Why Customers Keep Coming Back for Ricci’s Crispy Chilli with Candied Garlic.

Spend enough time in the food industry and you’ll see plenty of awards.

Gold medals. Silver medals. Best in category. Award-winning this and award-winning that.

And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with being proud of an award.

But after more than 23 years of making and selling food at Ricci’s, we’ve learnt that there’s another measure that matters a whole lot more to us.

Do people come back and buy it again?

Because you can have the awards, the write-ups, the beautiful packaging and all the right people talking about your product.

But if someone finishes the jar and doesn’t want another one, none of that really matters.

We used to think getting noticed mattered more

When you’re a small food business, you naturally think getting noticed by the right people will make a difference.

During COVID, when small businesses like ours were trying to navigate one of the most difficult periods we’d ever experienced, I reached out to one of Melbourne’s best-known food publications.

I never heard back.

At the time, it bothered me.

But perhaps there was a lesson in that too.

Ricci’s kept going.

Our customers kept buying.

We kept turning up at markets, making our products, talking to the people eating them and listening to what they actually thought.

And more than 23 years after we started Ricci’s, I think I trust that feedback more than anything else.

That’s how I feel about Ricci’s Crispy Chilli with Candied Garlic. Every person who comes back for another jar tells us more than an award ever could.

Then along came Ricci's Crispy Chilli with Candied Garlic

When we introduced our Crispy Chilli with Candied Garlic, we weren't trying to create an award-winning product.

We weren't chasing a gold medal.

We weren't trying to impress a food critic.

We just wanted it to be completely delicious.

And the response was bigger than we ever expected.

We've watched customers taste it at our market stall, stop mid-conversation and go back for another taste.

We've had people buy one jar, then come back for three, four, five or even a case!

We've sold out and had people asking when the next shipment was arriving.

We've received messages, photos and reviews from customers telling us what they're putting it on and, occasionally, admitting they're eating it straight from the jar.

That is the feedback we pay attention to.

It's not even an oil

We probably should clear this up while we're here.

Our Crispy Chilli with Candied Garlic isn't a chilli oil.

It's a jar packed with crispy chilli and candied garlic, with an incredible combination of crunch, gentle heat, sweetness and savoury flavour.

And you really don't need much.

A spoonful over eggs, noodles, dumplings or pizza. Add it to a stir-fry or BBQ meats. Toss it through a delicious Pasta. Mix a little through kewpie mayo and you've got an outrageously good burger base.

Once people discover it, they seem to find their own reasons to open the jar.

And that's exactly what we wanted.

So, are awards important?

For some brands, absolutely.

For us?

We're pretty happy letting the people eating our food decide.

After all these years, we've learnt that you can't manufacture genuine loyalty. You can't put a gold sticker on a jar and make someone come back for another one.

The product has to do that.

So we're not trying to tell you our Crispy Chilli with Candied Garlic is delicious because someone gave it an award.

We'd much rather you taste it and decide for yourself.

And if you finish the jar and come back for another?

That's the award we're interested in.