Dorene Humason is the founder of The Chef in Black, a line of California Asian Fusion salad dressings. She pitched her product on Shark Tank in 2010. On the show, Humason made a deal with investor Barbara Corcoran ($50,000 for 35 percent equity) contingent on Humason focusing on the dry salad dressing packets (vs the bottles). But the deal fell through. Humanson wanted to pursue both the dry mix and the bottled dressing.
Humason explained: “Barbara is a brilliant business woman, but real estate is different than food.” She added, “I knew it was best to go forward with both the dry mix and the bottled dressing.” After the deal fell through Humason says Corcoran wanted her to help Corcoran with her food companies including Pork Barrel BBQ (one of Corcoran’s most successful Shark Tank businesses). As of September 2016, the Chef in Black website is no longer and the product is no longer available on Amazon.
