Founder Files: Korean Zucchini Salad, the Cretzel & a Q&A With Erika

Welcome to the latest edition of Food52 Founder Amanda Hesser’s weekly newsletter, Hey there, it’s Amanda, packed with food, travel, and shopping tips, Food52 doings, and other matters that catch her eye. Get inspired—sign up here for her emails.

---

Tad and I just got back from dropping off our twin son and daughter at college in Ohio. If anyone has food or coffee recommendations close to I-80 in Pennsylvania, please email me at [email protected]. If I don’t hear from one of you, it’s going to be a long, desperate four years. The egg sandwich pictured below was one of the “meals” we had on the road.

• We’re offering 20% off in our Shop this week. You can be practical and stock up on nesting storage boxes or be madcap and spring for a gorgeous handmade platter.
• Stone fruits are about to vanish! Make Nea’s No-Churn Apricot & Honey Ice Cream—no ice cream machine needed.
• César’s Cold Korean Zucchini Salad brings together everything he loves about Korean cuisine: garlic, heat, sweetness, and bold umami flavors.

You might be wondering what Erika, our CEO, who joined the company earlier this year from Barstool Sports, has been up to. So I asked her!

Amanda: You've been at Food52 for a few months. You haven't fled ... yet. So be honest with us, what's the strangest thing about running a food and home company?

Erika: How much people cry at work.

What have you learned about this business that really surprised you?

Food styling is an entire universe and quite an art.

Design, commerce, and product development run on a very elongated schedule. It’s hard for an internet person to get their head around planning for “fall ‘26” in winter of ‘23. The amount of foresight needed in this sector is pretty incredible.

The impact of lighting on photography (you taught me this!).

How very much work goes into selecting, storytelling, and shipping a product.

What kind of person is a Food52 person, but just doesn't know that yet—and how do you reach them?

A person who loves their space (big and small), wants to brighten it, doesn’t know exactly how to do it and may not have a lot of time for it, is possibly a little quirky yet stylish in their taste, and wants more in their life and on their shelves than stuff from Amazon. A Food52 person is someone who values food and table, is a student of preparation, and someone who seeks to bring her or his own flair to their home.

I think we find this person by showing this person (literally), talking about what they are interested in, not just what we want to sell, and making us a part of their journey and home and them a part of ours. This will require a lot of experimentation, some bloopers, and will include a lot more content, faces, personalities, and people than perhaps Food52 has featured in the past.

What do you want to bring from Barstool to Food52?

The belief that we can do anything if we try.

Faith in the internet and in being part of conversation and culture.

Hustle and scrappiness. Speed to market.

An understanding that expensive isn’t the only path to good.

A commitment to find great ideas and to know they come from everywhere, mostly the people who care about us, follow us, or work here.

Tell us 3 things that you want to see happen at Food52 in the next 3 years.

More of our own products.

More stories.

More communities of enthusiasts built around passions and people.

More people visiting our home in Brooklyn. [Editor’s Note: That was 4, not 3—bonus!]

What do we do well now?

Curation. Our merchants pick the greatest things, and I love the stories we tell about them. I love that this brand has an aesthetic and a point of view. I believe this point of view can and will evolve, but it’s wonderful to feel strongly and to be clear and distinct about things. I think the brand lost this for a while and it’s been nice to start to get it back.

What do you want to fix ASAP?

Almost everything except the core essence of what made Food52 so great to begin with: a belief that food and home are the center of a well-lived life, a desire to make things purposefully and with care, a point of reference that starts and ends with the customer.

There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff here that needs work. We don’t have a lot of the things we need to truly excel in this space. What we do have are tons of ideas and a commitment to executing them. We need to be stronger, simpler, and more disciplined to be able to turn this into reality.

Best Food52 recipe you've made?

Judy Hesser’s Chocolate Dump Cake.

I also tried to make a Beef Wellington of yours and it was a total and epic disaster. [Editor’s Note: I don’t have a Beef Wellington recipe. I do have a very good recipe for flank steak.]

Best thing you've purchased in our Shop?

Hard to choose! I am a sucker for vessels and things that carry things. The Dansk Købenstyle wrapped handle pitcher comes in the happiest colors and makes me not hate to drink water so much. I love the Steele laundry baskets and use them for everything other than laundry. I got my daughter a Mosser glass bathing beauty and it makes me smile when I see it on her shelf.

Best decision you made today?

To pay it forward and buy someone else a ride on the NYC ferry.

And now we’re off to fix almost everything!

Amanda