Brine, vinegar and lots of passion By Jessica Gelt Chef Bruce Kalman, a New Jersey native, and has a thing for pickles. He’s so passionate about them that he left a good job at the Churchill to start his own pickle company out of a rented commercial kitchen on Robertson Boulevard in West L.A. Bruce’s Prime Pickle Co. is small but Kalman’s ambitions for it are big. Dressed in a #got pickles T-shirt with a vinegar-scented apron on a recent weekday afternoon, Kalman showed off the tools of his trade — huge pots of brine, giant tubs of cucumbers (up to 1,000 pounds), buckets of hand-peeled garlic, savory spices and fresh vegetables such as cauliflower, onions and asparagus from local farms.
