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Lisa Diamond has an interesting idea, one that on a surface level is creative, informative, artistic, and has a wonderful aesthetic. On a more ambitious level, it could save the world. After all, there is that old saying about the key to a man's heart being through his stomach. Promoting understanding and appreciation of other cultures by helping people to cook and enjoy their foods is not such a far cry.
Destination Dinners officially opened for business just about a month ago. Lisa runs it from her home. She's a big thinker with ambitious goals that go beyond the scope of typical business objectives and, to us, very much typifies that which is admirable about the spirit of San Francisco and its residents. We were privileged to be able to see her plan in action at an early stage and to get some insight into the genesis of her business.
After stints in Massachusetts, New York, and Tokyo, among other places, Lisa's been a San Francisco resident since 1997. We sought to find out what inspired this former dancer and marketing professional to drop everything and have a go at something else, completely unrelated, on her own (albeit with the staunch support of her husband, a dedicated food taster).
The idea behind Destination Dinners came to Lisa only a little while after she'd removed herself from the rat race. She decided that since she wasn't going to be working in the corporate sense, she'd try to make at home the kinds of meals she and her husband had usually enjoyed at restaurants.
"I started pulling out the recipes that I had collected during all my travels, and talking with friends from all over," she says. "Even with the time off and knowing all the markets and the fun, funky places, I was having trouble finding all the ingredients."
And when she did find the ingredients--the required spices or jars of sauces--they weren't available in decent portions for one-off purposes.
"Even I don't go through fish sauce that quickly," she jokes, using hand motions to indicate a Costco-sized bottle. "It just goes stale and the flavors fade."
She knew there had to be a better way -- one that would include pre-measured spices in appropriate amounts, and one that could incorporate a way to make cooking and learning about the culture fun and interesting. Thus, Destination Dinners, with its lofty goal of using food as a medium for introducing culture, was born.
The dinner kits aren't geared toward everyday cooking situations -- they are more event driven, and would make, for example, a good gift for a housewarming party. There are currently six kits available; Lisa aims to ultimately have a rotating menu of 12 to choose from at any given time.
So what comprises a dinner kit? For $20, each kit contains the spices, sauces, and dried items to make the dish; a shopping list for the fresh ingredients; suggestions for authentic table settings (and how one can acquire them); and a "Tea & Trivia" card, with interesting quizzes and facts about the region that the dish comes from, to encourage further interest in the far-off destination. The inserts (pictured in part below) are simple to understand, engaging, and informative. The acrylic boxes that hold the spices are actually "officially" modern art, as they are on permanent display at the N.Y. Museum of Modern Art.
Designed primarily as gifts, there is an emphasis on beautiful presentation. The attention to detail doesn’t stop there--each kit is sealed three ways (for freshness more than per government regulations), and the bright red boxes with handles are stackable for easy storage. While it wasn't required, Lisa went the extra mile (not much of a surprise) and is now a certified food safety manager. While the kits will last a while, Lisa recommends using them within three months.
"It's really made for everyone, even people who don't cook," Lisa says. "I'm not a cook. I hid from the kitchen for the first 30 years of my life." She offers up her own father as an example. A man who hadn't been in the kitchen for more than 20 years, the Destination Dinners kits inspired him to shoo his wife out of the kitchen and prepare a number of the dishes perfectly start to finish.
While she's already shipping the kits nationwide, she doesn't want to expand too quickly. Her future plans involve growing the business at such a rate that she can continue to over-deliver even as she "prepares to deliver." Lisa and her husband are expecting their first baby in December. She aims to employ other people with young children, providing a reasonable avenue for them to incorporate their childcare goals into a meaningful work environment. In addition, she aims to eventually donate a percentage of sales to cottage industries in third world countries--and perhaps incorporate some of that industry into her product offerings.
She also aims to keep the product mix timely. The area she's looking into the strongest is the Middle East, specifically because of world events. Lebanese, Israeli, and Iranian options are in the pipeline. Lisa hopes to use these to spread knowledge of those areas, to provide a larger picture than simply what's in the news.
"The only way we're going to improve the world is if people understand that people and cultures are different--and that is a good thing," Lisa says.
Lofty goals, to be sure. But if anyone can begin to redistribute the weight of the world's problems through the stomachs of its citizens, it could well be her.
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What a cool product/service idea.
what a great idea. thanks for the link to a great website!