All posts in category Friday Food Stories

Friday Food Stories: Get to Know Our Favorite Baker

Janet Brooks—Media Planner at deep—has a seriously sweet talent. Thankfully for us, she’s also really good at sharing. From cakes and cookies to brownies, bars and pies, Janet bakes food show-worthy masterpieces like you’ve never seen.

janet-friday-food-stories

Ever since she was a little girl, she has been honing her baking abilities. When the rest of us were pretend baking pies with play dough or learning to use an easy-bake oven, Janet was encouraged to do the real thing—adult oven and all. We can thank her mom, another queen in the kitchen, for that.

It started with the tradition of making Christmas cookies—Janet was hooked. Her lifelong love for baking was inspired and the experimenting began and continues today. With a degree in food & nutrition, a career in foodservice, and endless trial and error (she once helplessly watched as a beautiful, three-layer cake slid apart on her way to work), as you can imagine, her talent for baking has only grown. Our taste buds are so thankful.

Pinterest, baking blogs, and television channels dedicated to making food have also influenced the creations that come from her kitchen. With endless sources of sweet inspiration, her desserts are never boring and she never gets tired of trying something new. But, as any baker would tell you, she has forever favorites that never fail. Heart-shaped sugar cookies for Valentine’s Day, three-layer Tuxedo Cake (Find the recipe here!) for parties and her husband’s top pick, Pumpkin Loaf Cake topped with Sticky Toffee Sauce. Hungry yet?

Where the patience and sometimes lengthy process deters many from building a love for baking, Janet finds these attributes enjoyable. For her, the time and effort involved is part of what makes the final product so good—especially for others. The gift of giving something scratch made is what it’s all about. After all, there’s no better way to tell someone you really care about them than with a gift of time well-spent creating the dessert of their dreams.

With Valentine’s Day coming up quick, we think we’re going to take a tip from Janet and surprise all our favorite people with something scratch made. You in?

Friday Food Stories is a spotlight series showcasing deepsters and their deep love for all things food. Check back soon for more!

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by deep on January 29, 2016  •  Permalink
Posted in Friday Food Stories, Janet Brooks
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Posted by deep on January 29, 2016

https://deepgroup.wordpress.com/2016/01/29/friday-food-stories-janet-brooks/

Friday Food Stories: A Century-Old Chrisman Family Tradition

Apple peeling and slicing and dicing! Oh, my!

claire-chrisman

That’s right, for over one hundred years the Chrisman family has dedicated a weekend to making the biggest batch of apple butter you can imagine. We’re talking bushels of apples getting peeled, sliced and diced by the entire Chrisman clan. Aunts, uncles and cousins included.

Claire Chrisman—Account Executive at deep—first participated in this fun family tradition in the fall of 1992, and she doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon. Once a yearly occasion, the family now gathers every four years for a weekend full of fellowship, campfires and oodles of apples. And as you can imagine, with so many years of practice, they pretty much have apple butter making down to a science.

The festivities start on a Saturday morning as families from all over arrive at Aunt Linda’s farm in northern Missouri with folding chairs and paring knifes ready to work. They spend the day catching up while peeling, slicing and dicing bushels of local apples that were waiting when they arrived. Claire recalls around 50 extended family members gathering at the 2012 apple butter bash.

The sweeter side of the event starts on Sunday with a secret family recipe and lots of brown sugar. At the fresh time of 5:00 A.M., two oversized copper kettles that have been in the family for years are filled with apples and other ingredients and placed over an open fire. Although less involved than the work on Saturday, everyone gets a chance to pitch in and take turns stirring the pot throughout the day.

Once the contents of the kettles have reached apple butter perfection, the assembly lines begin. Each family comes prepared with plenty of jars and helps fill them to the rim with warm, appley deliciousness to last them until the next gathering. After the canning is complete and the kettles are nearly empty, one last long-standing tradition takes place—the kids gather around and watch magic happen as a grimy penny goes into a kettle for cleaning and comes out unbelievably shiny. And with that final act, the weekend comes to a close and each family goes home with new memories and another year of bonding over apple butter under their belt.

We can’t wait to taste Chrisman apple butter on toast in 2016, Claire!

Friday Food Stories is a spotlight series showcasing deepsters and their deep love for all things food. Check back soon for more!

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by deep on October 30, 2015  •  Permalink
Posted in Claire Chrisman, Friday Food Stories
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Posted by deep on October 30, 2015

https://deepgroup.wordpress.com/2015/10/30/friday-food-stories-claire-chrisman/

Friday Food Stories: The Service Side of Foodservice Featuring the Terry Family

sally-terrySally Terry—Assistant Interactive Art Director at deep—found her own way into the foodservice world during her senior year at Missouri State University. But thanks to her service-oriented, food-loving family, we think it started long before then. 

Sally comes from a clan that knows a thing or two about food and is keen on lending a helping hand. With a mom that helps fight hunger at Ozarks Food Harvest, it’s no surprise Sally was inspired to explore foodservice for herself.

It was a fateful senior project that put her first foot in the door, and her mom’s work with Ozarks Food Harvest that paved the way.

Starting out part-time with the organization, Jane Terry (Sally’s mom) quickly found herself falling in love and thirteen years later is still working to help solve hunger in Southwest Missouri. A full-time, year-round effort, Jane and the Programs & Member Services team help orchestrate the organization’s outreach programs—including Hunger Action Awareness Month events throughout September that educate on hunger issues in the Ozarks.

And it’s those outreach programs that gave Sally the idea to offer a service of her own and brand The Food Bank’s Summer Food Program for her final senior design project. Starting with a simple logo that combines summer with food, Sally brought the program to life with t-shirts, yard signs, posters (both graphic and informational), postcards and activity sheets. And of course she ended up with an A as her final grade.

So as the season of giving starts, we would like to thank Sally’s mom for the work she does on a daily basis with Ozarks Food Harvest that sparked something in Sally and ultimately led her skills and service-oriented self to deep.

Friday Food Stories is a spotlight series showcasing deepsters and their deep love for all things food. Check back soon for more!

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by deep on September 25, 2015  •  Permalink
Posted in Friday Food Stories, Sally Terry, Service
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Posted by deep on September 25, 2015

https://deepgroup.wordpress.com/2015/09/25/friday-food-stories-sally-terry/

Friday Food Stories: How Valeri Lea Became deep’s Foodservice Superstar

Valeri Lea—Partner and Account Service Lead at deep—started her foodservice story when she was in elementary school. Seriously. It’s no wonder she’s the resident industry expert around here—it’s been in her bones from the beginning.

Valeri Lea is deep's Foodservice Superstar

She first became fond of the foodservice world while spending afternoons and weekends as a kid having fun and helping out in her mother and uncle’s family-owned restaurant. She loved every second and spent her days playing games, picking songs on the jukebox, chatting up customers and coming up with creative concoctions in the kitchen—a cheeseburger topped with chili and coleslaw was her favorite.

At only eight years old, she attended her first food show in Rolla, Missouri, and had no idea it wouldn’t be her last. Today, she travels all over the country and attends a handful of shows every year. She’ll soon be on her way to the National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago for the 15th time! And just like her eight-year-old self, she still enjoys scouring booths for new creations or combinations and tasting the endless supply of samples. We like your style, Val.

But beyond learning the beauty of free samples and how to create a crazy cool cheeseburger, growing up in a foodservice family taught Val a lifetime of other lessons. Watching her mom and uncle work day and night to build a business showed her what hard work really looks like and how important it is to value the people that allow your business to continue succeeding. It also showed her the community that comes together around food. The business of food brought her family together and continues to bring people together in a number of ways all over the world.

After going off to college, Val attempted to escape foodservice by pursuing a career in the music industry. But soon after graduation things came full circle, and she ended up back in the biz on the agency side. Foodservice loved her and wanted her back, and we are so thankful for that.

Friday Food Stories is a spotlight series showcasing deepsters and their deep love for all things food. Check back soon for more!

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by deep on May 15, 2015  •  Permalink
Posted in Foodservice, Friday Food Stories, People, Valeri Lea
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Posted by deep on May 15, 2015

https://deepgroup.wordpress.com/2015/05/15/valeri-lea-foodservice-superstar/

Friday Food Stories: Featuring Stephanie Kabbaz Hart’s Waffle-Cone-Creating Ancestors

That’s right, our very own Group Account Director, Stephanie, is related to the creators of the waffle cone—whoa.

Stephanie-Kabbaz

Let’s set the stage. It’s April 30, 1904 at the opening of the World’s Fair in St. Louis, Missouri—a fair that took place on a total of 1,200 acres and to date takes the cake as the largest fair (based on area). More impressive than the size of the fair, however, are the developments that occurred and became popular on the grounds like the sweet and crunchy, totally craveable, sometimes-controversial waffle cone.

Why controversial? Well, besides the waffle vs. wafer vs. sugar cone debate I’m sure we’ve all faced, the credit for who actually created the waffle cone has also been under debate, with Ernest Hamwi typically being credited for the creation. But, according to the story passed down Stephanie’s family tree, her great grandpa, Nick Kabbaz, and great uncle, Albert Kabbaz, had a hand or two in the process.

As a couple of bakers, they were working at Ernest Hamwi’s pastry cart at the World’s Fair that year when a booth near them—an ice cream booth—ran out of cups. Unable to serve fairgoers ice cream in their hands, they needed a cup alternative, and they needed it quick. So, the Kabbaz brothers whipped something up.

As you might guess, they were serving waffle-like pastries from their cart that day. This allowed for the brilliant idea of making a thinner pastry that could be rolled into the shape of a cone to easily carry scoops of ice cream. Voila, waffle cone—an easy-to-hold cup that eliminates the need to find a trashcan when you’re finished. Talk about problem solving.

Ice cream eaters loved the edible carrier, so more cones were made. And proving by the popularity of the waffle cone today, it’s clear that Ernest Hamwi’s booth saw great success that year—regardless of who really rolled that first cone. But, whoever it was, we thank you for keeping the ice cream world spinning round.

Friday Food Stories is a spotlight series showcasing deepsters and their deep love for all things food. Check back soon for more!

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by deep on April 24, 2015  •  Permalink
Posted in Friday Food Stories, People, Stephanie Hart
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Posted by deep on April 24, 2015

https://deepgroup.wordpress.com/2015/04/24/stephanie-kabbaz-waffle-cone/