Food52: Amanda Hesser (2021)

How I Built This with Guy Raz

Guy Raz | Wondery

Business

4.8 • 31.1K Ratings

🗓️ 20 March 2023

⏱️ 94 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the early 1990s, as Amanda Hesser's college friends were interviewing for their first cubicle jobs, she chose a different path; one that led straight into the kitchens of Europe, where she cooked traditional recipes and learned the rhythm of the seasons from a crusty French gardener. By 24, she had landed a book deal and one of the most coveted jobs in journalism: writing about food for the New York Times. But over time she grew restless, and in 2008, gave up that dream job—and the stability that went with it—to become an entrepreneur. When her first business fizzled out, Amanda took a financial risk by pivoting again to launch a new company: Food52. Part food blog, part e-commerce site for all things kitchen and home, Food52 is now valued around $300 million and achieved profitability for the first time during the pandemic.

This episode was produced by Rachel Faulkner, with music by Ramtin Arablouei

Edited by Neva Grant, with research help from Daryth Gayles.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Prime members, you can listen to how I built this early and ad-free on Amazon Music.
0:07.0	Download the app today.
0:09.2	What if the greatest tragedy of your life was just covered up?
0:12.5	I have never seen anything like that before or after.
0:15.7	This is the story of the worst marine-on-marine friendly fire in modern history.
0:20.0	A story kept from the public.
0:21.9	It's like, what did y'all have to hide?
0:24.6	Listen to NPR's embedded podcast and its latest series, Taking Cover.
0:29.5	Hello everyone.
0:30.5	So some of the brands that we feature on the show offer services that you may only use
0:35.5	from time to time, like Zillow or JetBlue or Wirecutter.
0:40.0	All great resources, but you probably aren't buying a house or researching a vacuum every
0:44.2	day.
0:45.3	But chances are you're in the kitchen a lot more often.
0:49.0	Maybe you don't cook seven days a week, but you might cook something at least once a
0:53.0	week, which is where Food 52 comes in.
0:56.2	Amanda Hesser wanted to be a resource for recipes and cookware and home goods that could
1:00.8	be used 52 weeks a year.
1:03.6	And the story of how she did it is filled with pivots that even she never would have imagined.
1:09.3	We first ran this episode in April of 2021 and I hope you enjoy it.
1:22.9	Did you guys get to the point where you were almost at a cash?
1:26.3	Yeah.
	...

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