Ger Tysk went from fermenting kimchi on sailboats to building a thriving business that stocks shelves in grocery stores across New England. What started as a small-batch passion has grown into a regional favorite, reflecting the power of sharing culture through food.

Photos by Savannah Tracy. Q&A as told to CEI by Red Kettle Foods Owner, Ger Tysk, in her own words.

Tell us a bit about yourself.

My name is Ger Tysk. I am a chef and I own Red Kettle Foods in Belfast, Maine. We make Red Kettle Kimchi, which is our main product. We also make a lot of other Asian ferments and spice mixes.

How did you start Red Kettle Kimchi?

I am a sailor by trade, so I’ve been sailing for more than a decade. When I work on boats, I work in the galley, which is the kitchen of the boat. I’ve worked in the Caribbean and in the Atlantic Ocean, from Europe to the Caribbean. I started making kimchi on these boats because I am Asian American, and I grew up eating Asian American food. I missed eating Asian food, so I would make Asian or Asian-inspired food using ingredients I had on the boat—things like fried rice or stir-fried vegetables, which are easy to make. But I would also make kimchi to go along with these dishes so they would have some sort of Asian condiment. The people on the boat loved it, and they really wanted me to start a restaurant. I said, “No way, never going to start a restaurant. I’m just going to work on boats in this galley, making food.” I moved to Maine because of my husband. When I moved here, a lot of my friends—who I’d worked on boats with before—kept nagging me to, one, start a restaurant selling Asian food, and two, sell my kimchi.

How did you make kimchi on the boats?

Kimchi in Korean means fermented veggies, and there are lots of different kinds of kimchi. In the Western world, when we think of kimchi, we usually think of the Napa cabbage version. So, I used a lot of green cabbage to substitute. It’s a little bit harder, the texture is different, and it cuts differently—but it was similar enough. For the Korean red pepper flakes—which we definitely did not have access to in the Caribbean—I would use a mixture of cayenne pepper, paprika, and ground-up Italian red chili flakes. It sounds weird, but the spices gave it smokiness and heat, which is what you’re looking for in Korean gochugaru. I usually didn’t have fish sauce, so I used soy sauce, which is not the same. The end product looked different, but when you paired it with other foods, it was still a fermented vegetable that went with Asian dishes. In the Caribbean, it’s very hot, so it ferments really, really quickly. I was able to make a big batch of kimchi and have it ready the next day.

What are you most proud of with Red Kettle Foods?

I’m really proud of the fact that we are an Asian food business in the upper Midcoast, where a lot of people don’t have access to fresh and diverse Asian foods—especially East Asian foods. By East Asian, I mean Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. There are a lot of Southeast Asian restaurants, some really amazing ones—especially here in Belfast. But we don’t have a lot of the foods that I grew up eating. The simple foods that I think of when I think of Asian cuisine: rice porridge, fermented vegetables.

My heritage is Chinese, Vietnamese, and Japanese, so I bring a lot of different backgrounds to this business. I wanted to bring to people that feeling of community and coming together for a meal. But I also wanted to eventually showcase the diversity of Asian foods that are not sushi or fried rice. I feel like the more we grow Red Kettle Foods, the more important that mission becomes.

How do you source your ingredients?

We try to source as locally as possible when we can, which in Maine is fairly difficult because Maine’s growing season is very short. Basically, from now until October, I can get local veggies. In the fall, a lot of our ingredients are root vegetables like carrots, daikon, and onions. So, we are able to source some local storage crops from farmers who have large surpluses and sell through the winter to supplement their income. We get ginger from a farm in Scarborough that actually grows baby ginger—they harvest it in September. The rest of the year—January through June—is very difficult because nothing is fresh. So what we try and do is source other things that are not vegetables. When you think of kimchi, you think of cabbage and daikon, but there’s also fish sauce. We can get that locally through the winter. There’s a sea salt maker down in York—we get all of our sea salt from her, and she makes it year-round. So things like that are available to us, even when fresh ingredients are not.

Where do you sell your products?

We sell our products mostly wholesale through retail stores and grocery stores. We have about 50 stores and restaurants that we sell to that I know of. Some of our products go through distributors, so I’m sure the range is even wider. I also do three farmers markets every summer: the Rockland Farmers Market, the Belfast Farmers Market on Fridays, and the Union Farmers Market. Farmers markets are an additional source of income through the summer because summer is high season in all of Maine. But I especially love farmers markets because I get to meet people in my community. We make a lot of connections there, and it’s really important to me to keep Red Kettle Foods rooted in the community. As a restaurant person and a chef, it’s been difficult to transition into this role where I’m in the kitchen, behind a door, selling products to stores and grocery stores where I never meet the customer. Farmers markets allow me to maintain that customer interaction that I need in my heart.

What does being a small business owner mean to you?

Being a small business owner means I keep money in my community and make meaningful connections with my neighbors, other small businesses, and people who try kimchi or Asian pickles for the first time. It means a lot to me that people are supporting us. Being a small business in Belfast allows me to spend my money with farms and organizations that matter to me—not with big box conglomerates. I have a joke with one of my friends down the street who owns a wine bar—we joke that we pass the same $50 back and forth every week. He buys kimchi; I go to his wine bar. But I think, what could be better? We’re supporting each other. That same $50 allows me to buy ingredients to make the kimchi, and it allows him to buy things for his wine bar and restaurant, where people in Belfast and tourists can come in and discover something great. So we’re all supporting each other. The money stays in the community.

What advice would you give to aspiring business owners?

If you’re starting a business, it’s really hard. You’re going to want to give up every day—and that’s normal. If you want to give up, I would say wait six months and then give up. I used to go home and think, “This hard thing happened, and that hard thing happened. I just can’t do this. I should get a job in a cubicle.” And my husband would say, “Sleep on it, and then go to work tomorrow. Wait six months. If you still want to quit in six months, then you can quit and get a cubicle job.” Of course, I’m still here. Being in business means there are always problems—every day, every minute. I’m always putting out fires. It means being a problem solver. And if you love something enough to start a business doing it, you’re just going to push through and solve those problems.

What are your long-term goals?

Long-term goals for Red Kettle Foods are to continue selling our kimchi and ferments throughout New England. We’re expanding into other products besides kimchi, for example we already have Japanese pickles. We’re doing a lot more Asian ferments in general. We started with kimchi and we’re branching out. We now have Korean, Chinese, and Japanese ferments, and I really love that we have this huge variety. I’d like to do more of it and introduce more to more people. The end goal is to have a retail store, and I’d love to have a restaurant and a community space. I’m working toward the goal of providing a retail space where people can come in and get not only my food, but also Asian ingredients—both those imported from Asia and those made by other amazing producers in Maine and New England. And of course, having the restaurant—because in the end, I want to see my customers enjoying my food in front of me.

What do you want to tell potential customers?

If you’re scared to try kimchi, I would say—it’s just food. That’s why it says that on my shirt. There was a customer who had never had it before and he was terrified. I had samples, and I said, “You can just try it. If you don’t like it, you can spit it out and throw it in the trash.” He was like, “OK.” He took the sample, ate it, and his face lit up. He said, “Oh—it’s just food.” That always stuck with me. When you try a foreign food—something you’ve never had before—you think, “Oh, it might be weird. What’s it going to taste like? Why does it look like this?” And then you eat it, and realize it’s just food. Food that other humans are eating. So don’t be afraid to try new foods. When you try new things, it really opens up your palate and your world.

How did you find CEI? What is your relationship with them?

When I started my business, I was looking for help from any angle—mentorship, financial advice, how to find a space, how to grow, how to hire employees. When I found CEI, the mentorship I received was very helpful. I could talk through a problem with someone who understood the business, not just my husband or another small business owner going through the same thing. The resources they sent were helpful, but it was mostly the one-on-one mentorship that helped the most. I was able to call, email, have a meeting with my mentor group, and say, “These are the problems I’m working through. Am I crazy?” I always started those conversations with, “Am I crazy?” And they’d say, “No, you’re not crazy—let’s break it down.” That was the most helpful thing.

Would you recommend CEI to other small businesses?

Yes. CEI has been very valuable to me. Now that I’m in my third or fourth year of business, I’m dealing with much bigger things, like getting a business loan. CEI has been helpful in that regard. When I was just starting out as a new food business owner, they helped me explore different paths, gave me all the options, and laid things out clearly. That helped me avoid losing money by investing in the wrong things. I feel like having a business advisor—even before you start—is a really great way to begin. A lot of business advice out there is generic, and I looked to other organizations that didn’t have specific knowledge of the food industry. Being a food business owner is very different than running a hair salon, or being an accountant, or a dog groomer. CEI gave me specific, tailored advice for owning a CPG food business that I wouldn’t have found anywhere else.

How do you make kimchi?

If you’re going to make kimchi and can’t get to one of my classes, all you need is vegetables, a place to chop them, and a container that can sit on your counter. We usually think of Napa cabbage when we think of kimchi, and that’s probably what you’ll want to start with. Besides cabbage, kimchi also includes ingredients like onions, garlic, carrots, scallions, and ginger. You can also use other root veggies like daikon radish, or even mustard greens. There are infinite combinations. We do lacto-fermentation, which refers to lactic acid bacteria that live on the vegetables. They’re already present, and they activate the fermentation process. They produce lactic acid and carbon dioxide, which breaks the veggies down and makes them sour. You cut your veggies, salt them (which draws water out), and that becomes the liquid. Then, you put your kimchi into a container and let it sit out at room temperature for 2–3 days to kickstart the fermentation. Then it goes into the fridge and can stay there for a while!

Can you describe Red Kettle Foods in one sentence?

Red Kettle Foods provides Asian foods to our community that are authentic and accessible to people of all income levels and all walks of life.

What is your takeaway from this experience?

My biggest takeaway is that I have realized that people are way more excited about my food than I thought. As a chef, I’m used to just sending food out and making all the food, or, you know, making something day after day. And I’ve never seen people so excited to buy the same thing day after day of your life. “This is the best. I love this. My family loves it. I want more of it. What other products do you have? What are you moving in your store?” This keeps me going. I’m pretty ecstatic that starting out with kimchi and then having all of these other products that we have now—all of the other products have been so well received. People are discovering new Asian ferments and liking them and wanting more. And so it’s made me realize that I don’t have to be afraid to introduce more food from my heritage, because they’re just really good food.