The Spice Way aims to make cooking easy, fun and even more healthful

If you’re tired of preparing routine meals for your family and feel that your culinary fare is past its sell-by date, The Spice Way can help.

Located in the Vons Shopping Center, on El Camino Real in Encinitas, the newly opened store is brimming from wall-to-wall with aromatic spices, healthy herbs, flavorful fruit blends, olive oil, honey, balsamic vinegar and more, along with kitchenware and creative recipes to make cooking easy and fun.

The store is celebrating its grand opening from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. June 7.

During the family-friendly opening, there will be a live cooking demonstration, give-away products, free recipes, tasty samplings, opportunity drawings for kitchenware, teaware and spice racks with spices, coupons, introductory pricing and special activities for kids.

Owner Debbie Kornberg will also demonstrate how fresh tahini is made from sesame seeds, using a mechanized grinder. Various flavors of halva — the dessert version of tahini — will be available for tasting.

Integrating hundreds of years of knowledge with modern-day know-how, the concept behind the store’s unique product lines is based on a simple premise: that using spices and herbs enhances health and well-being.

“Everything we have here has some health benefit to it,” Kornberg explained. “Whether it’s spices and herbs that we combine in blends to add to meat, poultry or seafood, or gourmet blends for potatoes, pasta, rice, salads and dips, everything is all-natural and non-GMO.”

The store carries a variety of ethnic blends using Mediterranean, Italian and Asian spices. “We also carry the spices individually, whole or ground, like cinnamon, turmeric, ginger, garlic and more,” said Kornberg.

Tea comes in loose green and black tea-leaf blends, long known for their anti-oxidant benefits, and colorful fruit infusion blends. “These are really unique,” said Kornberg.

These dried fruit blends include wild fruit, rosehips, citrus, melon, pomegranate and tropical fruits.

The Spice Way is the first store to open in the United States of what will soon be a national franchise.

Kornberg, a longtime Carmel Valley resident, was introduced to the business idea by a colleague while she worked at the Jewish Federation of San Diego County. Kornberg’s husband is senior rabbi at Carmel Valley’s Congregation Beth Am, and they are both active in the Jewish community.

Like many working moms, Kornberg still prepares the family meals for her husband and two teenagers, and was looking for healthy creative options in the kitchen. The Spice Way solved her problem.

“Their products really lend themselves to getting a healthy meal on the table, using spices and herbs to get you there,” Kornberg said.

You don’t have to be a gourmet chef to have fun in the kitchen and that daily question, “What am I going to do for dinner tonight?” is easily solved, she added.

Getting dinner on the table quickly spoke to Kornberg, as her son is vegetarian and she makes dinner twice. “Now I can use the same blends on the chicken or meat dish and also on a tofu-based dish for my son.”

The Spice Way grows, dries, and blends its own herbs and spices. A huge variety of high-quality products is attractively displayed in the store, with informational signs explaining how to use them.

The Spice Way staff shares its extensive knowledge with visitors, offering helpful suggestions on how to use the herbs.

For more about The Spice Way, visit www.thespiceway.com or like its Facebook page, facebook/The Spice Way-San Diego. Call 760-634-9709 for hours. The store is at 260-B N. El Camino Real, Encinitas.