Cooking Up a Business: Lessons from Food Lovers Who Turned Their Passion into a Career -- and How You Can, Too

by Rachel Hofstetter

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 • 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

Genres: Business, Food, Cooking, Nonfiction

249 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 3, 2013

About the author

A former food editor at O, the Oprah Magazine and Reader’s Digest, Rachel Hofstetter is now the founder-in-chief at guesterly. She received a degree in Economics from Miami University and lives in New York City with her husband Lorne.

Reviews

[Prasad GR · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I began reading this book looking for specific advice for food businesses, it also offered valuable insights around starting any business. Besides ‘what to do’, the book also covers a fair bit of ‘what not to do’ as well, making it well rounded. Insightful and inspiring!

[Gabby-Lily Raines · Rating 5 out of 5]

Received from GoodReads First Reads.

I found Cooking Up a Business a very interesting read because of the stories revolving around how these different businesses got started.

What made this a very good book is how each business went from idea to product to implementation to mass distribution. The people who started these various businesses come from different backgrounds and different reasons for their ideas, yet each one of them could be one of us.

Businesses mentioned in the book:
1) Love Grown Foods - Maddy D Amato & Alex Hasulak
2) Kopali Organics - Zac Zaidman
3) Tasty - Shannan Swanson and Liane Weintraub
4) Evol - Phil Anson
5) Mary's Gone Crackers - Mary Waldner (Celiac)
6) Justin's Nut Butters - Just Gold
7) Hint - Kara Goldin
8) Popchips - Keith Belling and Patrick Turpin
9) Cameron Hughes Wines - Cameron Hughes and Jessica Kogan
10) Vosges Haut-Chocolat; Wild Ophelia - Katrina Markoff

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Starting a business is no joke! I’ve learned so much from starting our own tea business in my innovations in dietetics class, and this book had lots of helpful reminders throughout the process.

[Lulu]

I won this book from the first reads giveaways and I am so excited to read it. Thanks.

[Jennifer Sweeney · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best books I've read on this topic. Lots of terrific lessons, strategies etc.

[Shanaya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall good book if you’re looking to start-up a food business. Pretty surface level but nice to hear 10 stories of others in the industry. Some good takeaways:

1. There’s only 1 company that issues universal product codes (UPC) barcodes, GS1. Approx. $1,000 to register your company and then an additional fee for each item you need a barcode for (ex: 5 flavors = 5 fees)

2. To get nutritional information, you can go through traditional route of hiring a company to run the analysis or you can save money by utilizing a local university than runs reduced-price tests for small businesses

3. SBA.org (small business administration) is a good website to learn about regulations

4. Picking a name: make sure the UrL is available and it isn’t trademarked already. Started with the letter “K” tends to be a strong winner for brands (Kellogg, Kodak, Kleenex) and be relatively short but with 3 syllables (Amazon, Microsoft, McDonald’s)

5. Pick a product which has rapid turnover and consumers want to buy again and again quickly (e.g., would be on people’s weekly grocery list)

6. Talk to a lawyer before you mass produce anything/buy a URL. Find a lawyer that specializes in start-ups. Make sure you own your logo before utilizing it anywhere. If someone else designs you logo (even a friend), make sure you transfer the copyright of the design to you. Also, make sure you have trade secrets (recipes, how you produce a product). For a name, start by searching the US Patent & Trademark Office website and then a lawyer can run a more exhaustive search through specialized databases. Register your business as a LLC

7. Write a press release, even if it’s not published it can be utilized whenever you need to tell your story concisely and ensure you have a clear vision. What’s the founders story? Where can you buy the product? What makes it unique? How much does it cost? For a business plan, consider what is my product and who exactly is my target audience. Be able to describe them in detail (age, income, gender, hobbies, geography, diet). People think too long or short-term, in your business plan think about the medium term of where you want to be in 2-years and work backward from those aspirations to see how you could get there.

8. You can purchase data from places like Nielsen or IRI to help evaluate the market’s sale and general food retail trends. This is a great strategy before launching a new line or product to understand what’s happening in the market and then overlapping your innovation strategy

9. Before trying to sell to any store or market, develop a “sell-sheet”. Have price lists, minimum purchase requirements, and sell-sheets that detail your story and products

[nicholas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definately not what I expected

Good read. I got a couple of Golden ideas I had not thought of. The thing I like the most is different stories, realty check I must add

[Steph Flischel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was so informative and inspiring! Loved all of the tidbits of advice and resources this book provided, and I know I’ll definitely be going back to reference it as questions or ideas come about.

[Chelsea · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book in a GoodReads First Reads giveaway. I wasn't sure what exactly to expect when I started this book. I felt like it could go one of two ways. It could be very focused on nuts and bolts of starting a new food industry business or it could be filled with entertaining anecdotes from people who have started similar businesses. Thankfully it was a mix of both. The stories of each entrepreneur and how they started their business kept me from getting bogged down in the financial and economic parts of starting a business. Each chapter is about a person or couple that started a business in the food industry. The reader can read about what they did wrong and what they did right. Each chapter is followed by a short summary of the advice that came from each person's story.

This book was very informative and entertaining. While I have no plans to start a business in the food industry, I think this book had some good advice for all those in the business world.

[Piper Mount · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is really mediocre for a few reasons.
1. It seems to be about "food businesses" in general, but is very specifically about people designing products to be sold in grocery stores. "Food businesses" is an enormous category and she gives a total of 6 pages at the end of the book to talk about advice from food businesses that aren't grocery products.
2. It's poorly organized. Stories are interspersed with unrelated "advice" sections that break up the flow. Photos add nothing.
3. Money (and status) is glossed over lightly in so many of the stories. A fair amount of the examples are clearly people of means to begin with and others easily raise 10s or 100s of thousands of dollars from family and friends. This ease at coming into coming makes their strategies largely out of reach for the majority of people who would read this book.
4. Too many of the stories convey the idea that if you work 100-hour work weeks, you'll eventually succeed.

[kasᴉa gryẓewska · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another very encouraging book not only for young adults but older too! By 'another' I refer to 'Design your next chapter' by Debbie Travis as I feel both books are very similar in the way they are constructed. 'Cooking Up a Business' gives several examples of people who followed their dreams or passion to start a (food) business and become the CEOs of their hobbies. Being myself educated in that industry I found it very interesting and inspirational even to see what opportunities are there in the 'big world'.

[Janine Brouillette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book for an overview if you are looking at starting your own business or brand. This book has a wide range of entrepreneurs working to grow their passion in food. This is a go to book and manual for those who are about to launch in the food industry. This book covers designing a product, creating and growing a brand, food safety, navigating the world of manufacturing, grocery store placement, creating a buzz, and working with a finacial model.

[Brigitte Zabak · Rating 4 out of 5]

More like 4.5.

This was a really interesting read. I checked it out in the hopes that it would give me some useful knowledge regarding home-based food businesses, but it focused more on the startup stories and growth process of successful innovative food-based companies. It was really fascinating to learn about the origins of companies I actively support.

And the book did provide a few vital take-aways that can be applied for cottage food businesses. Fun read!

[Elizabeth Lilly · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's fascinating to read what sparked the ideas behind these now household food and beverage brands like Justin's and butters and Popchips. The chapters aren't just filled with these stories, though, helpful information, like how to obtain UPC code DNA distribution, is naturally scattered throughout.

[Grace Dadoyan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great collection of stories from entrepreneurs that launched their food products. The stores are touching and inspiring and showcase the success that comes from hard work, inspiration and a little serendipity. Even if you are not starting a food business, you'll enjoy reading how these well-known brands got started like Mary's Gone Cracker's, Justin's, Popchips, and more.

[Alex Devero · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you want to turn your passion for locally grown food, healthy eating or fair trade into a business, then dive in! A food business presents plenty of challenges, however. Whether grappling with funding or scaling, if you’re resourceful, creative and hold firm to your brand’s values, you’ll soon taste success as the world savors your innovative product.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Practical and useful tips for someone who would like to establish their own food business - covers everything from creating your own brand to marketing. Includes the stories of several successful entrepreneurs.

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 3 out of 5]

A few practices for conducting a successful food related business are discussed and supported by success stories of individuals. It comes across as a rah-rah motivational book and I quickly lost interest.

[Wennifred]

I just won a copy from Goodreads. Looking forward to reading it. Thank you.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

A feel good read to give you confidence to pursue what you love through stories, not preaching.

[Samantha Salmon · Rating 5 out of 5]

my review is here http://findinginspirationeverywhere.c...

[Sarah Combs · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an excellent read well researched and written.I really enjoyed reading about the experiences of others and their success.

[Jeri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stories about food entrepreneurs pulling themselves up by their bootstraps. A good, inspiring book full of interesting stories. It made me want to go out and buy Hint. :)

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very practical applications using a variety of case studies

[Shanna Jade · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great read for anyone entertaining the thought about a business in food. Hofstetter dips into multiple different avenues of the food biz, providing tangible advice throughout each chapter.