to Langenstein’s Markets in uptown New Orleans and Metairie. In no time, sales at the upscale groceries skyrocketed. In fact, the Saturday before Katrina hit, Jack and Allison made a $3,000 delivery to them. Allison remembers planning to serve samples at the store and then take Jack to Emeril’s Restaurant for a birthday dinner.

“That Saturday I showed up with all these products and nobody came. I thought ‘Where is everybody?’” Allison recalls. When told of the impending hurricane, the couple headed home to Madisonville and waited out the storm with their three children. While their home was spared serious damage, hundreds of dollars of dressings under refrigeration were lost when the electricity went out.

Within three weeks, Langenstein’s re-opened for business and ordered more salad dressing. To the Cousins’ delight, the store paid them the $3,000 for the products delivered before the storm, as well as their current order. Business was ripe for the picking.
Jack next pitched Cousins dressings to Rouse’s Supermarkets. Within a short time, Cousins products were ordered for seven of their South Louisiana stores.

Today, on the strength of these two clients, Langenstein’s and Rouse’s, Cousins Products is selling an average of 1,000 jars a week. What a change from the nine jars that started it all!

For Jack and Allison Cousins, hard times are now just a memory—fresh and raw, but nevertheless, just a memory. And while they are proud of their success, they are quick to recognize those who keep them in business—their customers.

Says Jack, “Without our customers, we would be nothing. Interacting week in and week out with them allows us to establish an amazing relationship with each person who walks by our tables and gets to know us. We cherish that privilege, and Ally and I truly believe this is the reason we are seeing success.

“OK—the dressings are addictive. That doesn’t hurt either.”