← Next On Scene: The Human Behind The Brand
Next On Scene: The Human Behind The Brand
From Interior Architecture to Sweet Vegan Chocolate Extraordinare!
00:20:29
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- [00:01]
Jackie Zuck
Welcome back to becoming Next on Scene, everybody. It is your host, Jackie Zuck. It is another awesome day for another awesome episode of how to become next on Scene in your field of business or in your passion. Before I bring on my amazing guest, I always like to start with a marketing tip to get your week started that can definitely be incorporated into some self care. So marketing tip of the week. I think there is a lot of power in and I probably shared this before, but it feels like it's really resonating so I'm going to share it again. I think there's a lot of power in donating your time to something complimentary. Whether it's mentoring, whether it's, you know, donating a free hour of your services or really giving back and volunteering in the community. I think there's something to doing that from not only a personal development side because it makes you feel good to do that, but from a business side as well. It creates great networking opportunities, confidence boosts all the things. And so I'm a huge advocate in doing that and I really believe that if you can make time to do that every month, you're going to see a huge difference in your life personally and professionally. So I hope that resonated with you today. Now I'm excited to bring on my amazing guest. We have the fabulous chef Andrea, who is the founder of Sweet Vegan in New York City. So stay tuned for the amazing Chef Andrea.
- [01:25]
Narrator
The ups, the downs and all the in between. What it takes to become next on Scene. Are you next? Follow us at Next on Scene.
- [01:46]
Jackie Zuck
Welcome back to becoming Next on Scene, everybody. I'm so excited to be here with the amazing Chef Andrea, who is one amazing founder of a company called Sweet Vegan, based in New York, but serves people everywhere. Chef Andrea, welcome to the podcast.
- [02:01]
Chef Andrea
Well, thank you. It is absolutely a delight to meet you and to be on your podcast today.
- [02:06]
Jackie Zuck
Yeah, so exciting to have you. You have such a unique background and I think first I would love to start off with you sharing with my audience, you know. How did you get into the world of becoming a chef?
- [02:16]
Chef Andrea
Well, it was one of those things where connecting the dots all flowed together. Growing up in the Midwest, food was always a part of my growing up. Coming to New York was another aspect of getting to experience the world of creativity. I became a designer and architect and then as my firm downsized, I reinvented myself and came back into the food industry and became a plant based chef.
- [02:45]
Jackie Zuck
So cool. So why the vegan route?
- [02:48]
Chef Andrea
Well, again, a family opportunity came. My Way my mom had some health issues, needed to recuperate in New York City while she was attending my sister's graduation from Columbia University. And it turned out that she'd. After this fall she really needed to recuperate and we discovered she had some health issues around nutrition. She wasn't really eating as healthy. So what was so nice is we were able to bring in a chef that actually was plant based. And for the next three months my mom really and I learned all about eating plant based cuisine and getting her health back to where it needed to be. And I decided to really go into the world of health through a plant based diet. So I went back to school, became a plant based chef and was working part time in architecture and part time as a chef for celebrities right here in New York City.
- [03:49]
Jackie Zuck
So cool. Such a cool background. Are you able to share like or have you signed NDAs like people you've worked with before?
- [03:55]
Chef Andrea
Well, they, I do have that little NDA, but across the industry, there's not one industry that doesn't have some celebrity chef. Whether it's music, business or the creative arts, it's all flourishing with people that love plant based diets. So I've had the opportunity to work for many wonderful customers and clientele.
- [04:16]
Jackie Zuck
So cool. And what would you say? Excuse me? What would you say was like one of your most memorable, like first jobs you ever did?
- [04:24]
Chef Andrea
Ah, well, I was a personal chef for a family on the Upper west side in New York. And one of the things that they kept saying to me is, you know, we just can't find a chocolate that has this ingredient or it feels fresh and doesn't have an aftertaste. So I ended up eliminating all soy, all nuts, all gluten and all preservatives and developed sweet vegan, what I call now sweet vegans. You know, signature classic flavors. And people love them. I got requests for them and that's one of the things that started to come alive for me is how many people were disappointed by the chocolate world. So I wanted to come up with something that satisfied as well as was totally inclusive so people everywhere could enjoy them regardless of any food sensitivity.
- [05:20]
Jackie Zuck
I love that. And I also like personally from trying them myself, I love. First of all, I'm a huge lemon fan. Huge. And ginger I have in my tea on a regular basis. So I loved the combination of the two flavors. So how, what goes into like your like thought process when it comes to actually making the chocolates?
- [05:42]
Chef Andrea
Well, I like to think of doing things that are unusual that people don't necessarily think of being combined together. Like you just said. Luscious lemon. The lemon and chocolate is something that a lot of people just. They wouldn't even think could go in the same sentence together. And when I developed it, I only use fresh, organic Meyer lemons. I also use only rice milk, so there's no animal products and just a tiny little bit of sea salt in it and 70% dark pure chocolate. So with those basically four ingredients, four or five ingredients, it really gives you a snapshot of ingredients that just come alive with flavor in your mouth. So you really get a chance to experience something that's not out there in any other way. And we make them fresh every single day. So the luscious Lemon just won an award, I'm so proud to say so.
- [06:44]
Jackie Zuck
Amazing. Congratulations.
- [06:46]
Chef Andrea
Thank you. The Good Food foundation, for sure.
- [06:49]
Jackie Zuck
In terms of, like, length of, like. Because I don't, you know, I'm not great with expiration dates and stuff, but this is something I feel like is a very common thing to think about. Like, does vegan stuff actually last longer or does it last less because you say you may. You make it the same day? Like, what is, like, the length of time that products would actually stay good for on your shelf if you kept it in your house?
- [07:09]
Chef Andrea
Of course, I would say about three to four months, because we don't use any preservatives. But remember, we also don't use anything that's going to be spoiling. Right. We don't use the dairy. We don't use the creams and the butters, which need to be refrigerated and need preservatives. Whereas our ingredients are very fresh and they don't really require that extra care. Of course. I just recommend, don't put anything near the heat systems in your home for obvious reasons. Right. You'll have melted chocolate.
- [07:44]
Jackie Zuck
Yeah. So tell me about, like, the different, like, products you offer, because obviously you do, like, you know, packages for brides and weddings and special occasions. You also do client gifting. Can you break down for us, like, the different ways that you work with customers?
- [07:57]
Chef Andrea
Customers, of course. Well, we're really excited about the bridal industry. It's really the time where you get a chance to really celebrate yourself and your family and friends in a very special way. So we've developed our signature flavor for brides. It's our champagne truffle. So we actually do a little gold C on it, or we can actually put your initials on it and make it something that's very unique just for you. And We've gotten rave reviews on our champagne truffles. We have our signature collection, which is our energizing espresso, which I call a New York special because so many people love espresso and coffee together. We have our luscious lemon, which needs no more explanation. Right, Jackie?
- [08:47]
Jackie Zuck
Very true.
- [08:48]
Chef Andrea
We have our Midnight Passion, which is probably our best seller. And that's our wonderful 70% dark chocolate. And it just melts in your mouth with an experience of wealth of love and flavor. And then we have our spicy ginger. And that one basically has a little heat and it's really a nice little kick of ginger. Why? Because we use fresh organic ginger and every single batch that we make. So that's our classic flavor. And then we have our seasonal flavors, which will enable you to try different flavors for every single season of the year. So we have four unique flavors we're heading into summer, which allows you to try our coconut crazy flavor, which is mouthwatering, delicious. Our luscious lemon, our kiwi, as well as our other flavor, which is our tropical, which is a combination of four different tropical flavors, including guava and passion fruit. So we can create anything for that special bride. We can take any of our current 18 flavors and mix and match. We can come up with something unique for you like we've done for another bride who wanted to have a tea infused flavor. So we came up with Earl Grey and she actually did it for her baby shower when she was having triplets. And we created a little tag that says babies brewing with her triplets. Isn't that adorable?
- [10:29]
Jackie Zuck
That's adorable. I love that. I love the creativity that you can really like, experiment with too, of course.
- [10:37]
Chef Andrea
Not to mention we offer cooking classes. So say you have something special you want to share with family and friends, your upcoming wedding, or just the girls night out. We can create something just for you. We can do something virtual. We can do something live, depending on where you are.
- [10:55]
Jackie Zuck
That's so cool. So that was going to be my follow up question. Like, you do it live, where do you normally do it?
- [11:01]
Chef Andrea
Well, we have a selection of options available to us. When we do it live, we'll usually go to a space that we can rent and we can organize it so it's just dedicated to you or depending on your group size, we can come to you. We've done it in people's homes that have had really nice kitchens. We've done it in people's homes that have very petite kitchens. So we can really make things happen. We've done some great kids Classes where kids just love to create things with chocolate. So we're open to any ideas that you might have as someone who's looking for a new venue. Or we can throw our ideas into the mix and come up with something as well.
- [11:44]
Jackie Zuck
So cool. I love all the creative, creative things that you can do with this. It's like a lot of fun in terms of like timeline from like when somebody like should place an order with you leading up to the event. Like, what is that time frame look like?
- [11:58]
Chef Andrea
Well, we really would request at least three weeks depending on your size of wedding and the complexity of what you would like to accomplish. We have certain things where we can do a photograph of you and put it in one of our boxes and you can see all this on our website. So we could take three amazing chocolates and then a photograph of you. So if you wanted to do something like that, that would take a little long because we'd want to develop it and get your photos and actually get the pictures, you know, cropped and set up for you. We also can do some more unique things with our packaging based on the colors that you might like to have and your ribbon choices. So all that adds some time to it. And if you want a special unique flavor, maybe you want to go with our Earl Grey or our champagne or you want to try something new that we could develop for you, which is certainly all possible. We'd love to encourage you to be a part of our taste tasting process. Just like the cake gets tasted, so can possibly our favors as well. So enjoy the process and experience and give yourself the time that it takes. Three weeks minimum, but four to five weeks for sure if you want custom tags and labels and so forth.
- [13:16]
Jackie Zuck
Very cool. I just love, like I said, I just love all the customization you can do. It's kind of endless. So for, I mean, as somebody who owns a business, right, like in terms of client gifting, can you share like different things you've done with different companies?
- [13:30]
Chef Andrea
Yes, we've done quite a bit of gifting with Fox News and we've been able to create for some of their SVP's, you know, where they call them their super valuable employees. We will create a special box with chocolate in them and particularly they like to use our energizing espresso. So we'll create a certain shape box or a certain unique design to the box and we'll use some colors based on what they happen to be, you know, working on right then in terms of projects and then we ship them out to each Individual person that's lucky enough to be selected for these awards so we can do something like that. We've done special grab bags and swag bags for people, you know, for at the end of an evening where you want to just have something that's really a favor, but it's something really particular that shows the colors. We've done some things for Toyota, for example. Another fun thing that we were asked to do is create some things to go in each person's hotel room. So they had them, you know, designed and created and then they actually had the staff deliver them to each one of their employees room. So when they came back to the room, there was a whole little story for each one of them as a thank you note from the company and a wonderful sweet vegan box of chocolates to sort of end their evening with, which I thought was a really touching way to give back to your employees and to let them know how they're valued by the companies.
- [15:02]
Jackie Zuck
I love that. Is there like a minimum order or like, let's say somebody wants to give like a one off gift to somebody. Those options too?
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Chef Andrea
Well, I think it would be possible. We would really have to discuss it depending on what you had in mind, but we can definitely come up with some things that would work. Usually for our corporate orders, it's usually around 50 pieces as a minimum, but we can do smaller orders depending on what you might need.
- [15:27]
Jackie Zuck
So cool. No, that's really great to know. I just think it's because I work with a lot of small businesses, some solo entrepreneurs outside of like the bigger corporations and things like that. So it's good to know that there's a variety that you could work with. So that's good.
- [15:39]
Chef Andrea
Absolutely.
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Jackie Zuck
So cool. So what would you say like made you next know about in the chef world, like what do you think was your takeoff in terms of your growth?
- [15:48]
Chef Andrea
I think our takeoff was getting the exposure of coming up with something very unique and unusual like the champagne truffles. It was an idea of someone who is actually had arrived from Hawaii and they were looking around New York City to try and find some chocolate truffles, some champagne truffles. And they hadn't been able to find anything that was plant based. They gave us a quick call and said, is there by any chance that you could come up with something? And I said, absolutely, we would love to come up with something. When do you need it? And she said, well, in just about three to four days. So I said, oh my goodness, let's really make this happen right away. So it was for a celebrity in New York City. She didn't at first want to share who the name was, but we did deliver it, and it was, to believe it or not, Jessica Chastain for her opening night of A Doll's House, and it was at the Hudson Theater. So we came up with something. And of course, her last name is a C. And we did the gold Cs for champagne and designs on all of the chocolates. So I was thrilled to be able to get them delivered right on time. And of course, the person who ordered them was thrilled beyond words that we could actually make it happen. And I delivered something to her as well so she could also enjoy the experience along with Jessica. So we really love those opportunities to make a difference, difference in people's lives and also share how creative and inventive we can be.
- [17:20]
Jackie Zuck
But I love the healthy aspect too, like the healthier option aspect. So it's like the combination of all is so awesome.
- [17:27]
Chef Andrea
Absolutely. And there's nothing better than being healthy and enjoying an amazing flavor profile and a taste. It's like they should both go to together in everything that we do in our lives. So that's one of the reasons why we exist, is to give people that experience of. Of health, wellness, and amazing mouth taste and flavor.
- [17:51]
Jackie Zuck
I'm so inspired. Chef Andrea. So how can people check out your website, follow you on social media, all the things? Can you share that with us today?
- [17:58]
Chef Andrea
Oh, yes. Our website is SweetVegan. Sweet V, E, G, A, N. N Y, C. We also have a very, very active social media. We are on Instagram, Pinterest threads, Facebook, and we're really always open to having people join our newsletters so you can find out about all the great, you know, little things we have for our, you know, chocolate family members and enable them to really get to know us and to see what fun things we do. Since we do give back to the community a lot, we'd like to share that with our followers and let them know what good things are happening in the world as well. Right.
- [18:47]
Jackie Zuck
Amazing. So what would you say outside of the wedding season, as we close out, like, what's next for you and Sweet Vegan?
- [18:54]
Chef Andrea
Well, I think what's next is for us to really have a chance to really grow our brand, to get the word out there, to help corporations, to really share our message loud and clear. We're doing a lot of PR and press, which has enabled us to really grow in a larger capacity. We're going to be establishing our own kitchen very soon, which will enable us to really grow and create the energy and all the new flavors to bring our high school kids in to try and taste what we're doing and to let the community of Harlem really thrive with sweet Vegan chocolates every step of the way.
- [19:36]
Jackie Zuck
Amazing. So cool and so inspiring. Thank you so much for making the time today and coming on to the show. I so appreciate it.
- [19:44]
Chef Andrea
Well, thank you for trying our chocolates and being a sweet Vegan supporter, Of course.
- [19:48]
Jackie Zuck
And thank you so much, everyone for tuning in to be coming next on Scene. Definitely. Check out Chef Andrea and Sweet Vegan on all socials and their website. And stay tuned for who's next on Scene.
- [20:09]
Narrator
The ups, the downs, and all the in between. What it takes to become next on Scene. Are you next? Follow us at Next on Scene.