July so far has been a month focused on food and ingredients. I'm steadily working through decisions around what items I will carry and where I will get them. Pop quiz to check if you've been reading: what do all your hopes and dreams come down to?
Yes, DISTRIBUTION! (Gold star for you!). Before I can finalize the menu, I wanted to line up all my distributor partnerships and make sure I'm not spending my precious free time running around shopping. I recently signed up as a customer with Sysco and they'll provide many of my day-to-day supplies. Despite my newbie status, they have truly rolled out the red carpet so far. They recently had me in for a formal tasting in their test kitchen with their executive chef, and it felt pretty glamorous I must say. Check out my name in lights, a photo of the process and some tasty options I got to try.
Also part of my distributor A Team is Peterson Cheese, a specialty distributor who will be bringing me a line of pastries. One morning last week, they literally sent a French chef to my house with a box of croissants, quiches and danishes for the family to try. Life goal I never knew I had: ACHIEVED!
Pete's Milk Delivery, the commercial arm of Smith Brothers, will be providing my dairy, including lots and lots of delicious local yogurt. Below is recipe development underway for a Golden Lassi featuring greek yogurt, almond milk, almond butter, honey and turmeric.
I'm also close to partnering officially with a local Indian restaurant to produce my Indian snacks (while Lassi & Spice focuses on handcrafted beverages), and I'll share more about that after our union is officially blessed by the Health Department. And perhaps most serendipitous of all was when I casually reached out to an Amazon 3rd party seller of Indian coffee beans I soon learned he's based in Baltimore, is the son of a coffee farmer with a plantation in Mysore, and has been helping his dad import his first container of coffee to the US. Truly incredible and inspiring to hear his story, and hopefully he will soon to be a business partner.
Thankfully as I consume all these necessary but extra calories, my demanding dog helps me balance it out with some long, summer walks in the Arboretum. Working from home has its privileges this time of year.
How's your summer going? What interesting things have you been tasting lately? What serendipitous connections are you making?
XOXO Susannah