Good Food Great Business

Business wisdom from more than seventy-five food industry experts, specialty food buyers, and entrepreneurs to help you start and run a small culinary concern. For those ready to follow their foodie dreams (or at least start thinking about it) Good Food, Great Business is the place to get organized and decide whether creating a specialty food business is really possible. Whether the goal is selling a single product online or developing a line of gourmet foods to be sold in grocery chains, this working handbook helps readers become food entrepreneurs—from concept to production to sales to marketing. Using real life examples from more than seventy-five individuals and businesses that have already joined the ranks of successful enterprises, the book walks readers through the good, the bad, and the ugly of starting a food business. In these pages, you’ll learn . . . Personal habits and business fundamentals that will help you in every walk of life How to choose the business idea or ideas that best fit you and your personality How to determine the viability of those ideas Concrete steps you need to take to make your business a reality

Stories and advice for creating a business out of the food you love. Do you have a passion for delicious food and want to create your own business out of it, but have no idea where to start? Cooking Up a Business is essential reading for aspiring entrepreneurs and gives you a real-world, up-close-and-personal preview of the exciting journey. Through profiles and interviews with nationally known food entrepreneurs from Popchips, Vosges Haut-Chocolat, Hint Water, Mary’s Gone Crackers, Love Grown Foods, Kopali Organics, Tasty, Evol, Justin’s Nut Butters, Cameron Hughes Wine, and more, you will gain applicable, practical guidance that teaches you how to succeed today: • How to create a national brand—with no connections or experience • The secret to getting meetings with grocery store buyers • The number one thing you need to know about food safety regulations • Why a grassroots budget might actually help you succeed • Specific advice for gluten-free, organic, wine, and beverage companies • What every entrepreneur wishes someone had told them at the beginning • Why doing what you love is always a good idea

Previously published as a Gotham Books hardcover edition.

In A Good Food Day, more than 100 recipes made with good-for-you ingredients make a good food day--a day when feeling good and eating well go hand in hand--easy and attainable. After years of thoughtless eating that led to weight gain and poor health, chef Marco Canora knew he had to make every day a good food day: a whole day in which every meal was full of healthy and delicious ingredients. But he wasn’t willing to give up flavor for health. Instead of dieting, he decided to make simple, natural recipes fit for a food lover’s palate. Marco explains the secret powers of good-for-you ingredients (such as low-GI carbohydrates and alkaline-forming greens), and then builds them into recipes that are all about satisfaction, such as Amaranth Polenta with Tuscan Kale, Black Rice Seafood Risotto, Citrus-Spiked Hazelnut and Rosemary Granola, and Chickpea Crepe Sandwiches. He covers techniques to coax natural flavor out of dishes, including infusing seasoning into vegetable salads and pounding fresh herbs and spices into lean meats. To make a lasting change in your diet, the food you eat has to be delicious. A Good Food Day is for people who love real food, and know that healthy and flavorful can go hand in hand.

Each chapter takes the reader step-by-step through everything needed to get a small food business up and running including: business plans; obtaining licenses and registering the business; understanding costs and pricing; marketing and branding; and developing business tools to track finances.

From an accomplished journalist, this illuminating chronicle of the trials, tribulations, and triumph of Zingerman’s—a beloved, $70 million-dollar Michigan-based gourmet food store with global reach—is “thoughtful reading for foodies and entrepreneurs” (Kirkus Reviews). Certain businesses are legendary, exerting immense influence in their field. Zingerman’s in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is one of those places. Over the years the flagship deli has expanded into a community of more than a dozen businesses, including a wildly successful mail order operation, restaurants, bakery, coffee roastery, creamery, candy maker, and events space—transforming Ann Arbor into a destination for food lovers. Founded in 1982 by Paul Saginaw and Ari Weinzweig, Zingerman’s philosophy of good food, excellent service, and sound finances has turned it into a company whose reach spans all corners of the gourmet food world.? Famous for its generous deli sandwiches, fresh bread, and flavorful coffee—all locally produced—Zingerman’s is also widely celebrated for its superb customer service and employee equity. The culture is one of respect and innovation, while maintaining very high standards. Every employee has access to the financial records, everyone has a voice, and everyone is heard. It has legions of enthusiastic customers, fans across the food world, and business principles and a work ethic that have been admired, analyzed, and copied. All that is revealed here, in Micheline Maynard’s Satisfaction Guaranteed. Discover how by 2019, Zingerman’s employed hundreds of employees and achieved close to $70 million in annual sales. When the pandemic struck, Zingerman’s growth momentarily screeched to a halt—but it survived by reinventing itself, while still serving its beloved food and selling its wide array of groceries. Now, as Zingerman’s looks forward to a half century in business, it is on track for stronger results than ever. A recipe for success in business and in life, Satisfaction Guaranteed provides a roadmap for manifesting joy and purpose in everything you do.

Bring Your Fresh Ideas to Market and Profit Fueled by growing consumer demand for new tastes, cleaner ingredients, health benefits, and more convenient ways to shop and eat, the business of specialty food is taking off at full speed. This step-by-step guide arms entrepreneurial foodies like yourself with an industry overview, the hottest trends, important research and statistics, and insight from practicing specialty food business owners on key growth drivers, opportunities, and how you can differentiate from other food businesses. Discover how to: Find the right avenue for your specialty food business: home-based, retail shop, production, wholesale, or distribution Create a solid business plan, get funded, and get the essential equipment Get the right licenses, codes, permits, insurance for your operations Gain a competitive edge using market and product research Find a profitable location, partnerships, and in-store shelf space Promote your business, products, and services online and offline Attract new and loyal customers using social media platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, and Pinterest Manage daily operations, costs, and employees Plus, get valuable resource lists, sample business plans, checklists, and worksheets

FINALIST 2014 – Heritage Toronto Award It began as a food bank. It turned into a movement. In 1998, when Nick Saul became executive director of The Stop, the little urban food bank was like thousands of other cramped, dreary, makeshift spaces, a last-hope refuge where desperate people could stave off hunger for one more day with a hamper full of canned salt, sugar and fat. The produce was wilted and the packaged foods were food-industry castoffs—mislabelled products and misguided experiments that no one wanted to buy. For users of the food bank, knowing that this was their best bet for a meal was a humiliating experience. Since that time, The Stop has undergone a radical reinvention. Participation has overcome embarrassment, and the isolation of poverty has been replaced with a vibrant community that uses food to build hope and skills, and to reach out to those who need a meal, a hand and a voice. It is now a thriving, internationally respected Community Food Centre with gardens, kitchens, a greenhouse, farmers’ markets and a mission to revolutionize our food system. Celebrities and benefactors have embraced the vision because they have never seen anything like The Stop. Best of all, fourteen years after his journey started, Nick Saul is introducing this neighbourhood success story to the world. In telling the remarkable story of The Stop’s transformation, Saul and Curtis argue that we need a new politics of food, one in which everyone has a dignified, healthy place at the table. By turns funny, sad and raw, The Stop is a timely story about overcoming obstacles, challenging sacred cows and creating lasting change.