Lori Rogers, aka Chef Lorious, is making culinary history with her gourmet wine-infused jam. Her jam brand, Jam Vino, has been chosen as one of 92 brands to have products available on Walmart shelves beginning in June 2025.
Being around many women who loved to cook as a child inspired Rogers to pursue her love of cooking. She never imagined that it would become her source of income, but she got the motivation she needed when her husband suggested that she record videos of her recipes because her friends were often requesting them.
“So I did. And the channel kind of started taking off and people started watching it, and then I started cooking live on Facebook weekly,” the Alabama native told the Forth Worth Report. “All of a sudden I had a following. Then I was doing cooking demos at Williams Sonoma, then my followers were asking me for a cookbook.”
In 2019, she launched her cookbook, “Calibama Cooking: Classic & Contemporary Comfort Food,” in response to fan requests.
She added that her jam is a tribute to her “Calibama” roots as it blends Southern cooking with California wine culture. According to a release, Rogers has created “an entirely new subcategory of jam by blending artisanal craftsmanship with the sophisticated notes of fine wines.”
She recounted, “I love grilled cheese sandwiches, and my children love them. Just to make it interesting, I always amp everything up. I would make this little wine jam with fruit and cook the alcohol off. I was doing cooking demos at Williams Sonoma, and I put the jam in the grilled cheese sandwiches, which is what I did at home. I just thought I’d make it interesting. People kept saying, the sandwich is so good, but asking what that was in the sandwich. I’d tell them it was this wine jam. We realized after several people asked us about it, and then they were asking, ‘Do you sell this?’ There was all this buzz about it. We said, ‘I think we have something here.’”
Thousands of small businesses apply to participate in the annual Walmart Open Call, and this year, only 92 brands received the Golden Ticket. Rogers received the Golden Ticket after a one-on-one pitch meeting at Walmart headquarters on September 25.
“Your product has to be innovative. It has to really fill a need,” she observed.
However, until it is available on store shelves in June 2025, her Jam Vino, which costs $10 for a 7-ounce jar and comes in varieties like Blackberry Merlot, Raspberry Moscato, and Strueberry Blanc, can be purchased online at Walmart.com or on Jam Vino’s website.
She expressed, “For us, Walmart just made sense, because our goal is everyday luxury for everyday people. We think everyone should be able to have a little bit of luxury in their life. That’s what this jam does. It really just gives you some luxury. You’re eating this luxurious wine jam. We want everyone to be able to enjoy it—not just a few, everyone.”
Understanding the intricacies of being an entrepreneur, Rogers advises, “…Be authentic and be yourself. Stick to who you are and follow the market. Those two things almost sound contradictory when you say, follow the market, but be yourself, because the market may not be yourself.”
She continued, “But the truth is, when there’s something that you love and you have a passion for it, it’s going to show. It’s also going to show how you create your product, and if you are authentic to that market, the people that feel the same way, or that are drawn to that, will find you. You’ll find your tribe. You can’t just try to move with where the weather is or where you think the money is. You need to love it, because it’s gonna take everything out of you.”
