Episode 90: Trader Joe's Goes to Italy and Gets Sauced

Inside Trader Joe's

Trader Joe's

Arts, Nutrition, Health & Fitness, Food

4.7 • 4.2K Ratings

🗓️ 19 May 2025

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Imagine a small town in western Italy, home to a family-owned company that got its start canning fresh fruits and veggies more than 80 years ago. Now imagine that company in 2025, still owned by the same family, and still preserving the flavors of the local produce – not just in canned fruits and veggies, but in supremely satisfying sauces, too. And now imagine you’re listening to a podcast… oh, wait, here’s where reality and imagination intersect. In this episode of Inside Trader Joe’s, we’re up close and personal with the supplier of a number of Trader Joe’s sauces – including Lemon Pesto, recently returned to our grocery shelves for a limited time. It’s a captivating conversation that covers topics as wide-ranging as tradition and innovation, and definitely left us hungry for more. Pass the pesto, please!

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode could get saucy.
0:02.9	And maybe a little cheesy at times.
0:05.0	Like most of our episodes.
0:06.5	It's also going to be heartwarming.
0:08.8	Sarah Delicioso.
0:10.7	Let's go inside Trader Joe's.
0:20.6	I'm Tara Miller, director of words and phrases and clauses.
0:24.0	And I'm Matt Sloan, the culture and innovation guy at Trader Joe's.
0:27.7	We recently had the opportunity to visit Northwestern Italy and heard some wonderful family stories from Chiata and Giuseppe.
0:35.1	And they're cousins, the grandchildren of founders of a company that makes several Trader Joe's pasta sauces,
0:41.3	including that Rositella sauce.
0:43.3	I love that one.
0:44.3	And it's based on a traditional Italian family recipe.
0:48.3	They also make Trader Joe's lemon pesto sauce, and I'm so excited it's back in stores again this summer for a limited time.
0:55.0	That is outstanding.
0:56.0	And that's how our conversation began. When I told Kiara and Giuseppe,
1:00.0	None of us had ever tasted anything like that before.
1:03.0	It's a true innovation.
1:05.0	Right.
1:06.0	One of the things that we like to do when we develop products is work with our suppliers
1:10.0	to bring products that are
1:12.0	authentic to a different culture and a different palette than Americans might be used to.
	...

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