We recently connected with Angela Larson and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Angela , thanks for joining us today. What’s been the best thing you’ve ever seen (or done yourself) to show a customer that you appreciate them?

Food is the one thing that every single person on this planet has in common. It’s how we show love, real unconditional love. It sits us at tables where we can break bread and really get to know one another. Food can tell all our stories, show our differences but most importantly show just how much we have in common. I love to show my clients just how special they are to me through my creations and love for food. Mindful Fork isn’t just about providing a meal and collecting a check, it’s about connecting with each client personally and helping them lift some burden from their check list. Our focus is not only amazing food, but attention to all the little details, sometimes even details that are really within our scope of catering like the perfect decorations for our grazing tables just simply running a last-minute errand for the host because they forgot something, or maybe it’s simply jumping in and being a team player to make sure the entire venue is ready on time for their guests. I believe that one of our greatest attributes to our customers is the one-on-one attention we give to every one of them. We create our menu and services based off each special event to make their celebration unique and memorable which has been a huge part of our success and amazing growth in the St. Croix Valley Corridor.

Angela , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My first love of the business came with my first job in a local restaurant when I was 15, I worked for almost four years, it was there that I found my people. In 2001 my family bought a pizza place in Baldwin, WI. It was there that I was able to serve our community and surrounding areas and dive headfirst into operating our family’s restaurant. That was a lesson taught by pure hard knocks. We closed our family restaurant in 2006 and in 2009 my passion for farm to fork and all things local was kicked into high gear. I decided to enroll in a program at a culinary school for functional holistic food science, it was there that I really started making the connection between what I thought was food and what food really was. It is mind blowing when you start peeling back the curtains and really digging into our food system. I was so overwhelmed in the beginning trying to learn how to unpack all this new vision and thought process. Then I remembered growing up in the 70’s and 80’s how my grandpa Sheridan had this amazing urban garden and all the amazing things that he grew. His garden in Maplewood, MN was impeccable and had enough growth to feed his family and really half the neighborhood. He grew it my grandma cooked it and they both preserved it. It was really that simple as going back to the basics of what I already had a great foundational understanding of. Then I remembered all the meals my mom used to make for us growing up (not always loved by us kids), we never had processed foods, it just wasn’t a thing and really, we couldn’t afford it. She was always making things with fresh ingredients, better known around here as “Hotdish” and not always liked, but it was always made fresh. It was at that moment that I realized that the best food is always the meals made with the simplest of ingredients and lots of love. It really was that simple… real food, real ingredients, breaking bread. I made the transition to a private chef in 2009, started a meal prep and catering company, and recently made the change to strictly catering. My favorite catering is cocktail hours / grazing tables but our focus is corporate catering, special event catering, private catering, and personal chef services. I also consult with many restaurants and specialize in creating new menus. Starting this spring will be expanding into a new winery and events venue, Belle Ame, here in River Falls, Wisconsin. Our focus will be small plates made from scratch with seasonal ingredients.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Being in the food business is all about learning to make the pivot. In my career over the last 25 years, I have been an owner, executive chef, general manager, consultant, private chef, and now owner again with my catering company. Learning to pivot is key. You must keep a finger on the pulse of what is relevant, what your customers are looking for, what experience you are providing, what services are of perceived value and learn to adjust your sails. It’s not always easy as it means we sometimes must give up on our original dreams, but it doesn’t have to be the end. You just learn to pivot and make the changes that are needed to stay relevant or become that trusted person your customers know they can count on. I left my executive chef and gm position to start my own meal prep company full time. It was going great and was an amazing ride, but the needs of my clients changed, the value of those services changed, and I knew I had to make a change. With those jobs came some amazing catering jobs and that’s when I realized that my services were great with meal prep but freaking AMAZING with catering. It was the demand that was being most asked of me and for some reason in the beginning I was hesitant and not wanting to give up on my farm to fork based meal prep business. But the writing was on the wall and really the change was needed, scary at first, but here we are and loving it.

Do you have multiple revenue streams – if so, can you talk to us about those streams and how your developed them?

It is important to have supplementary income options and being able to create services or products that can further assist your customer is vital. Mindful Fork currently offers holiday meals options for families, pop-up tasting menus at local breweries and distilleries, private in home chef services, and of course our favorite is helping new or established restaurants write or re-write their menus. It is also OK to just take a minute to celebrate YOU and relax.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.mindfulforkcatering.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mindfulforkmealprep/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mindfulforkcatering