Black Garlic is fresh garlic that is aged in a “fermentation” process that involves a heating process for thirty days. This process results in a deep dark rich color, thus the name “Black Garlic” and sweet almost molasses like flavor that will please any garlic lover. This ingredient is slowly gaining ground in culinary circles across the nation.
Inventor Scott Kim began developing the product in South Korea in 2004. His goal originally was to market aged or fermented black garlic as a super-food: Its patented, month-long heat-curing process creates a high level of antioxidants and a natural cancer-preventing compound. Forms of fermented garlic have long been eaten for health reasons in Korea and Japan.
Kim formed a company called Black Garlic Inc. last year, bringing on John Yi, a longtime garlic producer. Based in Hayward, Calif., the company is the sole manufacturer and supplier in the United States. Heads of garlic grown on Jeju Island, South Korea, are used, but Kim plans to process California-grown garlic soon as well.
A year before Kim's company was up and running, Bruce Hill, executive chef and part-owner of Bix restaurant in San Francisco, tried black garlic for the first time in Kyoto, Japan. A friend and fellow chef piped beads of black garlic paste around a composed vegetable and chicken salad and used it in a tapenade.
Hill, a Bethesda native who also co-owns Picco restaurant in Larkspur, Calif., loved the ingredient's complexity. "I'd heard of it before," he says. "It lends itself to Mediterranean flavors . . . things like roasted peppers and olives," he told WashingtonPost.com in this article.
This product is now available from US Foodservice San Francisco, USPN #7430473.
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