Lisle woman tests gadgets, recipes at home for major companies

You probably never have met Kathy Kari, but if you like to eat and cook no doubt the two of you have had a close encounter of the culinary kind.

The Lisle woman has been testing recipes and cookware and developing recipes for major manufacturers, including Pampered Chef and Wilton, and celebrity chefs like Emeril Lagasse and Mario Batali, for more than 18 years.

Her stamp of approval is on pots and pans, mandolins and graters, spatulas and knives. She develops cooking instructions for packaged foods, creates recipes for specific gadgets and makes sure kitchen thermometers are calibrated accurately.

Earlier this summer she conducted some thorough testing of sangria mix.

"Right now I'm working on a chocolate cookbook," she says one recent morning. "I've got chocolate cookies in the oven with marshmallow cream filling, like a Whoopie Pie. Later on I'm developing a chocolate coffeecake."

As a private consultant, Kathy cannot reveal her clients because of confidentiality agreements, but you would know them if you heard them.

So how does one land a job like that

Kathy majored in home economics with a business major, but her parents planted the seeds of inspiration. Her mother, the daughter of bakers, handled the sweets at home in Northbrook; her father liked to cook. He owned a nursery where he grew tomatoes for Heinz ketchup, and he was a gifted do-it-yourselfer with a woodshop and a metal lathe.

If she wasn't in the kitchen with her parents or grandmother or aunt, she was in her father's shop.

"I was his sidekick," says Kathy. "That's how I got an interest in metals."

Today she tests recipes on her husband, Scott, her two college-age sons and her three step-children who visit on weekends.

Kathy's "neighborhood panel," as she calls it, also benefits from her weekly testing.

"They're thrilled; they come home from work and I'll call and say I've been testing," she says. "Their eyes light up. They'll take anything."

In her nonprofessional life Kathy is a self-described "pseudo vegetarian" who avoids red meat and pork. She lets other people taste those recipes when she develops them. For herself she focuses on fish, fruits and vegetables, a combination that comes together in her Poached Tuna Steaks with Sweet Corn Relish.

An exciting blend of hot, sweet and tangy, the relish works equally well with chicken, a variety of burgers and seafood.

Her three-layer Chocolate and Caramel Tart sounds fussy, but each step is simple.

It sounds perfect for weekend entertaining, but not at Kathy's house. She gets her fill of cooking during the week.

On weekends she'd rather eat out.