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Paul Marshall didn’t know what he wanted to be when he grew up. At first, he thought maybe he’d be a professional soccer player. But after he transitioned from playing at Soquel High School to Cabrillo Junior College, he decided he should probably come up with a different plan.
So he signed up for a career planning class, and after an extensive survey, he was given three career suggestions: park ranger, police officer or firefighter. As part of the class, he had to complete a report on one of those careers, so he decided to interview the firefighters at the Scotts Valley Fire Department.
Marshall was quickly welcomed into the group of firefighters. He helped them cook dinner, which was interrupted when a 911 call came in about a woman who was experiencing shortness of breath.
Seeing the blend of professionalism and poise with which the firefighters talked to the woman, who was experiencing anxiety – while they bantered about ice cream flavors in the firetruck – was an experience that stayed with him, he said.
Later, a firefighter he interviewed told him, “I’ve been a firefighter for 25 years, and I love my career today as much as I did when I started.”
At that point, Marshall said, “I knew what I was going to do.”
He spent the next seven years working as a firefighter for Scotts Valley before eventually becoming a San Jose firefighter. It was there that he learned one of his fire station superpowers was cooking.
He’d grown up cooking at home – he recalls starting out baking desserts from his mom’s three-ring “Betty Crocker” binder before venturing into the world of entrees – and had collected cookbooks as a teen.
“I realized how happy I could make people by putting food in front of them,” he said.
So he became one of the regular chefs at Fire Station 17 in San Jose. Within the fire department, there were a number of impressive chefs, along with a sense of friendly competition. But a frequent downside of life in a fire station was that their meals were frequently interrupted by fire alarms.
Going to respond to a fire can take several hours at a time, meaning that firefighters were often hungry on the job.
Around 2010, Marshall began making granola at his fire station. He added flavors he’d grown up enjoying, inspired by the trail mix his mom used to have around the house with flavors like cinnamon and cloves and nuts including cashews, almonds and peanuts, plus accents like dark chocolate and cranberry.
“It didn’t take long before I came up with a granola I thought was really good,” he said.
Soon he was making custom granola batches as gifts for firefighters’ friends and family, and finding granola nuggets trapped in the seats of the firetrucks the team cleaned regularly.
About five years ago, he decided to get another opinion and took a batch to Whole Foods to ask for some feedback on his granola. It was a hit, and they offered to work with him to get his product into their stores.
Thrilled, he went home and thought about it, but decided he wasn’t ready.
“There’s all this stuff I don’t have,” he explained. “I don’t have a logo, website, team or business plan.”
So he declined the offer but began taking his granola more seriously. He dug into designing a logo, building a website, testing out competitor granolas and figuring out packaging concepts. He also partnered with local athletes to serve as brand ambassadors for his granola, including Shane Desmond, Vivian Lo, Kaila Pearson, Leroy Thomas, Eamon Lucas, Lauren Ten Dam, Barbara Blackburn and Hans and Kelly Jorgensen. And he began working out of a commercial kitchen, spending late nights listening to ‘80s music and baking up granola batches.
“Something important to me is to make it perfect before I get it out there,” he said.
Soon after one of his granola jars was sold at a charity auction, someone from Western Digital ordered hundreds of gift boxes for the holidays. Then, through a connection with an Airbnb guest, he started doing pop-ups at Williams-Sonoma. He also connected with Intuit and a program that supports small businesses to keep growing.
He retired from firefighting last year and is working on building the granola business full time now, currently serving a mix of individual and corporate customers while looking to expand the business and its team.
“I’m confident it’s going to take me into the right direction,” he said.
Paul’s Firehouse Granola,1500 Dell Ave. #B, Campbell. 831-334-4202, paulsfirehousegranola.com or Instagram: @paulsfirehousegranola.
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