On Femmes in Food
An interview with Kelly Valentine!
Welcome to the Tuesday post for all subscribers, featuring our first interview of 2024. This conversation is one that gets me so excited about the future of food, so I hope you enjoy it. I’ll see you back here on Friday for a savory brunch recipe!
Kelly Valentine is a multi-hyphenate marketing expert and food fanatic. In 2019, while living in LA and working for ArcLight Cinemas as their Director of Food and Beverage Innovation, she founded Femmes in Food to bring together the amazing women she had met in the culinary industry. Her goal was to host gatherings where she could facilitate introductions, be a cheerleader for women making waves, and patronize women-led restaurants/bars while doing so. After three hugely successful events, COVID put a pause on everything. Now living in Iowa and leading CPG Partnerships for a female founded marketing tech platform called Hummingbirds, Kelly is planning a big year ahead for Femmes in Food.
This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Laura Scherb: So tell me about Femmes in Food and what you’re doing now.
Kelly Valentine: So, there was an evolution during the pandemic. Post-pandemic, I expanded Femmes in Food to include lady founders in the F&B CPG space. I saw this path that kind of kept happening, where the chefs that I knew were wanting to make a CPG product. And then I saw a reason for lady-founded CPG brands to connect with food service people, like if they had a product that would go in like a cafe or a coffee shop. So I kind of connected those dots and started following more brands in that space. And so now with that, I do a lot of curation for those brands, and that's been really fun to do. I feel like my goal now with Femmes in Food is really to market and promote lady-owned brands in the food and beverage CPG space and restaurants, anything like that, and kind of promote them as a whole.
I don't know any woman out there who isn't interested in supporting another lady-owned business. So we do that through curation of Femmes in Food branded gift bags for women centric events: we curate all lady-owned food and beverage brands that go into a branded tote bag that says, “Your choices matter. Choose lady-owned.” And it's about supporting that mission.
LS: I love that. And I love how responsive you've been to not only the major events happening on the global scale, but also, you know, the relationships and women who you've been interacting with and their journeys too. And it's just so interesting to see how it's evolved and how you've been so responsive to that. So I really admire that.
KV: Thank you. Yeah, it's been fun. It's been happening all very fast too, I would say. So it's been interesting to try and keep up.
LS: Oh, my gosh, yeah, we live in a very fast paced world. And it seems like it's just getting faster and faster since the pandemic. I feel like you've sort of already answered how you've supported women in and around the world of food since founding Femmes in Food. Is there a specific success story you want to share?
KV: I love connecting the dots for people behind-the-scenes. I think women are making some of the best products out there. I really reflected this year on why I’m so passionate about women specifically in the food space, and actually at Fancy Food in Vegas this year, it kind of all came together for me.
I realized that it's really women who are very passionate about the ingredients that are going into our foods, especially packaged goods where there can be a lot of gross ingredients that are not good for us as a whole. I really find time and time again—it's women, it's mothers, they’re ones that are passionate about what we're putting in our food. And they're making better versions of everything from a really heart-centered place. And I think only good can come from that. I love to support them kind of behind-the-scenes. And now with my work at Hummingbirds, I get to meet a lot of retailers in the space that would maybe carry some of these female CPG brands. I've been able to connect the dots and put lady-owned brands on their radar in a very nonchalant way.
The other thing that’s been great is that I've worked with some women I knew from really early on. When I was working at Feastly, which was a pop-up dining platform, I had to audition chefs, which was a great job, and through that I got to meet a lot of amazing female chefs. And one of them was Jocelyn Ramirez, who now has a CPG brand called Todo Verde.
LS: Oh, I just heard about her yesterday!
KV: She won the Fancy Food pitch competition! And so that was a really full circle moment for me, because I remember when she walked through my doors at Feastly she barely considered herself a chef. She got really into plant-based cooking, and I watched her just get her feet under her in that respect, and she has just grown so much. And to see her win at that event was just a really full circle moment that I got to be there and see her and celebrate her and see her get recognition. She got $10,000 from them to continue to keep growing and it was just such good validation. And it also shows me that the path of chef to CPG brand owner is a good one.
So I think those are kind of some stories of real people that I can kind of pull out. I've always championed Jocelyn. I think it really comes down to like who's talking about you behind closed doors, right? Who's bringing your name up? Who's the one bringing your name into the ethers of a conversation that can be life changing? And I feel like that's kind of right now what I do, because I have a full-time job that I love at Hummingbirds, too. And so Femmes in Food has kind of been more on the side, but I still use that as a way to elevate and put women forward in any conversation that I can.
LS: Yeah, no, I love that. And it's so important. And I think that, you know, in some ways, just you giving us this platform is so meaningful because you’re setting a good example of being that voice and you know, always putting people's names out there behind those closed doors. It just encourages other people to do the same. And in an industry where historically, the numbers are abysmal for women, it can make a huge shift. Yeah, why—I mean, this is a question that probably everyone already knows the answer to but—why has it taken so long for women in food to really find their voices and stand up?
KV: That is such a deep, loaded question. What I’ve noticed is that no matter the culture, there’s a challenge around stepping into your power. It’s hard to own that you’re doing amazing things. And that's why I think it's so important to champion other women because it's really hard to champion ourselves in a public way. I think women also have that fear of being perceived as making this about themselves.
I think that it's funny—as great as women are about sharing with each other, like when you and I met, we were just, boom, immediately deep sharing, it's harder to share out into the world, “Hey, I'm working on this project, or here's my wild dream to create this,” right? And I find the women who do that, or even when I've pushed myself to do it, or I've pushed other people to do that, it’s crazy to see the interest and flood of people asking how can I help? That's what's missing is just putting it out there to other women, to your networks, to the universe. Lifting tides raise all boats, you know? And so I think women need to get a little bit better at asking for what they want. Because if no one knows what you're working on, or what you need, or where you're struggling, how can they help?
LS: Exactly. I was just talking to a couple friends about this. And it does feel so uncomfortable to put a big goal or a big dream out there, but that's how shit happens, that’s how people know that you're looking for it. There's totally something valid in speaking to the universe, because when you're talking to the universe, there's always someone listening. So what’s coming up this year for Femmes in Food?
KV: So this year, I'm really looking to find someone that aligns with Femmes in Food to help me do more with it. I have a full time job that I love and supports my mission at Femmes in Food because I really feel like our platform [Hummingbirds] is able to move the needle for these brands. But I would love to collaborate with somebody that aligns with this mission and is really passionate about female founders in this space, to kind of co-build some things with.
I want to get back into doing more events. People are really ready for more in-person stuff. And I really think that in-person is where the real magic happens. So I'm hoping to do some things in Chicago, which you and I have talked about a little bit. And gathering some more partners in that. So yeah, I'm excited to do that, more curation and still doing curated gift bags for female-centric events.
And then my wild dream? If I can find the time and the right person to co-build this, I would love to do a podcast. I think that there's something special about just hearing women share their stories, specifically in this space, and around food.
LS: I love it. I'm so excited for you. And I am excited to also be a part of it. Okay, so zooming out for a second, I know you just got back from Fancy Food. What trends are coming this year that we can look for and what trends are coming this year that we can look for female founders to support in championing those trends?
KV: It's been interesting between Expo East late last year and Fancy Food this year, I saw a lot of women really bringing the food from their cultures forward in a beautiful, branded, warm way. They're exposing what they loved about their culture’s food, and putting it in a box for people with great ingredients, beautiful branding, and, with the mission to make having those foods quicker and easier and more accessible. I feel like food really breaks down so many barriers. And I think everyone's interested in trying food from other cultures. And it just feels like these women are really being very thoughtful and honoring a lot of the traditions of the food, and really capturing a great essence. And when you think about it, a lot of this food comes from our mothers, right? Our grandmas and mothers cooking for us in a very specific way. And it's their journey of capturing that essence and that love and putting it into a box. There's no way that doesn't resonate.
LS: So, I love that. That's a trend that I don't think I've really heard anyone point that out and articulate it so beautifully. And I love that you just brought that forward. This has been so wonderful. Thank you so much. You are just such a gem.
KV: Thank you. I try, but you know, like attracts like. So I end up getting a lot of really cool women around me. Because you know, we're all here to do big things. There’s no time to waste. We're gonna come together and rise up.
Connect with Kelly on Instagram and LinkedIn to hear more about Femmes in Food. Thanks for reading! I’ll see you back here on Friday for brunch.