Making Room by Gather
Hospitality. What do you think of when you hear that word?
For some it's old school 'stuffy' entertaining for others it's something to do with the hotel industry. One thing is for sure, as a culture we're not talking about it much.
Food * Design * Relationships have seemed to have taken a back seat to what our culture focuses on and values yet...we find ourselves in the midst of a loneliness epidemic. Something has to change, it's time to get back to our tables, and we're making room for it!
Making Room by Gather invites you into a new conversation on everyday hospitality. One that rewrites the way we approach opening your doors and filling your tables. Shifting the narrative from 'how does this make me look' to 'how does this make you feel' these buildable conversations aspire to inspire connection through everyday gathering.
Kayty's chic and a little quirky interview style will make you feel like you're sitting with a friend talking about how to grow in confidence as an everyday host. You can expect conversations from navigating challenging relationship dynamics to foundational cooking techniques and everything in between.
Whether you are a seasoned host or looking to develop new friendships and grow in your skills for the first time, there is a seat at the table. Join us weekly for new conversations with expert guests and with Kayty in her beloved Date with Kayt episodes. Continue the conversation @gatheritentionalliving
Making Room by Gather
Transforming Meal Delivery into a Culinary Experience with Maggie from Feast and Fettle
What if meal preparation could be as enjoyable and satisfying as dining at your favorite restaurant? Join us as we welcome Maggie, the inspiring founder of Feast and Fettle, who shares her incredible journey from a food-loving child mesmerized by 90s cooking shows to becoming a private chef, recipe developer, and now an author. Maggie unveils her passion for creating high-quality, ready-to-eat meals that deliver joy and convenience to families everywhere. With the release of The Feast and Fettle Cookbook, she promises to transform the way busy families approach meal planning and preparation.
Through her cookbook, Maggie provides a treasure trove of recipes, including sauces and condiments, that encourage culinary creativity without the hassle of separate adult and kid menus.
Maggie also reveals the transformative power of seasoning in home cooking. While also introducing us to the art of enhancing flavors with marinades, sauces, and more. From basil chimichurri to miso teriyaki, Maggie shares tips on preparing sauces in advance to elevate everyday dishes.
Her cookbook offers not just recipes but a narrative journey celebrating culinary heritage and connection, spotlighting her Portuguese roots and the inspiration behind Feast and Fettle. Listen in to discover how food can foster deep connections around the table and beyond.
Buy a copy of Maggie's latest book here
This Episode is Sponsored By:
Feast & Fettle get $25 off your first week of hand crafted, flavor packed meals delivered straight to your door so you can soak up the season with code GATHER25 at checkout
Watch our Youtube episodes here!
Today we have on Maggie, the owner of Feast and Fettle. You have heard a lot about them the last few weeks. They are the sponsor of our show for the second half of 2024, into 2025, which is that's the first time I've said 2025. It's wild, but you guys also may know that I recently batch recorded a whole bunch of episodes for the show, and it is 11.30 currently. I'm thinking about lunch and I just realized all I have is literally gluten-free chicken nuggets in the freezer and I'm very sad that I don't have feast and fettle in the fridge. But if you guys are like me, looking ahead to a busy week or a busy season, school year holiday prep don't be like me. Be prepared. Go over to feastandfedalcom and stock up on everything that you'll need to make this season piece-filled, flavor-filled, easy. What I love about them is it's not like other kits where you have to open up packages and prepare things. It's coming to you ready to eat. All you have to do is heat it up. The flavors are on point. All of the ingredients are ones that you could feel good about, as you are feeding yourself and your family and you get off your first week of Feast and Fettle. All of this can be found in the show notes. But let's talk a little bit about Maggie. So Maggie is a mom we're just chatting about mom stuff Recipe developer, new author and the founder of Feast and Fettle, the fastest growing local meal delivery service in New England. As a former private chef and distinguished Johnson Wales alumnus, her first book, the Feast and Fettle Cookbook, is set to release in October 2024, but I have a copy in hand and Maggie resides in East Providence, rhode Island, with her husband and two sons.
Speaker 1:Without waiting any longer, let's get into this conversation. Hi, I'm Katie, a hospitality educator and the host of Making Room by Gather podcast. I am set to see our communities get back to the table through hospitality, but it wasn't always this way. My husband and I moved to Thailand and through it I experienced some loneliness and with it I was given a choice to sit back and accept it or to do something about it, and for me that meant two things that I needed the healing to learn how to accept an invitation and the confidence to know how to extend one. Through this process, I developed some of the richest and deepest relationships of my life. Through Making Room by Gabber, you will hear conversations from myself and experts in the areas of food design and relationships. You see, there are countless things trying to keep us from the table. But can I tell you something? Take a seat because you are ready, you are capable, you are a good host. Okay, I'm flipping through the cookbook as the trailer was playing and I'm like jittery from too much coffee. I'm starving.
Speaker 2:Everything looks fantastic. Jittery from too much coffee I'm starving. Everything looks fantastic. I do too.
Speaker 1:It's like necessary. I just flipped on the roasted root vegetables with blue cheese butter. Yeah, okay, that's going to be a problem. That looks really good. We love our compound butters at Feast and Pell, so, yeah, I haven't explored much with those, so we're going to have to talk about those. Well, you are the founder, and would you call yourself a creative director? Like a creative?
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure. I mean I'm definitely. We call it the OG founder because my I also have a co-founder who was my best friend and she was my first employee and for a long time I was basically the head of product, so I managed all, like our menus, recipe development, anything like food related or recipe related was my like wheelhouse okay, okay, that's great.
Speaker 1:And you guys are also the sponsor of our show, which our listeners know, and from the second that we learned about you guys, I was sold on your mission. I love that your marketing is family focused, parenting focused, or at least what the algorithm shows me.
Speaker 2:No, it is, it is right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then I actually tried it and my listeners know I don't joke around with food. They're probably like super surprised that I even have chicken nuggets in my house, because I love full flavor food. I'm a foodie through and through and everything was. The quality is just there, it's evident in the packaging, the first bite. The ingredients are ones that you could feel good about and so, just on so many levels, we stand with you guys and are thankful to be partnering with you, but I would love to learn more about your background with food. So what I mean? You could really take this in any direction the road to feast and fettle your food background.
Speaker 2:What do you want us to know? Yeah, this is always like such a tough question, especially with media. I'm always like, dude, does it need to be short and sweet? Or like, do I have time?
Speaker 1:Whatever you feel good about.
Speaker 2:So I was like you said. You're a foodie. I didn't recognize it early on, but I have always been, like, interested in food and food has always been my passion. Interested in food and food has always been my passion. I talk about in the book that as, like a young child, I was watching like 90s Food Network shows instead of, like more typical kids, like cartoons or other shows like that's what I was watching Like Ina Garten, sandra Lee, rachel Ray, like all of those, those are my favorites.
Speaker 2:My parents were really good about letting me explore in the kitchen, even though, like, no one starts out being a really good cook, even your kids, I mean, you obviously have that inherent desire or joy in cooking, but I feel like it takes like a long time to get good. And then I basically decided I wanted to be a dietitian. So I wasn't sure I was going to go to culinary school. That was like I was really into nutrition and health and that was how I was going to use my like foodie background or my love and passion for cooking. And actually, when I was at Johnson and Wales, I was there in their culinary nutrition program, which was really interesting because it gives you a classical culinary background but you also have the nutrition side and you can become a registered dietitian through doing your internship and that was the track I was on dietitian through doing your internship and like that was the track I was on. But while I was in school I worked as a nanny for a mom physician in like the Providence area and she had three girls and that was where like kind of the idea of Feast and Fettle really started. I made dinner for this family every night, so like Monday through Thursday, sometimes Fridays, and then obviously was also doing kid pickup and like dance and you know, playing that role point that many families have around dinner and not just dinner. It was like making dinner, serving dinner, cleaning up, packing lunches, loading and unloading the dishwasher.
Speaker 2:And her name is Marsha. She actually was an early investor in Feast and Fettle. I'm still very close with her family and her kids and she was just so grateful to have me in her house and I never understood it because I wasn't a mom. But she was like you are like essential, you're the best, like I couldn't do this without you, kind of a thing. And then through her I after culinary school I was I decided to take a year in between applying for my internship to be a registered dietitian and I was.
Speaker 2:I decided to take a year in between applying for my internship to be a registered dietitian and I was like Marsha, I think I could cook for some more families. And she was like I'll connect you with my listserv, which is like a mom doc listserv through Brown University for female physicians. And I sent out an email and I got like 50 replies of people wanted me to cook. Like in Rhode Island is small, right, so it's not like a big community and I was just kind of blown away Like wow, so many people want somebody to help them with a meal prep and dinner. And ultimately I took on like seven families and I would rotate. I would rotate. I would still cooking for Marsha and her family like every night, but during the day I would like meal prep for these other families and go to their homes and like set them up for the week and everyone had like a different day. I just kept getting more and more inquiries and like people that wanted me to do that for them.
Speaker 2:And then it was funny because I worked for all these physicians and they were like what, you're going to become a registered dietitian, like no, you need to make this a business. Which was then like in the medical field, and I was like, yeah, maybe, like, maybe this is something. And then it was probably like 2015, 2014, when I really thought, ok, I either need to hire more private chefs to work under me or I'm going to create a meal delivery service. And this was right when ingredient subscriptions, which you kind of talked about earlier, started. So popping up like HelloFresh Blue Apron, but private chef thing, or like a fully prepared meal delivery service, was definitely not a thing, at least in Rhode Island. It was more of a thing in like New York, la, bigger cities like Chicago, miami, but I was like I'm going to start one in Rhode Island. So we were lucky enough, we have a culinary incubator in Rhode Island that kind of allows you to like flush out a business without having all the money you would need to run a commercial kitchen. And so I did a small friends and family round, raised around $38,000, which might still seem like a lot for a new business, but it was nowhere near what I would need to raise to have vans and a commercial kitchen and everything we would have needed. So we had this space that we could rent.
Speaker 2:And then the last piece was like I needed somebody to do this with me because I couldn't do everything by myself.
Speaker 2:And my best friend from high school happened to be a hospitality Johnson Wales graduate, so she was working at a hotel, like a management role at a hotel in Providence, and I was like, will you do this with me?
Speaker 2:I know this is crazy, but could you be like my first employee and help me? And so my best friend's name is Nikki Nix and she came on. So since like day one when we started, it's been me and my best friend from high school like managing operating Feast of the Mentors, which is just a funny thing to think about. But now we're both like moms. She actually just had her second, like her son, two weeks ago. I have two kids, so like it's just so much more meaningful for us now as parents, like knowing what the service provides and what it does and how it helps families, and like there's so much more of the story. But we brought on a third partner, our CEO, carlos, in 2018, which was like a big deal for Feast and Fettle. It allowed me to focus on the product, nikki, focus on members and then Carlos managed like fundraising and all like the business aspects and that was like a huge catalyst for our growth.
Speaker 1:Wow, yeah, that's the part that, like any small business owner listening is like, oh my gosh, that sounds like a dream. Like, yeah, it is hard when you're starting off. We're kind of at that like at that point where I'm like, oh my gosh, I just need more space to focus on the creative, because it's hard. It's hard to become the accountant, the marketer, the you know all those wear all those hats. So I'm so excited for you. So you clearly are not in the incubator anymore. No, clearly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we started with eight members, which were pretty much my original private chefing clients, and we have over 10,000 members now. I started with Nikki as my first employee and now we have over like 260 employees. Stop it. Yeah, our commissary, where we cook everything out of in East Providence is like 20,000 square feet and we have a separate like headquarters where I am now. Yeah, and it's been like eight years, so it's pretty quick for like the growth, but I think that's just a testament to how many people need or want a meal delivery service or service like we provide is there Like you're not getting weird, like meat textures and like all the things that you hear with delivery services.
Speaker 1:You know like there's some funky stuff For sure and you don't get that with Feast and Fed All.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I think one thing Carlos, our CEO talks a lot about when he does interviews or is talking about the service is like I started the service as a chef. I have a chef like a background in food. I was a private chef. That is pretty different from a lot of other meal services where there may be started by investors or tech people in tech like not, it's not as often to find one that started, founded, brought up, like with food and the product first. Yeah, and we I have always made that like a huge effort, like the food has to be on point. Like you said the product, the food, the delivery, the way people are reheating the food, the way they receive the food. And if you have experience with Feast and Fuddle or try the service, you will see the intentionality of why we do things the way we do things.
Speaker 1:It's so good, yeah, and we're in a culture right now that really loves food For sure, it's true, I mean more than past generations. I feel like we don't want frozen meal, lean cuisines and stuff like that. We't want that. We want. We're busy, but we want to eat well, um, and so this is a solution to that, which I'm really grateful for. So, um, here's the reality. Not everyone lives in a region that feast and fettle serves yet, um, or can subscribe or become a member yet, and so I want to talk more about the book, because the book kind of allows them to experience Feast and Fettle in a new way. So talk to us about maybe some you could take this in really whatever direction you feel is the best fit, but maybe like tricks or recipe approaches that you like to inspire parents with as they cook for their families yeah, sure.
Speaker 2:So yeah, we have a book coming out. I have a book that I wrote. It's a branded book called the feast and fettle cookbook. The subtitle is unlock the secret to better home cooking um, and it comes out actually oct 15th this year, 2024. And the whole book's premise is around, like it says, better home cooking, which is what I feel like we do at Feast and Fettle. We elevate everyday dishes and we do that in a specific way.
Speaker 2:And the way that I kind of built the business was around what I was doing when I was a private chef and a nanny and I like to call it batch cooking over like meal prep, which is a difference. And you said, like we don't want, our generation doesn't want like lean cuisines I call them TV dinner style, where we don't want, like the Andre, the side all in one container and you also don't want to be reminded that you're eating that way. I feel like. So the way we designed Feast and Vettel or I designed it, is the way I would cook for my clients. So I would batch cook, entrees and sides separate and I would make and include a lot of like sauces and dipping, sauces and condiments and like little touches, that kind of elevated it and that's what we do at Feast and Veto on a huge scale. We're basically batch cooking, and what I mean is like meal prepping is more where you have everything in like one container and then you have multiple of those containers and you're like this is what I'm eating for lunch, this is what I'm eating for lunch the next day, and it's kind of all contained. This is much more flexible because it's kind of like mix and match, create your own meals, create your own dishes, which is what we do at Feast and Vettel. It allows people to create plates or dishes to suit their own tastes or their kids' tastes, and it also allows you to all eat together at the same time. So the book kind of walks you through that, so to speak, in that everything is like separate. So there's recipes that are like vegetable-based and then there are recipes that are meat-based, but they're not necessarily like a complete dish.
Speaker 2:In the header I'll often recommend like pairings. So I'll say, oh, make this with. You know this recipe on page X, y, z. And then we also include so feast and fettle and like.
Speaker 2:Going back to seasoning, we include a lot of dips on the side, sauces on the side. Condiments on the side. Because I found when I was working as a nanny and this is kind of research-based backs now that kids are more likely to try foods if they have like something fun or a familiar flavor. Something fun or a familiar flavor. So if you pair something that maybe they haven't tried yet with like a ranch dip or like a honey mustard, they might try it, even if it doesn't seem like it like goes together, they might just like put the dip on everything.
Speaker 2:It also serving sauce on the side. Condiments on the side. If your children, you know, are not into that, but you want to elevate your meal, you can add the like garlic aioli to your turkey burger and then you could serve it in a more simpler fashion to your kids. So there's so much, so many reasons why we do that and the book kind of talks you through that. And every recipe that has a compound butter sauce condiment it will always be pulled out of the recipe, so you can make just that component or you can make the full recipe.
Speaker 1:That's genius, because a lot of books have the adult meal and the kidney, the separate cooking. Nobody wants that, like nobody has time for that, and so this is the solution. That's great, that's like incredible, maggie. Well, one of the things that you um highlight in here, you have a whole page on it and I loved it because I am I'm a flavor girly. I don't want, like my husband is fine. So we went to school in Pennsylvania and there's sheets. Have you ever been to a sheet? Yes, yeah, and he he is like known to get a plain hot dog from sheep and I'm like, who are you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, we need to expand your palate here, yeah, yeah, but I'm like no, if I am going to eat a hot dog, I want, I want everything, I want it all in, yeah, so. I like seasoning. I like sauces, all of it. So you have a whole page on seasonings. Can you talk us through some seasonings that you maybe like, that you love, that you think like people should know about? Yeah, talk to us about seasonings people should know about.
Speaker 2:Talk to us about seasonings. So, like I said, the whole message of the book is about seasoning and why seasoning is important and why that is essentially the secret to making better food at home. And I think people home cooks generally think of seasoning as like salt, pepper, spices and herbs. But seasoning is really anything that adds or enhances flavor to food, and so in the book every chapter is a different seasoning. Even though you might not think of like a marinade is a seasoning, or a sauce is a seasoning, or a simmer sauce is a seasoning, or a compound butter, all these things act as a way to enhance flavor.
Speaker 2:And the book starts off with. It's called. The chapter is called the Basics, and if you do nothing to improve your cooking other than learn how to properly season or salt your food, that will be like the biggest change to making your home cooking better. So the book kind of goes through like here's the easiest thing. You can do Everything in that chapter. The basics is basically salt and pepper.
Speaker 2:Most of the recipes are like salt and pepper and oil or salt and pepper and butter. There might be like honey in there, but it's usually an optional thing and the whole point of it is to teach you how to make like very simple foods taste really good, and usually that comes about through knowing how to salt and when to salt, and that doesn't mean making food tastes salty, but there's like a threshold of where salt is actually pulling out flavors and enhancing flavors. And I think that's what professional chefs are really. The skill that they're honing, that like home cooks aren't honing all the time, is proper seasoning and like that's what they teach you in culinary school essentially is to taste food and know does it need salt, does it need vinegar, does it need an acid, does it need something sweet?
Speaker 2:Like it's balancing flavors, um, and in the book I try to do a um, I try to like break it down into a very like digestible amount of information, because you can get like really scientific about this stuff. But I try to make it kind of like user-friendly for everybody. But yeah, I mean the whole book, like the chapter is there is a chapter on spice blends, because spices and herbs are a seasoning. So yeah, like there's so many, I just want readers to understand that seasoning is an umbrella term and it is how you elevate food.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, it's so funny. We're like so we eat at home, we eat as a family, and then we're launched into the real world. And unless you like, unless your parents taught you how to cook or unless you go to a class, it's just kind of like have fun, figure it out. And then we're like my food is gross, but when I go to a restaurant it tastes good, you know. And there's this like gap, and my husband and I realized I've said this before like we eat at restaurants and love it, and I'm like those are real people cooking real food. Like if they can learn how to do it, I can learn some of these techniques too. And so I'm so glad that you're like taking the time to really teach people, because it's really there's not a huge divide, it's just a few simple tweaks between getting better food at home and we all want it and we're all, would you say, we're all capable of it.
Speaker 2:For sure. I think, like I said with Feast and Fettle, by us adding sauces, I just don't think it's something people think to do at home. You're like, oh, that's an extra step. Um, even my like, before I started or before I was in culinary school, I like never would make a sauce to go with something. I like a piece of meat I grilled, um. But these are things you can actually like make ahead of time. They usually last for a few weeks, you can use them many times and yeah, so like they really do make a difference, and I think that's what the difference is between, like, restaurant food and home food, and I'm just trying to like bring it closer together now of like, what are they doing that's making it taste better or be like more elevated?
Speaker 1:So I don't want to give away too much in the book, but can you kind of like name some of the sauces that you think are going to be reader favorites?
Speaker 2:yeah, so we have a basil chimichurri sauce that we make at feast and battle. It's also in the book. It's paired with a grilled flink steak, but actually at feast and battle we also serve it with carrots. So like it is so easy, you don't have to cook anything. That is very popular.
Speaker 2:We have another recipe that's like literally 15 minutes I think is the roasted salmon with a miso teriyaki sauce and it's kind of basically broiled and it takes, like I said, no time in the oven. But the sauce is what is like so delicious and it goes on the salmon. But you can also kind of spoon it over like rice or steamed veggies and, like I said, both of those sauces will last for a few weeks and they're like not complicated. And then there is a whole chapter in the beginning of the book that's called condiments and dipping sauces. So the whole chapter is just different sauces and these are things that I would make like there's like a tomato jam recipe, a peach barbecue sauce, honey, mustard, blue cheese dip. These are just like things that I myself would make kind of ahead of time and then know I had these in my like back pocket to kind of make my home dishes a little, you know, zhuzh them up a little bit.
Speaker 1:So fun, man, that's my speed. Anything with sauce condiment, it's so random. I had this memory come to mind. So we used to frequent this like Korean restaurant and get bibimbap and the gochujang sauce on the side so good. And I would always say, can I get another one? Can I get another one? And they started asking me they're like really. And so I became the girl that wants like three gochujang on the side.
Speaker 2:That's how I feel. I'm like is this subconscious? Because my mom was the type of person like she would get her salad and before they even brought it she'd be like can I have extra dressing? And like I'm like you didn't even try it, but my we always say my mom is like the biggest sauce person in the world and she's going to ask for more before she even gets it. But I did not grow up eating sauces at home, like it was not something that was made.
Speaker 1:Oh my goodness. Well, I'm sure a lot of listeners can relate. So here's a fun question. We kind of touched on this with you know, like the sauce conversation, but I've talked to a lot of people that are like, listen, I'm just in a recipe rut and I get that way. For me, my repeat ingredients that I end up getting so sick of is anything balsamic, anything with goat cheese, and then we just burnt out on pokey. We had pokey for lunch straight for two weeks and I'm like I don't want to see it for a long time. What are some recipes from the book that you're excited to introduce to the everyday cook that you're like this could be really helpful in getting you out of that rut.
Speaker 2:So I think I would start with like that first chapter, which is just the basics, because those are like how to make a really good rib eye steak, how to make a spatchcock chicken, how to make juicy pork tenderloin, like these are just so simple. But then you can pair them with the other dishes that are in the book and like, if you master those, your range of like what you can make is almost like an infinite range, because a lot of them are just techniques, and then you can like apply it to other cuts range, because a lot of them are just techniques, and then you can like apply it to other cuts. So like the perfect butter-basted ribeye steak, like it doesn't have to be a ribeye steak, it'd be a different steak. You know is what I mean. But I think, like that miso teriyaki salmon is an easy recipe. I totally recommend it during the week. It's just like super quick. And then there's a recipe for like juicy turkey burgers in that early chapter. That's just like really good to have on hand. You don't even have to like cook them off, you could just like prep them ahead of time. There's also a recipe.
Speaker 2:So this is like a fancy version of pasta with butter. So it's bucatini with cacio pepe butter, and so we were talking about like compound butters are something that I think people think is like so complicated and it's really so easy. It really is just mixing softened butter with ingredients or like flavors and that's it. That's all it is, but it's it's like my. Whenever people eat it, they're like oh, this is like the adult version of pasta with butter and like Parmesan cheese, but it just has like black pepper in it and pecorino. Like it's a little bit elevated but it's still so simple. Also, a dish I think it's in the Spice Blend chapter, so it's like a grilled chicken fajitas and I think the whole dish takes like less than 30 minutes but it's just super flavorful. It's actually one of our most popular member. Whenever we have it on our menu, it's definitely like a member hit and I think like kids like it because it kind of like build your own, know the way you can serve it.
Speaker 1:So it's the best. Yeah, I don't want to give away too much from the book, but I'm flipping through and I'm like you have a gold mine here, my friend. Well, um, what else? Are there any gaps that we didn't talk about? That you're like.
Speaker 2:I really wish people knew this about the cookbook um, I think the only other thing that people will find in the book is that it also has like my personal story. So my heritage is like Portuguese, so I weave in the origin story of Feast and Fettle, why I started the company, how I got to that point, but also you'll find, like New England is kind of known for a Portuguese community, so you'll also find some of those recipes that, like you would never see necessarily on a feast and federal menu. But it's more of like my personal style.
Speaker 1:That's really important. We've never had a guest with a Portuguese background. We've got a lot of different cultural backgrounds and so that's really sweet. I'm glad that you said that and I know that a lot of people in this community have said and written it and saying like they read cookbooks cover to cover, kind of like a novel. So I'm excited that they know that and they can look forward to that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's more than just like the brand. It's more it. There's many more stories and like really great writing in it.
Speaker 1:just about how I got here great writing in it just about how I got here. I love it. I love it, Love it. Well, we are going to attach all of the links in the show notes that you can if you're listening, kind of like fresh, you can like pre-order. If you're listening in the future, you can order it. Follow along with Maggie and Feast and Fettle. But we end all of our conversations with the same three questions and I want to hear your answers as well. Okay, the first is something you have eaten recently and loved.
Speaker 2:Okay so I still love to go out to eat, even though I'm a professional chef, and there's a restaurant in Providence, Rhode Island, called Gift Horse the chef. It's a female chef, she's a James Beard nominated chef and it's actually like a raw bar restaurant. But they make this summer squash tempura with a kimchi mayonnaise and it is like to die for and I still think about it like a lot and often every time I order it and they kind of change it Like it might be a harder squash, like a butternut squash or something in the winter. But they're just excelled at tempura, like everything. The sauce, just I can't recommend it enough.
Speaker 1:I love stuff like that. That sounds really good. Well, oh, I got these a little bit messed up, so I'm going to throw you a little curveball. I like updated the questions. The second one is a gathering you attended that made you feel a strong sense of belonging.
Speaker 2:And, if you could pinpoint it, what it was that made you feel that way. So I am a big hostess, like I host a lot of dinner parties, a lot of like my family celebrations. I host a lot of dinner parties, a lot of like my family celebrations. But I think something that's like connected to kind of what we're talking about is I host my friends, who are also my co-founders, a lot at my house for dinner parties. So that's like Nikki and Carlos and our families and we're more than just like business partners. We're also just really good friends.
Speaker 2:And I think the way it's like just when you talk about belonging, like it's a way that we connect as friends but also as business partners and like over food I mean, our business is food, and oftentimes I'm making things that like we would never put on a feast and battle menu. Never put on a feast and battle menu Like it might be seafood or shellfish or something like over the top. You know that we wouldn't put on our regular menu, but it's just like a way that we get to connect and like kind of relax and feel connected to each other, because that's actually a hard thing to do when you work with your friends.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it sounds as you're saying that. I'm like, man, that's rare, yeah, a really rare dynamic. I'm glad that you guys share that and that sounds very delicious. I'm like how do I get an invite to?
Speaker 2:that.
Speaker 1:Custom feast and fennel cookie. Yeah, okay, and the last one, which it didn't make it on here and I'm curious if you have an answer for it, is something you've discovered recently that you think everyone should know about a netflix show, a random amazon purchase anything um. Let me think and if not, that's okay too. I don't know, I don't know, I just think like this is totally random.
Speaker 2:I don't know, I don't know. I just think like this is totally random. I don't know why this came to my head, but as a mom, I recently started like reading again. I feel like when I was a mom I was like I can't remember the last time I read a book.
Speaker 1:It took me till my son was like two no-transcript went to like unwind last night and I sat in front of the TV. I'm like, oh, another screen Like this is not great. Like I love I believe me, I love my TV shows. But it was, it was like a kick for me. I'm like I have so many books, I love learning. I was like it's time to it's time to start again. Well, we are celebrating big with you. We know on the show that behind a cookbook is a village and a lot of work and not everybody gets a book deal and so all of those things. We are just celebrating all of that with you and so excited to support it. So head on over to the show notes. Everyone Get your copy. Send us pictures. Tag all of us Feast and Fettle, Maggie me with what you're cooking. Support it. So head on over to the show notes. Everyone Get your copy. Send us pictures. Tag all of us Feast and Fettle. Maggie me with what you're cooking so we can see. And thanks so much for being on the show.
Speaker 1:We know that it's hard to carve out time as a mom. I'm happy to be here, honestly. We appreciate it. Well, guys, we will see you next week.