Courtney Modaff, owner of The Spice Shack of Sun Valley, found inspiration in making spice blends in a line of work that may be surprising to those outside the area but is fitting for those who know and love rafting Idaho’s rivers: as a river guide. In 2021, Modaff founded her company and began creating small-batch spice and tea blends made and bottled in the Wood River Valley, using none of the fillers and preservatives that she’d learned commercial spices were laden with.
How It Started
Modaff’s mother owned a small café outside Chicago, giving Modaff experience working every part of a restaurant as she grew up, from bussing tables to working in the kitchen and helping the chefs prep. Her first professional foray into cooking came while in college at Arizona State, where she took a job managing a lunch camp on the Upper Salt River. What she’d thought was a simple cooking job also entailed rowing a boat to get supplies to the lunch camp, launching her into the guiding business.
With a newfound love for guiding, she was told that Idaho was the place to work, so she relocated and jumped into the field. Guiding on the Middle Fork is considered the ultimate guiding job, so what helped Modaff earn a spot was her ability to also prepare food in addition to guiding. Over the course of her 35-year career, she guided for Mackay Wilderness River Trips, Middle Fork River Tours (a company that used to be based out of Hailey), and many other companies.
While on these trips, Modaff was often in charge of the food, so she would often put together spice blends to take on the river, helping make things easier while cooking. People loved the spices so much, she would often ship them to clients after trip, thinking nothing of it until she retired from guiding and was looking for a new line of work. Not wanting to work in bars and restaurants, per se, but still interested in that industry, she began researching what might be a viable option.
After learning about all the preservatives, fillers, and dyes that go into commercial spices, but also the higher margin spices have in the food industry, she had her light bulb moment: “I thought I could combine my love of cooking and spices, create some gourmet flavors for people, and at the same time, help people have a healthier kitchen.”
The Spice Shack Is Born
Modaff started her business with just a few spice blends, notably her Leak and Lemon Dill Blend and her OG River Rub Blend. The Leek and Lemon was created for Modaff’s mom, who wanted something she could use as a vinaigrette but also on fish and chicken. Modaff found inspiration while visiting a Chicago coffee shop that created “one of the most amazing toast experiences” Modaff had ever had by adding leek powder on top. With a love for BBQing and grilling, she also knew she needed a good BBQ blend, so she loosely based it off a blend she used to make on the river, with dehydrated apples, maple sugar, habanero, paprika, mustard powder—all the things that would be in a good BBQ sauce but dry. She dubbed it her River Rub, which she calls “the OG blend.”
Modaff sources her spices from sustainable suppliers as well as buying local herbs, veggies, fruits, and flowers from Idaho growers, which she dehydrates slowly to keep the fresh flavors intact. As the business grew, she added more spice profiles, from Asian to garlic peppers to salt-free and sugar-free blends. “I tested the market at the Wood River Farmers Market and found people really love it,” she says. “I was having so much fun that here I am, five years later, still doing it and loving it.”
Modaff runs a solo operation, using space in what was formerly Saffron, renting kitchen time from former Christina’s chef Paula Lopez’s catering company, Catalina’s.
Where to Get It
The Spice Shack today has about 25 spices and a handful of teas, all of which are available on Modaff’s website and are available for shipping nationally. Locally, The Spice Shack is available at Atkinson’s Hailey and Ketchum, as well as Café Della and Ketchum Kitchens. You can find the spices outside the Wood River Valley, at the Boise Co-op and Handmade Idaho in Boise; Rudy’s in Twin; the Custer Store in Custer, Idaho; River 1 in Stanley; the Idaho Potato Museum in Blackfoot; Lakeview Fruit in Caldwell; and Rockin’ Roasters in Redmond, Oregon. Several local restaurants utilize her spices, like Grumpy’s, who use the River Rub on their weekly Tuesday ribs special. Modaff also helped create Sun Valley Mustard’s Musty Nuts spice mix.