Tag: food artisans

Chicago’s Phoenix Tofu Rising Farther With Expansion, Media Attention

Posted on by FamilyFarmed

Jenny Yang and her Phoenix Tofu company in Chicago are shining examples of how FamilyFarmed’s Good Food Business Accelerator helps food and farm entrepreneurs build their businesses. Yang is launching a major expansion in response to fast-rising demand, which was the subject of a recent profile in the Chicago Tribune. We have republished an article we wrote about her and Phoenix Tofu last year, with a link to the Tribune story.

Kishr logo

Good Food Accelerator Fellow Hopes Success for Her ‘Superfruit Brew’ is a Kishr Thing

Posted on by FamilyFarmed

Differentiation is an important key to success in the expanding sector of artisan food producers. A number of food entrepreneurs have sought their special niche by reaching into their personal experience and background. This is something that Rowida Assalimy did when she launched Kishr, a traditional hot beverage of her parents’ native country of Yemen that she grew up drinking.

Spark of the Heart soup mix

Spark of the Heart Owners’ Rebound from Recession Was a Powerful Mix

Posted on by FamilyFarmed

One of the very few good things you can say about hard times, such as the recent Great Recession, is that they tend to unleash a lot of entrepreneurial energy. That was certainly the case for the owners of Spark of the Heart, a company that produces dry bean-based soup, salad and sides mixes, who will tell their story at the Good Food Business Accelerator’s Demo Day.

Dave Miller of Baker Miller at the Good Food Festival

Baker Miller at the Good Food Festival on Adding Whole Grains to Your Daily Grind

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

The rapid growth of the Good Food movement was reflected at FamilyFarmed’s annual Good Food Festival & Conference, which took place last Thursday through Saturday — not only in the big attendance turnout, but in the intensity of interest among the general public in eating better foods and, in many cases, making those better food themselves at home.

Rob Levitt charcuterie workshop at the Good Food Festival

Chicago Butcher Rob Levitt Elevated Charcuterie at the Good Food Festival

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

Rob Levitt, who co-owns Chicago’s popular The Butcher & Larder meat shop with his wife Allie, was very generous with his time prior to his charcuterie workshop at FamilyFarmed’s Good Food Festival Saturday. It turns out that Rob is also very generous with recipes.

Rob Levitt of Chicago's The Butcher & Larder

Chicago Butcher Rob Levitt on the Meaning of Good Meat and His Local Foods Move

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

Rob Levitt established himself as a major figure on Chicago’s food scene when he and his wife Allie opened The Butcher & Larder meat shop four years ago. Here Rob Levitt discusses his somewhat unexpected career as a butcher and his hopes for bigger things with his upcoming move, expected this spring, into a larger space in the new Local Foods retail store.

Mark Schulman, president of Eli's Cheesecake

Eli’s Cheesecake is Sweet on the Good Food Movement in Chicago

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

Eli’s Cheesecake has been serving up its sweet treats in Chicago for decades. As a local artisan producer that uses as many locally produced ingredients as possible, Eli’s has a prominent place at the Good Food movement’s dessert table. But the company’s commitment to expanding economic opportunity and social welfare through food is much broader than that.

Good Food Accelerator

Jenny Yang’s Growing Tofu Business is an Immigrant Food Story With a Modern Twist

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

The stories of immigrants achieving success by making the foods of their native lands are parts of the history and social fabric of the United States. But Jenny Yang of Chicago’s Phoenix Bean tofu has an immigrant food story with a modern twist. While millions of people have come to America to escape poverty or oppression, Yang first came to the U.S. from her native Taiwan a quarter-century ago in pursuit of higher education.

Farmer Gene Mealhow of Tiny But Mighty.

Whet Your Appetite for the Upcoming Good Food Festival & Conference

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

The schedule for this year’s 11th annual Festival & Conference, which takes place March 19-21 at the UIC Forum on the campus of University of Illinois at Chicago, has been released. We hope the details will whet your appetite for the event and persuade you to join this celebration of the fast-growing Good Food movement.

Farmer Gene Mealhow of Tiny But Mighty.

First Person: How FamilyFarmed and the Good Food Festival Helped Tiny But Mighty Pop

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

FamilyFarmed’s 11th annual Good Food Festival & Conference is coming up in Chicago March 19-21. The organization’s efforts to build the Good Food movement have helped farm and food entrepreneurs raise millions of dollars. Iowa’s Tiny But Mighty Popcorn is one of them.

Michael Bashaw, Whole Foods Market Midwest President

Whole Foods Exec Cites ‘Empowering’ Corporate Culture as Key to Chain’s Success

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

There is hardly a bigger Good Food movement success story than that of Whole Foods Market. So Michael Bashaw — president of Whole Foods Market’s 48-store-and-growing Midwest region — had a very attentive audience when he spoke Monday (Feb. 2) to entrepreneurs, financiers, and others associated with FamilyFarmed’s Good Food Business Accelerator program.

Shane Christensen of dailyServing

dailyServing ‘Functional Food’ Products Aim at a Healthy-Conscious but in a Hurry Society

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

Americans are increasingly health-conscious and concerned about what foods they are putting into their bodies. While there are plenty of nutritious and tasty whole foods out there, it is easy to fall back on the old, less healthy habits of doughnuts or candy bars or chips.
This is an issue that dailyServing, a Chicago-based food startup, aims to address.

Koval Distillery Oat Whiskey and Ginger Liqueur

Koval Hot Toddy: A Crafty Winter Warmup

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

Good Food on Every Table recently posted a story about Chicago’s Koval Distillery and its key role in establishing and growing the craft distilling industry in the city and region. But readers don’t live by words about craft spirits alone. You want recipes!

Robert Birnecker and Sonat Birnecker Hart of Chicago's Koval Distillery

How Chicago’s Koval Distillery Launched a Local Craft Spirits Boom — and Its Own Competition

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

It was just seven years ago when the married couple of Sonat Birnecker Hart and Robert Birnecker decided to give up high-level professional careers in the Washington, D.C., area, and start up their Koval Distillery in Chicago. As recent as that seems, they did not join the craft spirits movement within the city of Chicago. They launched it.

Raj Karmani of Zero Percent (right) and Michael Bashaw of Whole Foods Market

FamilyFarmed’s Financing Fair Accepting Entrepreneur Applicants

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To sustain and expand on that growth, though, entrepreneurs and investors must be able to connect and build businesses that expand the supply of Good Food products in local markets. That is the goal of FamilyFarmed’s annual Financing Fair, which is currently accepting applications from entrepreneurs who want to participate.

The Chicago Hum-dinger cocktail

Giving Your New Year’s (and Brunch) Bubbly Cocktails a Local Kick

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New Year’s Eve approaches, and the mind turns to bubbly wine. And New Year’s resolutions. And I can tell you from experience that few things stimulate creative thinking about those resolutions than a sparkling wine cocktail spiked with potent distilled spirits.

The Big Jones Cookbook

Southern Tradition is the Sauce for Chicago Chef Paul Fehribach’s New Cookbook

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

Paul Fehribach has always been generous about sharing his recipes at his Southern-themed Big Jones restaurant in Chicago. Now he has compiled his tips into The Big Jones Cookbook, coming out this spring.

The National Restaurant Association's Top 10 Food Trends for 2015

Good Food Movement Principles Star in 2015 Restaurant Trends

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

The National Restaurant Association’s annual predictions of top culinary trends are out — and it looks like 2015 will be another great year for the fast-growing Good Food movement.

Henry Schwartz of MobCraft brewery in Madison, Wisconsin

Crowdsourcing Ferments Financing — and Recipes — for Wisconsin’s MobCraft Brewery

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

MobCraft, a start-up craft brewery in Madison, Wisconsin, has gotten some buzz lately because of their efforts at crowdfunding equity investment. But crowdsourcing has been integral to their operations — even their beer recipe development — since the get-go.

Chicago Independent Spirits Expo industry panel

Industry Experts Shared High-Proof Insights at Chicago’s Independent Spirits Expo

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

Craft spirits tasting events are, by their very nature, fun. But the annual Independent Spirits Expo in Chicago, the latest rendition of which was held Tuesday (Sept. 30), also has a highly informative side. A panel of industry experts ended with a roundup of insights on the outlook for the spirits industry in the years ahead.