Tristan Williams
C’est Bon Bone Broth has become un succès instantané—and Allie Redshaw couldn’t be happier.
The veteran local chef has been making and distributing her locally sourced bone broth for “I guess about six months,” she says, and she’s already built up a devoted customer base.
“I have a subscription that I offer now,” Redshaw says. “And so, people are starting to subscribe, and they’re getting weekly deliveries. … If you don’t have time to sit down and eat a super calorie-dense meal that’s protein-heavy and is a great collagen source, bone broth checks all of those boxes. And if you want to just use it as a base, if you’re making something that’s heartier and you want to add things to it that have more sustenance or calories … it’s an incredible source of so many good nutrients and vitamins and minerals.”
The broth is primarily sourced from beef bones, and it’s seasoned with spices she can customize to her clients’ needs: cardamom and black peppercorn for some buyers, “or if I’m doing something that’s specifically for postpartum or maternal healing, then I’m definitely using … fennel seed, mustard seed, things that will help with lactation, with rest and recovery.”
The business grew out of what Redshaw saw as a “desire in the community,” as well as something she could prepare fairly easily by herself: “something that could be nourishing, that didn’t seem like it took a whole lot of time out of the day. Really, the timely portion of bone broth is in the making, or kind of the forefront of it. I feel like if I can really put labor and love into that process with passion, it’s also something in the kitchen that I can do more independently.”
In 2017, Redshaw lost her right hand while working with a meat grinder at Lampo. The tragedy could have ended her career but, over time, she found new ways to tackle kitchen work. She and her husband, Ian, own a catering company called Sumac Supper Club, which handles everything from elegant 10-person dinners to supplying food for University of Virginia soirees.
“When Ian and I are running the catering business, inevitably, as much as I don’t want to, I have to ask for help with a task or two—or 18. And so that is really frustrating to my ego, because I think having independence in your craft is important.
“And so, bone broth was something that … the only thing that I could really physically struggle with is straining it. So then I just got pots that have strainers like spouts at the bottom. And so now I can just strain without asking for help. I can do the entire process stem to stern by myself, which is awesome. And there are not very many tasks in the kitchen that I have found that are that way.”
The bone broth business also allows Redshaw the freedom to pursue her other passions: spending time with her two children, teaching yoga, and participating in rock-climbing competitions. It’s something she discovered after the birth of her second daughter, Willow.
“I’m actually headed to Austria with Team USA paraclimbing in two weeks to represent our country in the world of rock climbing,” she says.
