Nara Smith is putting her culinary expertise to work.
The model and creator known for her in-depth, homemade cooking content, where she makes everything from sourdough bread to bubble gum from scratch, is teaming with culinary brand Algae Cooking Club to launch a limited-edition roasted garlic oil. The oil is bundled in several gift sets, starting at $45, now available on the Algae Cooking Club website.
“[Smith is] thoughtful, extremely involved, deeply passionate about food, and has always wanted to create the right way for her audience to taste something from her kitchen, without any corners cut,” said Algae Cooking Club cofounder and chief executive officer Kas Saidi.
Smith, who has over 12 million followers on TikTok, has partnered with a variety of brands, including Vegamour, Reformation and Erewhon.
Algae Cooking Club, which launched in 2023, employs microalgae to create its cooking oil, which is more sustainable than traditional oils. The oil is also anti-inflammatory, features a high amount of omega-3s and has a high smoke point of 535 degrees Fahrenheit.
The impetus for the collaboration came from Smith’s own experience using garlic in her cooking.
“I love garlic, but I hate stinky garlic fingers,” she said in a statement. “My Roasted Garlic Oil takes the drama out of cooking, all the garlic flavor I love without the mess… Algae Cooking Club indulged my obsession with every detail: a custom frosted glass bottle, hand-drawn label, my homemade recipe, no artificial flavors and a slow-steeping process. I’m so excited to share it with my people. Pinch me.”
Saidi added: “It sounds kind of silly, but she’d stopped using fresh garlic as often because she hated stinky garlic fingers. It’s one of those small, totally human things that ends up sparking the best creative ideas. We started riffing from there, sending tweets about how everyone secretly hates chopping garlic — it’s universal.”
While Saidi and Smith met via a mutual connection, the collaboration was fortuitous as Smith had been a fan of the brand. According to Saidi, the duo started working on the collaboration over a year ago, using Smith’s signature “from scratch” approach to develop the oil.
“Nara’s from-scratch cooking is the real deal, and we weren’t going to let her or her fans down on a single detail,” said Saidi. “We steep the oil like tea in large stainless steel kettles, low and slow. It’s painstakingly difficult and time-intensive, but the payoff is a garlic oil that’s layered, complex and still packs a true garlic punch. We even flew yuzu oil in from Japan to get the flavor right.”
Prior to this, Saidi had teamed with Eleven Madison Park to launch flavored oils, as collaborations have become a key part of the brand’s strategy.
“Algae oil is still a new ingredient for a lot of people, so these collaborations become this ‘delicious door’ into discovering it. You might come in for a roasted garlic oil or a chili oil, but what you’re really discovering is how versatile and clean algae oil is underneath it all,” he said. “They’re true tentpole moments for us. Yes, they drive awareness and education, but at the heart of it, they just make people excited to cook.”
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