I was recently invited by local Chef and business owner Luca Paris to accompany him on his Thursday morning radio show, “What’s Cooking with Luca Paris”. He asked me to join him after seeing a post of mine on social media in a Facebook group called What Is The Best Thing You Ate Today? I would be putting it mildly to say that this group is a strong community builder – much of what is posted are images and stories behind high quality home cooked meals, as well as a great deal of plates prepared by local restaurants and food trucks. It is without a doubt one of my favorite things to check in on, and contribute to with my own successful recipes (or attempts at them), and I highly recommend it to any food lover out there.
On the show we talked about many fine aspects of what we do at the co-op, including our ability to source the best local ingredients and utilize them in our recipes or simply provide them for our customers. I brought with me a spread of some of our prepared foods items, including our Buffalo Chicken Meatballs, Guacamole, Meatloaf, Garlic Hummus, and Spinach Artichoke Dip, as well as the Lemon Blueberry and Chocolate Zucchini Breads. Needless to say, both Luca and host, Dan Mitchell, were very impressed with the quality and assortment of items. We talked about the meatballs for what felt like half an hour, with some great suggestions from Luca for further variations.
Other topics included the upcoming expansion; how Prepared Foods is going to be essentially lifted up and put back down in the new section of the building, how we have historically struggled to keep up with demand in our department, and (ironically, in my eyes) the fact that our community was unsure of the success of the co-op when it was opened. Quite clearly that question has been answered very much in our favor, and is also very fortunate for the community.
After the show, on top of my relief from having made it through without any mistake, I was reminded of several things: That we are loved and respected by local farms, known with comfort and reverence by our customers, and that we send a strong and positive message out to the world. Most importantly (on a personal level) I was reminded of the pride that I have being a part of a team with such a positive impact on its community. What we do here really is unique to the region, supporting local farms and promoting local growth. We set a strong example of how a business can shape a community, and we can all be very proud of that fact.
You really never know when an opportunity is going to arise. This broadcast was recorded and can be found on https://wkbkradio.com/podcasts/whats-cooking-with-luca-paris-take-and-go-foods-monadnock-food-coop-wkbk-8-29-19/.
