December 19, 2024 • 55 mins
This episode invites listeners into the heartwarming story of Daniel Mancini, co-founder of Mama Mancini's, as he shares his inspiring journey of transforming his grandmother's recipes into a national food brand. Through his narrative, we explore the themes of family, quality ingredients, and the power of food to foster community and connection.
• Daniel reflects on his bond with his grandmother and the influence of Italian culture on his life
• The transition from the garment industry to food entrepreneurship
• Importance of quality ingredients in creating authentic flavors
• Building genuine relationships as a key to business success
• The significance of "slow food" in a fast-paced world
• A wide variety of products reflecting traditional Italian recipes
• Encouragement to cherish family memories through shared meals
Tune in for a conversation that nourishes the soul as much as it does the palate.
Find Mama Mancini's on QVC, Costco or wherever you shop!
Follow them on social @mamamancinis
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This time of year, I miss my nonna, my Italian
grandpa, that we lived with forquite a few years, especially as
a later teen and even, yeah,into early college, and for me,
christmas is time with him.
Christmas is the smells and theflavors and the shopping and
the prepping, and he taught mehow to holiday well.
(00:23):
So this time of year, I think alot about Italian food and the
flavors and the culture and thecommunity and everything that
surrounds it, which is whatmakes this conversation extra
sweet to me.
I've had a few conversations onItalian heritage and culture,
but none like this one.
You guys know that I am aCostco enthusiast and a foodie
(00:46):
through and through, and sothere was a brand that was
introduced to us that is sold atCostco and QVC and retailers
across America, that is leadingthe way in prepared Italian food
, and I knew that we had to diveinto this conversation.
Now I'll be honest.
When this conversation firstcame to me, they said listen,
there's this Italian preparedfood brand, and immediately a
(01:09):
few question marks went up forme how good is it?
Are there any weird textures orflavors?
And, more importantly to me,what are the ingredients?
Now, if we're going to talkabout Italian food, I knew that
it had to be good, and not justmediocre, but really good.
And so they sent some my wayand I tried it, a little bit
nervous, to be honest, but atfirst I knew that all of the
(01:36):
ingredients were ingredientsthat I stood by.
They were the real things thatmy nonna would use, that I would
use in my own kitchen, thatwere whole and good for my body,
no weird preservatives oranything artificial.
So I tasted it and I looked atmy husband, colby, and I said
how in the world did they manageto capture this, fresh off the
stove, long simmer, straightfrom Nana's kitchen, flavor and
texture and experience.
(01:57):
I don't know how they did it,but they do it.
And so, right after I tried it,I knew I had to talk to them do
it.
And so, right after I tried it,I knew I had to talk to them.
Dan Mancini has this incrediblestory that so many of us will
find inspiring and can relate toin different ways, of working
from the moving from the garmentindustry in New York City to
turning his grandma Anna'srecipes into this nationwide
(02:20):
sensation.
This story is heartwarming andinspiring, whether you are an
Italian foodie like me or youare someone who is looking for a
massive career shift.
There is so much about thisconversation that will just warm
your heart, especially as we gointo the holiday season, but if
you're not familiar with MamaMancini's or Daniel and his
(02:41):
story, here is a little bit moreabout him.
Daniel is a co-founder of MamaMancini's, a longtime
entrepreneur, having spent manyyears as a co-owner of a
successful garment manufacturerin New York City Through the
ranks of the retail apparelindustry.
Daniel is a master atrelationship building and we
talk more about that, which wasone of my favorite parts of the
(03:03):
conversation.
In 2009, daniel left thegarment industry with a vision
to manufacture and distributehis grandma, anna Mancini's
recipes.
Daniel is the public face andthe sound of Mama Mancini's,
including a key component oftheir new products and customer
sale process.
Daniel is the voice of radioadvertising and on television
(03:24):
sales representative of thecompany and their products on
QVC Guys.
This conversation is one that isreally, really sweet to me and,
again, italian culture and foodgoes right along with the
holidays, and I hope that itwarms your heart the same way it
did mine.
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(03:45):
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(04:48):
$25 off your first week.
Hi, I'm Katie, a hospitalityeducator and the host of Making
Room by Gather podcast.
I am set to see our communitiesget back to the table through
hospitality, but it wasn'talways this way.
My husband and I moved toThailand and through it I
experienced some loneliness, andwith it I was given a choice to
(05:10):
sit back and accept it or to dosomething about it.
And for me, that meant twothings that I needed the healing
to learn how to accept aninvitation and the confidence to
know how to extend one.
Through this process, Ideveloped some of the richest
and deepest relationships of mylife.
Through Making Room by Gather,you will hear conversations from
(05:30):
myself and experts in the areasof food, design and
relationships.
You see, there are countlessthings trying to keep us from
the table.
But can I tell you something?
Take a seat because you areready, you are capable, you are
a good host.
I tell everyone that I'mItalian.
(05:52):
Okay, so, like, if you meet me,it's like hi, I'm Katie, I'm
Italian Basically.
That's how it goes, and therunning joke is that I'm not
really Italian becausetechnically, I'm only 25%.
So I was raised living with myItalian grandpa who was a
hundred percent Italian.
But when it all breaks down momside, dad side, right, I'm only
25%, but I hold very tightly tomy Italian heritage the culture
(06:17):
, the music, the food, all of it.
And so it made thisconversation very exciting for
me because, technical numbersaside, I am Italian.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Yeah Well, I think everyone, when you speak to them
, they all say they have someItalian in them.
And you know what?
It's more than heritage, it'smore of a feeling and what you
love.
So good for you.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
I love the way that you put that.
Like you put some Dean Martinon, like the rat pack, I feel
like everyone wants to beItalian.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
You know, I used to say that.
But then some people would youknow, friends of mine give me a
dirty look, saying, well, I'mnot really.
It's meaning that I'm notreally.
I said, well, no, I bet youback there somewhere.
And I and I always say to themso where do you like to travel?
To Italy, everybody says Italythese days.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
So I mean it's, we're going to talk a little bit more
about your family, andspecifically your grandma, and
of course, about you as well.
But so I live in Connecticut,right near New Haven.
Have you been to this area?
I?
Speaker 2 (07:21):
like peppy pizza.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Of course.
Okay, so you're peppies.
Is that your loyalty?
Speaker 2 (07:25):
I'm a peppy.
Well, I'll be honest with you.
Whoever is not as crowded I go,so Sally's or peppy's, but I
love peppy, so yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
I had a guest a few weeks ago that was Sally's
through and through.
But you know how it goes youeat your way through and then
you pledge your loyalty.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
That's it, and it's amazing the battles that happen
over those two places.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Right yeah, as a little kid we grew up, I was
down there all the time eatingat, oh my gosh, tony and
Lucille's.
I don't know if you've evereaten there, and they have since
closed, but once it gets past acertain point in the night,
it's a little bit questionabledown there.
There's a lot that goes on, asI'm sure we can all imagine, but
(08:12):
I talked to some older familymembers and friends that are
Italian, more Italian than me,and they said that it wasn't
always this way.
It wasn't always the way thatpeople wanted to be Italian.
It actually was a hard life forItalian immigrants when they
first came over.
Was that part of your grandma'sstory?
I mean, we'll get there, oh,absolutely.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Absolutely.
My grandparents came here in1921.
Actually, my grandfather cameover first.
He came over in 1919, end of1919, established a business.
He was an ice man you know theold days where you heard about
stories about carrying ice upthe steps and then he went back
to get my grandmother and theycame back in 1921.
(08:51):
And, yeah, I mean, nothing waseasy, right, they left there.
The most, the most uneasy thingabout it, I believe, is my
grandmother left behind her mom,her dad and 10 brothers and
sisters to come here to start anew life, which says a lot about
you know being dedicated andyou know believing in our
country.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
So yeah and no.
No FaceTime, no Facebookupdates.
I think, like when we reallystop and realize what that
looked like for them, it's youget a new appreciation, a new
empathy, right Understanding ofwhat they went through.
Yeah.
I remember there were a lot ofstories, too, that family
(09:30):
friends have told me.
All of my grandparents havesince passed away, so in my
adulthood I don't have them toshare those stories, but we have
family friends.
Yeah, and they would say thatas Italian kids in America they
would get beat up Like it waspretty intense racism against
Italians.
And yeah, it's.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
I mean, I've heard that you know, I grew up in an
Italian neighborhood in Brooklyn, so you know, I didn't, I
fortunately I didn't experiencethat.
But good.
And it was a diverseneighborhood as well, but
everyone seemed to get along.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Yeah, it's good, definitely has changed.
Well, your background is veryinteresting to me and I don't
think so.
I've interviewed a lot ofpeople in the food scene.
I have never had anyone with astory like yours.
So you made, I mean, talk aboutdrastic shifts.
The reason I love sharing aboutcareer shifts is because I feel
(10:21):
like so many people want tomake them but they're scared to
take the step.
They think kind of like yours,like oh, I have, I'm interested
in something totally different,but it's never going to work.
And your story says somethingdifferent, right?
So so you were in the retailapparel space.
Did I say that, right?
Is it safe?
Speaker 2 (10:39):
to say yeah.
So I actually started in theretail apparel space working for
a department.
So is that a long gone?
Probably before you're born,abraham and Strauss and Gimbels.
And then I made a career changein like 83 to the manufacturing
business in New York, clothe,the garment business.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Yeah, how did you get into that Cause?
That's very I mean, that'sreally specific.
You'll hear people like doingfashion week jobs or things like
that, like all content creators.
That's what my generation hears, but retail apparel
manufacturing that's veryspecific.
So how did that start?
Speaker 2 (11:17):
So I was working uh, again in department stores my
whole career at that point andthe last job was working for a
department store calledAlexander's.
And this was when all these bigsale days started.
Years ago they didn't havesales.
It was like once a year it wascalled the day, and tonight sale
.
Now, all of a sudden,everything was a sale day and I
(11:39):
remember sitting in the officeclosing the store at midnight.
That was when we were closingand I looked at the clock and I
said I've lost my mind.
I got to make a career change.
So I actually called a friendof mine who was in the garment
business, a family friendforever.
My wife and Debbie her name isDebbie have been together
forever as friends and she wasin the garment business.
(12:00):
She said I have a friend, letme connect you.
And I moved from.
She said I have a friend, letme connect you.
And I moved from uh, uh,alexander's to uh, a company in
the garment business, likeovernight, which I love, by the
way.
I loved it, I loved it.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
I absolutely loved it .
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Yeah, I did it for a long time, 25 years.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
I mean, I feel like we can make a whole episode just
diving into that.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Oh, I have stories about the garment business back
in the 80s when it was what youhear about.
It was pretty wild, but Iremember my grandpa, I
absolutely loved it.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
My grandpa, who was a true I mean true Italian man
through and through.
I mean everything that youwould expect he was.
And then he was actually in thetrash business as well.
He had a trash business but hedressed so sharp and loved his
clothes and loved the shoes andwhat was as fashion started to
change.
He got so frustrated with fastfashion, you know he missed that
(12:54):
kind of like old world'sdepartment store.
You know industry.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
It's true, it's sad, it's gone right.
Yeah, it is, it really is.
You know, now we go on onlineand we buy everything which is
what I do also but you miss thatwhole environment of really
seeing like a fashion show inevery store.
You go to right, it's reallywhat it is.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
And the connection to a person right, yes, yes, like
he always talked about, like hisshoe.
You know, I don't want to sayshoe guy in a negative way, but,
like you know, there was aperson for everything.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Oh, absolutely yeah, and that probably had the shoe
guy.
He probably had the suit guy,the guy who went for his shirts
his hat probably wore fedoras orhats, right?
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, not as much, but a little bit, yeah
, yeah, wow, that's so.
It brings me back, as we'retalking about this, to all the
stories that you know.
It's so sad.
As a kid, a young teenager Iwas a teenager when he passed.
I would hear these stories androll my eyes, and now I'm like
man.
I wish I'd sit for hours andlisten, you know, yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Yeah, it's important to capture those stories.
I tell people because peopleask me now, how did you get the
recipe?
Like what happened, and I saidI was very fortunate.
You know, I spent a lot of timewith my grandmother and I say
capture all the stories.
And I didn't.
I learned all the food but Ididn't capture all the stories
about their life in Italy.
And you know I feel bad Ididn't.
(14:17):
But I always tell everybody ifyour grandparents are alive or
your parents are alive capturethe stories.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
They're important.
There's that company.
They don't sponsor us.
Probably should, is it?
Is it story worth?
Do you know what I'm talkingabout?
Speaker 2 (14:31):
it's, uh, yeah, it's, I'm gonna look it up, though
sounds I know colin might workwith them or something.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Um, uh, it's this company where it sends, like
your grandparent or thematriarch, patriarch in your
family, an email or a text, likeevery day, every week, with a
question prompt, and they fillit out and then at the end of it
it prints it into a book andyou could buy one for everyone
in the family.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Oh, that's really cool.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
It is really cool.
We were given one from myhusband's grandparents.
It's really special as pictures, but I'm definitely missing
that from my family as well.
So your career switched prettydrastically, though.
From here you moved to the foodindustry.
So here's the deal.
My husband and I worked in thefood industry just a little bit.
(15:20):
We had talked about thepossibility of having products
on shelves, possibility ofopening a brick and mortar.
We mass produced food and soldit at expos.
We've had like little tastes ofeverything.
I've taught food stylingworkshops.
There's a lot of the industrythat people don't know about.
There's a lot to learn,especially if you're not from it
(15:41):
.
So when you made this leap toenter the food industry, did you
have some kind of a backgroundor did you just go in and deep
dive?
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Knew nothing about it .
Wow, absolutely nothing.
I was.
You know it was about 2008.
You know, if you think back2008,.
The economy was crashing, youknow everything was turning
upside down.
And then the garment businessit became really tough.
I mean, it went from whereMacy's had eight Macy's across
(16:11):
the country, corporate offices.
You had one, so now you'redealing with one buyer and it
just was so difficult.
I said I can't do this anymoreand I just had this thought what
if I took my grandmother'srecipe for her meatballs and her
sauce?
Because I knew you could find ameatball in the supermarket in
the frozen aisle, and I justcalled it a lab project?
To me it wasn't a meatball.
(16:32):
I would be like what is this?
And you could find decent saucein jars that you could, but you
couldn't find it put together,which is the way it's supposed
to be.
And I just thought to myselfyou know what, maybe, if I find
a way and this is truly where myhead was if I find a way to
take my grandma's recipe formeatballs and sauce in this
climate we're living in, whereeverybody's freaking out, maybe
(16:54):
it'll help people go back to thedinner table, like I remember
growing up simple dinner, sit atthe table.
You know you have your familyfights and your discussions and
good days and bad days.
But there was.
I just that's really what Ithought about and I took a pot
of meatballs no company, nothing, no name and I went into Whole
(17:15):
Foods with it to try to getsomeone to try it and they just
kept trying to throw me out.
They were like you can't come inhere with a pot of meatballs.
I said, well, you know, I justand this was on a monday, the
night before was 60 minutes andthey did this whole thing on
whole foods and how they like tohelp local people, start
companies and or at least youknow, support it.
So I said, wait a minute, youjust did this whole thing on 60
(17:37):
minutes.
And they were like, yeah, butyou just, you know, you can't
come in here with a pot ofmeatballs, so, so I wouldn't
leave.
And eventually the guy said allright, sit down at the cafe.
And out came the prepared foodmanager and he tried the
meatballs and he said this isthe best meatball I've ever had.
What's the name of the company?
And I said I don't have acompany.
So that's truly how the wholething started.
(17:58):
So it really and that gave me,you know, the hearing.
You know, to me Whole Foods wasthe supermarket.
Right To hear this guy say tome this is the best meatball
I've ever had.
That was like my, you know,check that.
Okay, this is not a bad idea.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
So maybe other people don't care as much as I do.
I'm kind of geeking out because, again, I know that process and
once you get into Whole Foods,that's a huge like accelerator
right To have them behind youand so that's a it's a huge food
career milestone.
So I mean you could sharewhatever you wanted, whatever
highlights you wanted, but whatwere the next steps for you?
Because now you guys are QVCCostco, I mean the whole country
(18:44):
.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
It's insane, it's in the whole country.
It's wild.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
So I think what I'm really appreciating is you made
a career shift.
You were incredibly determined,which I appreciate, because it
requires that.
I mean, it requires that, butthen things really took off.
So what were the next few stepsafter that?
Speaker 2 (19:04):
So the next thing I did was I approached a local
supermarket opening up in ourtown that was in South Orange,
new Jersey, and it was asupermarket opening up called
Eden Gourmet.
They were a division of Gardenof Eden in Manhattan and I met
with the three owners and I saidlook, I really want to do
(19:26):
something with this meatball.
And they tried it and they saidthe same thing.
They said you know what?
We'll support this if youfigure out a way to make it.
And honestly, I didn't have aclue how to make bulk meatballs
right.
I knew how to make shirts andpants, ladies' sportswear.
So a neighbor of mine hadretired.
(19:47):
He was in the food business formany years.
His name was Carl Wolf and hehad another business, was an
appetizer business, but he was aguy who started a company
called Alpine Lace Cheese Verysuccessful, really nice guy.
And I went to him with it and Isaid what do you think of this?
And he goes I think it's agreat idea, let's do it.
He said, but you're going tohave to be the one he goes to
run this thing around and get itgoing.
(20:08):
He said well, you know, we'llmake the meatballs, you know
we'll be that part of this withyou, but you're going to get it
going.
And I literally just tookpackages of meatballs to all the
local supermarkets and, littleby little, it was like I tell
people, one meatball at a timeis how the company started,
literally, and it wasn't easybut it was a struggle.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
I love hearing, though.
I mean, so many parts of yourstory are similar to parts of
our story where you have to ask.
Once you have the dream, youhave to speak it, you have to
tell people about it, you haveto network and find community
and keep knocking.
And it's incredible.
I'm incredibly excited for youguys.
Costco is my favorite.
I always say I do like so muchfree advertising for them
(20:55):
because I'm just obsessed withtheir company.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
I don't know the ins and outs.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Yeah, I don't know the ins and outs, but for you
guys to land there and just hugenames getting to everyone's
tables, that's a hugeaccomplishment.
So we're excited for you.
But the lady behind it all isyour grandmother, Anna.
What did you guys call her?
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Nana.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Nana, you did so, not Nana, yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
No Nana.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Nana, that's really sweet.
Okay, so my Italian grandpasomehow ended up Nana with an A
at the end, which is not thecorrect one.
But no, that's more of thefeminine version, but that's how
we ended up.
No one knew that was my Nana,but your grandma, anna Nana is
(21:41):
the lady behind it all, so whatwas it about her cooking and her
recipes that you were like, oh,this is different.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
So first of all, I grew up in her home.
Right After my grandfatherpassed away, we moved in with my
grandmother.
The old saying is to take careof her, but she truly took care
of all of us and she would cookseven nights a week.
I don't ever remember going outto dinner when I was a little
kid.
We all just ate home andeveryone loved her food.
(22:08):
So you know, fast forward, whenI had this thought of you know
doing this at the time crazything, which you know really was
it was like you're going totake a meatball and sell this
meatball.
But I remember when she madethe meatballs, everyone loved
them.
There was no one who said Idon't like this.
And also people would say to usin the neighborhood, the
(22:29):
neighbors next door, or we haddistant cousins who lived in the
area or just friends.
So when's your grandmothermaking the meatballs?
We want to come over.
And I just connected with thefact that when she cooked,
whether it was the meatballs orthe lasagna or anything else,
the house filled up witheverybody and it was a happy.
Everyone loved it.
So you know, I kind of thoughtyou know, grandma's got the
(22:51):
recipe.
It's not a complicated recipe.
What I realized was that, likeI said in the beginning, you
know all the meatballs you seein the supermarket I call land
projects and I didn't understandit.
And that could be a reason whythis thing actually happened the
way it did was because wedidn't go into this with, okay,
we have to add all theseingredients like everyone else
(23:12):
does, because that's whatAmerica wants.
I thought to myself I don'tthink America really wants that.
I think that's all America isbeing offered.
Think america really wants that.
I think that's all america isbeing offered.
So we you know I we followgrandma's recipe beef, romano
cheese, eggs, parsley, onion,breadcrumbs, that's it.
And little by little, you knowpeople caught on that.
(23:33):
Okay, this first of all.
When I say grandma's recipe,there truly is a grandma.
A lot of people say in the foodbusiness oh, this is my mom's
or my aunt's or my cousin's ormy grandmother's, and then you
look at the ingredients and yougo your grandmother used these
ingredients.
And then you know these arelike from, from, like you know a
pharmacy, she didn't use this.
(23:53):
So it truly is grandma's recipe.
So that's.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
That's such a good quote, dan.
That's such a good likesoundbite.
It's so real, you know, so real, it's very real.
It's very real.
Like I don't know if you feelthis way, I feel the same way
about sausage in our countryright now.
So there's a lot of people inour life that aren't Italian and
so they'll use sausage and Ichew it and I'm like this is
(24:18):
like rubber.
This is an Italian sausage,right.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
You know it's great, it's funny you say that so fast
forward.
You know, when we got thecompany off the ground, we were
trying to add new items and oneof the items we wanted to add
was a traditional Italiansausage pepper and onion and
onion.
Now, keeping to grandma's youknow, not her, maybe, her recipe
for the sausage, but her, hervision of what a sausage is
(24:46):
supposed to be for us.
You know, I always say she'swatched, she's on North Star.
So I always say but grandma putthis on the table.
We couldn't find a sausage thatdidn't have nitrates in it and
we're like this is no good.
So it took us over two years toreally put a recipe together.
And you know, you know, andmake this sausage that was pure.
(25:07):
For the same reason you saidand when you know people eat the
sauce and they're like, wow,this doesn't taste like any
other Italian sauce I had, Isaid in a good way or in a great
way.
You know this is because it'swhat grandma would put on, like
what any grandma would want onher table.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
It's so funny.
Sometimes people will cookItalian food and they're like oh
, it doesn't taste the same aswhen you make it or when I eat
it at this restaurant.
And I think that the ingredientquality, like you're saying, is
what people are missing, like agood Parmesan versus a cheap
Parmesan right or a goodbalsamic versus a cheap balsamic
.
It makes a drastic instantdifference?
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Yes it does, and it's a little bit more expensive.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
But to me I'm like I'll sacrifice, I'll leave
something else behind for a goodbalsamic, because-.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
Absolutely, and so the way I address that is.
Some people will say well, youknow, the sauce is a little more
expensive than I said, but waita minute, you're holding a cup
of, you know I won't name thechains coffee.
You just spent six bucks for acup of coffee, but you're not
going to spend, you know, sixbucks for sausages that could
feed family of four.
So they go.
(26:13):
Yeah, I guess that's true.
So quality, you know, andquality has become really
important these days.
I've noticed, you know I'll goto the supermarkets, but Costco
especially, and that's the placeand I could send you 20 photos
of this People read the labelsnow.
Yes, everything they pick up,they turn it around, and of all
ages, you know my daughter.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
That's why we're on this interview right now.
I'll be honest, because peoplewill say can you like?
Can we talk about this packagefood or this package food?
And my husband and I reallyvalue quality food.
You know, like we have a familynow, I've had my own health
issues that we're trying to like.
We worked through for a fewyears and the first thing that I
did was look at youringredients on your packages, on
(26:55):
your products, and I was likeyou guys, we share a value here.
And I'll tell you even morethan that you guys definitely
value quality ingredients.
You show that in everything youdo, but it shows in the taste
too, so it's a ripple effect.
So you're right, it is.
People do read the ingredients.
It's important.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
Yeah, and they're important.
So one of the first times Irealized that those ingredients
made that big of a difference,back in 2009, when we just
really started going, Inetworked with everyone I knew
in life and I said I want to geton either the Rachel Ray show,
the Martha Stewart show, andMartha had her show.
Remember, it was the Marthashow.
(27:35):
Right, did you do it?
So what happened was I went onfor the longest time networking.
No one knew anything.
And then I finally connectedwith a friend who knew how to
get me to Martha and within likea week of bringing her up a
Martha package of my meatballsand sauce, I'm on the show and
she opened the show talkingabout she holds the package up
(27:57):
and she talks about mygrandmother and she talks about
the ingredients.
And when that happened I saidthere it is, it's it matters.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
Yes, Goodness.
Well, I am very excited for you.
That's like everyone in thehospitality industry.
It's like just got to get some.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Martha, I love her.
I love her what she did for methat day.
You know, it was a time when alot of people thought you know,
I was crazy, like you know,really, and when I stood like if
you watch the videos on YouTube, when she actually holds the
actual package up, you could seeme almost pass out.
I was like, wow, you know, thisis so.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
Those moments I mean I can almost like get the chills
as you're saying that when Iwas first kind of like starting
this show and taking a pivot inmy career to Jacques Pepin or
people say his name differently,but yet he came on my show.
He lives in the same town thatI live on, I live in and his
support for us just in the showand to sit down and take an hour
(28:58):
of just like undividedattention, it had a very similar
effect and so I can understandthat he's a big deal.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
He's a big deal.
Yeah, he's a great guy.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
He is.
He is very, very sweet.
Well, one other.
If you see me typing, I'mtaking notes.
I forgot to put a pen and paperhere.
I wrote this note that peoplesay that food doesn't matter
when it comes to hospitality,and I understand what people are
saying.
People are busy and they'resaying don't make food be the
end, all be all, just make, justspend time together.
That's what's most important,and I can understand where
(29:32):
people are coming from.
You don't want to wait forperfection in order to gather,
but I want to challenge that alittle bit.
I think that food matters morethan we realize, and the example
that you gave with your grandma, anna, where, when she had
meatballs, it created this wholeexperience.
It was a core part of thememory.
(29:54):
And so what happens is, as acountry, we've gone to fast food
so much chips and dip, thingslike this, which all have its
place but we've lost what I callslow food, we've lost the slow
cooked, we've lost the quality,and food really does matter, oh,
absolutely.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
Food is what brings people together.
Yes, right.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
And good food inspires and connects us in a
way that's hard to put words to.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Yes, right, so, and good food inspires Right and
connects us in a way that's hardto put words to.
Yeah, yes, absolutely, and it'sabout slow food on.
So I go, I'm on QVC prettyoften.
I'm on at least once a week,sometimes twice a week, and one
of the expression Thank you.
One of the expressions the hostwill use is when they talk about
they go.
Mama Mancini's is not fast food, it's slow food.
Fast meaning because of thequality we bring to you.
(30:47):
We're bringing you slow cooked,real food that you can get to
your table quickly and spendmore time with your family or
your friends and enjoying yourlife.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
So do you use that on ?
Like every t-shirt and everypackage that is such?
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Yeah, we're slow food fast.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
That is a fabulous way to describe what you guys
have created.
Yeah, yeah, so good food.
Yeah, no-transcript.
(31:46):
You guys are in the right placeat the right time.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
Okay.
So we talked a little bit aboutQVC.
We dropped the Costco word,which my listeners love.
We've dropped a few of theseother retailers.
We haven't yet talked aboutwhat you specifically offer, and
so I know you offer quite a bit.
I sent you guys an email whenwe first started and said,
listen, I'm gluten-free, what doyou have for me?
(32:16):
And you sent me a greatselection.
But talk to it doesn't justhave to be the gluten-free
listeners.
What are you proud of that youoffer these days?
Speaker 2 (32:26):
So, first off, we offer my grandmother's original
recipe for her beef meatballsand her sauce.
Right, and that's what you'regoing to find Like if you go to
Costco or if you go to prettymuch any supermarket across the
country Publix, the wholecountry and then we offered from
there we have our turkeymeatballs and sauce.
And you know, people would sayto me back then well, your
(32:47):
grandmother didn't make turkeymeatballs.
I said yeah, but my grandmotherwould approve of this turkey
meatball.
So right, and she would, and Iknow she would.
So from there we offered thesausage, peppers and onions and
we have an extensive line.
Now.
We have a fettuccine Alfredowith roast chicken.
We have these paninis we justlaunched.
These Italian paninis are sodelicious.
We have meatloaf, anItalian-inspired meatloaf, and
(33:10):
my grandmother would make thismeatloaf.
She found a way to takeAmerican dishes and put her spin
because that's what she knew.
So it has pecorino Romanocheese in it and that's what
makes it.
You know a little bit Italian,so we have that.
You know, I always tell peopleyou can go to our website.
You know mamamansinescom, andwe have a store locator.
(33:30):
We have a list of all the itemsbut it's extensive and we keep,
you know we keep adding, youknow, like we just added these
paninis recently and we alsojust added, which we're rolling
out now, roasted chicken breastsand flame grilled chicken
breasts, italian seasoned, thatI could tell you they're so
(33:51):
delicious.
And going back to quality, mydaughter, with kids four and one
, I had sent her some of thisroasted chicken we do and she
texted me yes, she goes, dad,the kids love it, do you have
any more?
And I feel good giving it tothem because she's a Costco
(34:12):
shopper and she reads everylabel like most do.
So it's pretty extensive atthis point.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
Yeah, how does it come, dan?
So I know that mine came frozen.
Is that common?
How does it arrive to shoppers?
Speaker 2 (34:24):
Right, so well, we shipped it to you frozen,
because that's how we would shipto you.
Know someone.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
It's great though.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
It's convenient.
Yes, so we're fresh in thestore.
So if you were to go to Costco,that big deli section where all
the packages are the food,we're there, so it's, we're in
delis across the country.
If you go to a store likePublix, you'll see in the deli
section are fully branded, saysMama Mancini meals, ready to go,
and a lot of them come with apasta, if you are, which I'm so
(34:52):
proud of, if you're a publicshopper and you look at the
sandwich board, the home stylemeatball sandwiches Mama
Mancini's meatballs, so.
But it's shipped fresh allaround the country and it's sold
fresh in every deli where we're.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
We love the deli department, yeah, so that's kind
of like that old world Italiantoo right, the deli.
I just I don't know I miss.
I miss that Dan, I miss thatdeli, just going with my grandpa
to the Italian delis and Idon't know?
Do you call them hard rollswhere you live?
Do you know what I'm talkingabout?
Speaker 2 (35:27):
when I say a hard roll, yes, yes, yeah, so like a
hard roll sandwich and myhusband, who's Swedish, always
laughs.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
He's like it's not even hard, it's a soft roll yeah
.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
I think everybody has their own name for it, right?
Speaker 1 (35:42):
But what else do people call that roll that we're
talking about?
Is it a Kaiser?
Speaker 2 (35:48):
roll.
Yeah, I think it's actually.
That's what it is.
Okay, Maybe sometimes it haslittle seeds on it, or it has.
Yeah, but it's round and it'svery it's round.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
It's very soft, but there's a slight crisp.
I remember before we found outI was gluten-free and really had
to stop for health reasons Onthe way to school.
Like in high school, middleschool, my favorite breakfast
was an egg and cheese on a hardroll.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
So good, oh yeah, I still have them.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
Do you, man we'll enjoy one for me.
Next time you order one, gettwo and have it, we'll get a
gluten-free roll, I know.
If you have a good gluten-freebread supplier, let me know.
I'm still looking.
I'm still looking.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
You'll find one.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
I know right.
Well, there is another side ofjust your life I guess that I
want to tap into for a second.
From your bio, you are said tobe a master relationship builder
and I read this and it warmedmy heart because for that to be
said about you is so beautifuland so rare in this time and
(36:58):
culture.
And so so rare in this time andculture.
I think a lot of Italianheritage probably speaks into
that, because I think a lot ofItalians are great with
relationships, generallyspeaking, of course, but I want
to hear from you what we're in,a time and culture right now,
where people are cravingrelationship and craving
(37:19):
building relationship and theydon't know where to start all of
these things right, we'relonely right now.
We're desperate for people.
What would you say to peoplethat are like I would not say
that about myself, but I wish Icould, I wish I was a master
relationship builder.
What are the keys torelationship building?
Speaker 2 (37:38):
I think one of the first keys is you have to listen
to people when they talk.
And I think a lot well,especially in I've been in sales
my whole life with some form ofit, and I find that a lot of
people in this industry, or they, don't listen.
If you want to build arelationship with someone you
(37:58):
know, whether it's outside orinside, you need to listen to
what people have to say.
And look, not everyone you comein contact with is going to be
someone you're going to be ableto build a relationship with,
right so?
But I think being nice topeople is really important.
I mean I don't see any reasonnot to be nice and over the
years, even going back to what'sin the garment business, I mean
(38:21):
I've, I mean I built theserelationships only because I
respected the people who, uh,you know, I worked with, whether
it's a department store buyeror, you know, a food buyer in a
supermarket, uh, I mean I would,it's it, and I'll sit in
meetings sometimes and I'lloverhear people in another room
(38:43):
or whatever, and somebody willcome in and they'll start
talking, but they don't listento when someone else talks and
you could see it starts to builda little bit of aggression
maybe.
So I say I've always listenedwhen someone talked, I respect
what people say, and I've alwayslistened when someone talked.
I respect what people say.
And and again, not every personyou come in contact with you're
(39:09):
going to jive with and be ableto build a relationship with,
but it's, I think, genuine.
I mean it's tough for me toanswer because it's like no, I
hear what you're saying.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
No, did you say you're embarrassed by it?
No, but you know Well.
No, because the thing is I tellso recently it's one of the
greatest compliments I can getis people will say, katie,
you're such a great questionasker, like when I just meet
them in public and someone askedme recently how did you learn
to be such a great questionasker?
My gosh, my light is doing allthis weird stuff on my end.
(39:47):
It's like illuminating overhere.
Ignore that, but I tell peopleI only learned to be an
intentional question askerbecause I was surrounded by
intentional question askers, andso I actually love hearing
about you that you're a masterrelationship builder, because
it's contagious, because itshows people what's possible,
like when you're saying that youjust want to listen, that you
just listen to people.
People aren't listened to inculture right now, and so when
(40:11):
they are on the other side ofthat, it's refreshing, it's
healing to a lot of people,which sparks connection, it
sparks relationship, and I tellpeople right now Sorry, my light
is really going- that's OK OK.
I tell people right now I thinkit's hard.
People think it's hard tolisten when you're carrying a
(40:33):
heavy load, and life is reallyhard for a lot of people right
now for different reasons,especially around the holiday.
But if we just realize thateveryone's carrying a heavy load
and if we just stop and listen,we stop and express interest.
What happens is when you showsomeone they care, they care in
return and so you don't have toworry about leaving your stuff
(40:53):
behind because they'll pick itup.
It starts to create aconnection where you're carrying
each other and, yeah, that'swhat people are needing.
Speaker 2 (41:03):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (41:04):
Yeah, don't be embarrassed by it, dan.
I think that in culture, rightnow too, there's definitely a
shift happening where there'sthis relational intelligence
happening with men, and I thinkthat's so needed.
Happening with men, and I thinkthat's so needed.
I don't know if you've heard ofthe Harvard study that shows
that men I need to get the exactnumbers straight.
But men over the age of 50typically don't create, don't
(41:28):
form another new friendship forthe rest of their life, and it's
heartbreaking, it's devastating.
It doesn't have to be that way,because then you put those
numbers next to the depressionstatistics, right, and the
quality of life statistics, andthey go hand in hand.
But we don't want to see it asthat.
And so, especially for men,keep going, dan, keep heading in
(41:51):
that direction with confidenceand strength.
Speaker 2 (41:53):
Yeah, it's needed.
What you just said about thatstudy really blows my mind.
What you just said about thatstudy really blows my mind.
I mean, I think everyone inlife has friends and there's
probably a few they can callreally really good friends,
right, and whether you've hadthem your whole life or not, we
(42:16):
live in Tewksbury, new Jersey,which is out pretty far from
where we were.
We were living in a town calledSouth Narns, new Jersey, and we
had friends in that town whichI'm still friends with, and I
moved out here and we'reliterally in, like I want to say
, the middle of the country,right, yeah, and there's one
really cool restaurant in townthat we frequent and I've, in
(42:39):
the last three years, made someof the best friends of my life.
Speaker 1 (42:47):
Wow, so it's, yeah, it's um.
Speaker 2 (42:54):
I'm just going to let this light situation be Um, but
I think it's also interestingbecause it depends on I get I
don't get that study, but Icould understand.
If you know, when you're over50, which I am you may be just
living in the same place for thelongest time, so maybe you
don't have access or a reason tomake new friends.
So we've I mean I moved and wemaybe that's maybe that they
need to go back and ask thosepeople if they moved.
Speaker 1 (43:17):
I think people get so complacent too, and there's
this embarrassment that happensand I don't know what it is.
So I call myself like a chronicnew kid.
I've moved almost every twoyears my whole life and I just
had to learn how to formrelationships out of survival.
Honestly, I had a single momwho worked a lot, my
(43:37):
grandparents worked a lot andthey were very social, and I
just kind of had to learn who mypeople were.
I had to learn how to survivein a new setting, and I think it
breaks my heart when peopledon't get to know their
neighbors because things likethat like someone will live in
the same house for 10 years,which is a gift.
(43:59):
It's a gift not to have to moveRight, but there are people
that are around us, just inproximity, that we're like, oh
well, if I haven't said hi, yes,I shouldn't reach out now.
It's like no, it's actually thebest time.
Speaker 2 (44:10):
Yeah, it's the best.
You know what's reallyinteresting.
You say that I find that.
So my, our youngest daughter,her husband and little baby live
in Manhattan in a high rise andand people in the city.
At times when you speak to themthey could be living on floor
number 13 with eight otherapartments and have no idea
who's living next to them.
Speaker 1 (44:30):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (44:31):
It's weird.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
Yes, yeah, I think someone I heard a recent kind of
approach to this lately that weare so desperate as a culture
right now to have connectionsacross the country.
Like, if you're in business,you want connections in New York
, if you're I don't know aninfluencer, you want connections
in LA, I don't know all thesedifferent places, whatever your
(44:54):
industry is.
But because of that, we'relosing the people around us,
right, and that's, that's thelifeline, that's the those are
the healing relationships andconnections, and so um we need
more master relationshipbuilders.
We tell our listeners.
We need a culture of peoplethat are going first and
(45:15):
pursuing relationships,initiating them.
Speaker 2 (45:17):
Um because yeah, so people just need to say hello to
their neighbors, or hello mygosh eye contact, especially in
the Northeast.
Speaker 1 (45:25):
I'm like, goodness friends, like let's just lock
eyes again, Right, a negativeway, you'd be walking down even
in the town we lived in, whichis suburbs, nobody like talked
(45:52):
to each other.
Speaker 2 (45:52):
Here we leave, we go down the road.
If you pass someone walking adog, they're waving to you.
Everyone says hello and youknow what?
When you do experience it, yourealize how important that is.
Speaker 1 (46:00):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (46:00):
Yeah, you do it's.
Speaker 1 (46:02):
So I have a few friends and my husband that
cringe sometimes.
My husband and I are on thesame wavelength when it comes to
relationship building, but ifI'm out in public or like we're
on a walk and someone doesn'tmake eye contact, I almost like
duck to get eye contact, likeyou're worth the eye contact.
You're worth it and you knowlife's hard for both of us.
Speaker 2 (46:23):
Does he hide when you do it?
Speaker 1 (46:25):
Say it again, does your husband?
Speaker 2 (46:26):
walk the other hard.
When you do it, your husband,does he like walk the other way?
Does your husband walk theother way when you do it?
Like he's gotten?
Speaker 1 (46:30):
more confident as the years go.
He knows he's not changing me.
Oh man, well, that is abeautiful thing to be said about
you and keep kind of owningthat loud and proud, because, um
, that's a, that's somethingthat a lot of us aspire for and
(46:53):
need in our own communities, soit's really good.
Well, I am gonna ask you thequestions that we ask every
guest at the end of our.
I'm gonna ask you, oh my gosh.
Let me rephrase that I'm goingto ask you the same three
questions that we end everyepisode with.
But before we do that, I wantto hear where can people shop
your products?
If they're like, I want to getthem today or this week when I
(47:15):
go grocery shopping.
Speaker 2 (47:16):
We have mamamanciniscom.
There is a store locator.
Just put your zip code in.
It's going to tell youeverywhere where you live and
we're pretty much in every cityand state across the country to
some level, so pretty easy tofind and just ask me, ask me to
(47:40):
go in the supermarket, say doyou have Mama Mancini's?
And if they say no, say, sayyou got?
Speaker 1 (47:46):
to start carrying them.
What an awesome kind of likeit's awesome to be able to
answer that question that way.
What a huge accomplishment,instead of only in this region
and this state, you know.
Speaker 2 (48:00):
Yeah, it's.
You know, I still think tomyself.
Unfortunately, you know, mygrandma was not around, but if
she could, and anytime, I dostill to this day walk into any
supermarket and see that package.
You know, with the photo at thetop is my grandmother holding
me when I was a baby like wesaid, left her entire family in
1921 to start a new family.
(48:21):
And here she is, america's,enjoying her meatballs and sauce
and other items for theirfamily.
Speaker 1 (48:33):
It's just incredible.
Wow, goodness gracious, that isa powerful, powerful legacy.
Well, here are the threequestions that we ask every
guest after a conversation offood.
This is always a funny one, butsomething you have eaten
recently and loved.
Speaker 2 (48:50):
Okay.
So, as I was telling you, welive in Tewksbury, new Jersey,
and it's a small country townand there's one restaurant in
town called the Tewksbury Inn.
It's a they serve like a mixedmenu, it's not any particular
cuisine.
But about six months ago I wastalking to the chef and I said
(49:10):
to him or my wife said to himwhat would your last meal be?
And he goes pasta with pomodorosauce.
And it intrigued me becauseit's not an Italian restaurant,
and I said, oh, my goodness, Ilove that.
I said can you make cacio e pepe?
And he goes, of course I can.
I said can you make cacio epepe?
And he goes, of course I can.
I said wait a minute, I go likethis real cacio e pepe, because
(49:31):
it's very.
He goes no, I know what you'resaying.
I said no, real cacio e pepe.
He goes.
Yeah, pasta, pepper, pecorino,romano cheese and water.
I said, okay, fast forward.
Uh, I actually had it lastnight, was what I had there for
dinner and he makes it for me,my wife's special.
It's not even on the menu and Ialways say this is the best
(49:55):
cacio e pepe you could find,unless you plan on getting on a
flight and going to Rome.
His name is Chef Alex, it'sjust.
Yeah, so his Cacho.
So if you're ever out hereyou're at Tewksbury Inn you say
to one of the servers youwhisper, I want Dan Mancini's
Cacho e Pepe.
And if Alex is there he'll makeit it's a secret menu item.
Speaker 1 (50:20):
So I love it.
I love it too, and Trader Joe'scame out with their kind of own
version and I tried it.
Speaker 2 (50:29):
It was not awesome and the crazy part is it's only
three ingredients, but it's themost difficult thing to make is
cacio e pepe, so I love it.
Speaker 1 (50:42):
That sounds wonderful right now.
How about this, something youhave found to be beautiful
lately, and it could be anything.
Speaker 2 (50:50):
So, for the first time last month, we traveled to
Provence, france.
I've never been and I'll bevery honest with you when I get
on a plane, I would prefer tohead to Italy, because I love
Italy.
And we did this, my wife and Idid it.
She loves France.
I, you know, I love Paris, sheloves Paris, and we took this
(51:12):
trip and I fell in love with it.
It's absolutely.
I don't know if you've everbeen it's beautiful.
Speaker 1 (51:22):
So what's the climate right now?
What?
What's the weather there now?
Speaker 2 (51:25):
Well, we were there mid October and it was like in
the 70s or low 70s in thedaytime.
I think what happens this timeof year they get these massive
winds and that's a lot of reasonwhy a lot of people don't go.
It sounds crazy, but that'swhat I've learned.
But the weather is kind of mild.
Speaker 1 (51:42):
Yeah, that's nice though.
Speaker 2 (51:43):
I would go now.
You know a lot of places close,but I would definitely tell
people off-season go Just likerelax there.
It's beautiful.
Speaker 1 (51:50):
I haven't been to France in years, but we've spent
a lot of time in Asia in ouradult life.
But I'm craving Europe.
Speaker 2 (51:57):
Oh, what part of Asia .
Speaker 1 (51:59):
We lived in Chiang Mai, Thailand, for four years.
Oh wow.
Speaker 2 (52:03):
Yeah, that's cool, it is, it's home.
Speaker 1 (52:06):
Say it again.
Speaker 2 (52:07):
That's on the bucket list here.
Speaker 1 (52:09):
Is it Well?
Let us know when it's home forus.
Speaker 2 (52:12):
Yeah, really Wow.
Speaker 1 (52:14):
We thought we'd be there forever, got a different
plans.
We had a house there, we workedthere.
We have friends familynonprofits, like whatever
direction you want to head wehave some kind of insight into.
So, oh, very cool.
Yeah, we're hoping to go backthis year with our son.
(52:34):
He's 15 months, but it's it's20 hours.
Speaker 2 (52:36):
It's a 20 hour flight , and so I'm like and he is very
active.
Speaker 1 (52:41):
So I'm like, okay, what are my options here?
Speaker 2 (52:43):
You're going to be the person on the plane that
everyone's like.
I know they're not sitting nextto me, so thankfully.
Speaker 1 (52:50):
Thankfully his temperament is good, like he's a
good kid, um, and so usuallythe way that we approach it is
as few layovers as possible.
But I'm like you know what,colby, my husband, I was like, I
think like five layovers soundsperfect, because it's like it's
breaks, you know, it's like itbreaks it up for the kid.
We'll see, but he'll sleep,he'll sleep.
I know I was gonna joke aboutbenadryl, but you can't do that
(53:13):
right now.
Speaker 2 (53:15):
No, melatonin, no you could take it for the exact
right.
Just fall asleep.
You know when we just flew,kids are on the plane, I the
plane.
I don't know why people getupset, yeah.
Speaker 1 (53:28):
I know I mean kids are kids, right, kids are kids.
Most of us have been through it.
Yeah, he's done a ton of shortflights domestically, just
nothing that long yet.
So we'll see, we'll see.
But yeah, definitely let usknow we love sharing, oh, thank
you.
Sharing our people and ourplaces with people traveling
(53:48):
through and, last but not least,a gathering you attended that
made you feel a strong sense ofbelonging and, if you could
pinpoint it, what it was thatmade you feel that way?
Speaker 2 (53:56):
So this may sound odd , but last week, for the first
time in our town, the volunteerfire department has particular
pancake breakfast to raise money.
And we went and not knowingwhat to expect, I mean the food
was great, but it was thisincredible sense of community.
Like people, you sit at thiscommunity table and it just it
(54:20):
really cause.
Again, we've only been livinghere three years, Right, and
again we're out, kind of out inthe country, so you don't have,
you know, our neighbors arehorses, so we don't have a lot
other than the restaurant we goto.
But it just felt so incrediblewhen you sit there and you're
talking to people and you know,the person to my right was the
guy who owned the local farmthat sells the apples we buy and
(54:44):
it was just a strong sense ofcommunity and everybody coming
together and we're talking.
It was amazing Hundreds ofhundreds of people coming
through here to support thislocal fire department.
So it was great.
Speaker 1 (54:56):
I love hearing that answer and again, that reminder.
I think so many of us arethinking like we can't wait
until we're on this trip or thisretreat in this part of the
world or whatever and we've, wemiss those local things and, um,
they're important.
So I mean that's a really goodkind of urge to people Like if
you see those signs pop updowntown main street they're
(55:19):
great oh yeah, yeah, that'sincredible.
I love that answer.
Well, thanks so much for takingthe time.
That's incredible.
Speaker 2 (55:26):
I love that answer.
Speaker 1 (55:26):
Well, thanks so much for taking the time.
You fed my husband and I wellthis week, oh great.
Speaker 2 (55:30):
I'm glad to hear.
Speaker 1 (55:32):
Yeah, and we are excited to continue to support
you.
Well, guys, if you buy anythingthat we talked about in this
episode, be sure to tag us bothon Instagram.
We'd love to see your familyeating, we'd love to see the
products in your stores, and wewill see you next week.
Thanks so much, dan.
Speaker 2 (55:50):
Thank you very much.
This time of year, I miss my nonna, my Italian
grandpa, that we lived with forquite a few years, especially as
a later teen and even, yeah,into early college, and for me,
christmas is time with him.
Christmas is the smells and theflavors and the shopping and
the prepping, and he taught mehow to holiday well.
(00:23):
So this time of year, I think alot about Italian food and the
flavors and the culture and thecommunity and everything that
surrounds it, which is whatmakes this conversation extra
sweet to me.
I've had a few conversations onItalian heritage and culture,
but none like this one.
You guys know that I am aCostco enthusiast and a foodie
(00:46):
through and through, and sothere was a brand that was
introduced to us that is sold atCostco and QVC and retailers
across America, that is leadingthe way in prepared Italian food
, and I knew that we had to diveinto this conversation.
Now I'll be honest.
When this conversation firstcame to me, they said listen,
there's this Italian preparedfood brand, and immediately a
(01:09):
few question marks went up forme how good is it?
Are there any weird textures orflavors?
And, more importantly to me,what are the ingredients?
Now, if we're going to talkabout Italian food, I knew that
it had to be good, and not justmediocre, but really good.
And so they sent some my wayand I tried it, a little bit
nervous, to be honest, but atfirst I knew that all of the
(01:36):
ingredients were ingredientsthat I stood by.
They were the real things thatmy nonna would use, that I would
use in my own kitchen, thatwere whole and good for my body,
no weird preservatives oranything artificial.
So I tasted it and I looked atmy husband, colby, and I said
how in the world did they manageto capture this, fresh off the
stove, long simmer, straightfrom Nana's kitchen, flavor and
texture and experience.
(01:57):
I don't know how they did it,but they do it.
And so, right after I tried it,I knew I had to talk to them do
it.
And so, right after I tried it,I knew I had to talk to them.
Dan Mancini has this incrediblestory that so many of us will
find inspiring and can relate toin different ways, of working
from the moving from the garmentindustry in New York City to
turning his grandma Anna'srecipes into this nationwide
(02:20):
sensation.
This story is heartwarming andinspiring, whether you are an
Italian foodie like me or youare someone who is looking for a
massive career shift.
There is so much about thisconversation that will just warm
your heart, especially as we gointo the holiday season, but if
you're not familiar with MamaMancini's or Daniel and his
(02:41):
story, here is a little bit moreabout him.
Daniel is a co-founder of MamaMancini's, a longtime
entrepreneur, having spent manyyears as a co-owner of a
successful garment manufacturerin New York City Through the
ranks of the retail apparelindustry.
Daniel is a master atrelationship building and we
talk more about that, which wasone of my favorite parts of the
(03:03):
conversation.
In 2009, daniel left thegarment industry with a vision
to manufacture and distributehis grandma, anna Mancini's
recipes.
Daniel is the public face andthe sound of Mama Mancini's,
including a key component oftheir new products and customer
sale process.
Daniel is the voice of radioadvertising and on television
(03:24):
sales representative of thecompany and their products on
QVC Guys.
This conversation is one that isreally, really sweet to me and,
again, italian culture and foodgoes right along with the
holidays, and I hope that itwarms your heart the same way it
did mine.
Well, if you are going into theseason and the new year and you
(03:45):
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$25 off your first week.
Hi, I'm Katie, a hospitalityeducator and the host of Making
Room by Gather podcast.
I am set to see our communitiesget back to the table through
hospitality, but it wasn'talways this way.
My husband and I moved toThailand and through it I
experienced some loneliness, andwith it I was given a choice to
(05:10):
sit back and accept it or to dosomething about it.
And for me, that meant twothings that I needed the healing
to learn how to accept aninvitation and the confidence to
know how to extend one.
Through this process, Ideveloped some of the richest
and deepest relationships of mylife.
Through Making Room by Gather,you will hear conversations from
(05:30):
myself and experts in the areasof food, design and
relationships.
You see, there are countlessthings trying to keep us from
the table.
But can I tell you something?
Take a seat because you areready, you are capable, you are
a good host.
I tell everyone that I'mItalian.
(05:52):
Okay, so, like, if you meet me,it's like hi, I'm Katie, I'm
Italian Basically.
That's how it goes, and therunning joke is that I'm not
really Italian becausetechnically, I'm only 25%.
So I was raised living with myItalian grandpa who was a
hundred percent Italian.
But when it all breaks down momside, dad side, right, I'm only
25%, but I hold very tightly tomy Italian heritage the culture
(06:17):
, the music, the food, all of it.
And so it made thisconversation very exciting for
me because, technical numbersaside, I am Italian.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Yeah Well, I think everyone, when you speak to them
, they all say they have someItalian in them.
And you know what?
It's more than heritage, it'smore of a feeling and what you
love.
So good for you.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
I love the way that you put that.
Like you put some Dean Martinon, like the rat pack, I feel
like everyone wants to beItalian.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
You know, I used to say that.
But then some people would youknow, friends of mine give me a
dirty look, saying, well, I'mnot really.
It's meaning that I'm notreally.
I said, well, no, I bet youback there somewhere.
And I and I always say to themso where do you like to travel?
To Italy, everybody says Italythese days.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
So I mean it's, we're going to talk a little bit more
about your family, andspecifically your grandma, and
of course, about you as well.
But so I live in Connecticut,right near New Haven.
Have you been to this area?
I?
Speaker 2 (07:21):
like peppy pizza.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Of course.
Okay, so you're peppies.
Is that your loyalty?
Speaker 2 (07:25):
I'm a peppy.
Well, I'll be honest with you.
Whoever is not as crowded I go,so Sally's or peppy's, but I
love peppy, so yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
I had a guest a few weeks ago that was Sally's
through and through.
But you know how it goes youeat your way through and then
you pledge your loyalty.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
That's it, and it's amazing the battles that happen
over those two places.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Right yeah, as a little kid we grew up, I was
down there all the time eatingat, oh my gosh, tony and
Lucille's.
I don't know if you've evereaten there, and they have since
closed, but once it gets past acertain point in the night,
it's a little bit questionabledown there.
There's a lot that goes on, asI'm sure we can all imagine, but
(08:12):
I talked to some older familymembers and friends that are
Italian, more Italian than me,and they said that it wasn't
always this way.
It wasn't always the way thatpeople wanted to be Italian.
It actually was a hard life forItalian immigrants when they
first came over.
Was that part of your grandma'sstory?
I mean, we'll get there, oh,absolutely.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Absolutely.
My grandparents came here in1921.
Actually, my grandfather cameover first.
He came over in 1919, end of1919, established a business.
He was an ice man you know theold days where you heard about
stories about carrying ice upthe steps and then he went back
to get my grandmother and theycame back in 1921.
(08:51):
And, yeah, I mean, nothing waseasy, right, they left there.
The most, the most uneasy thingabout it, I believe, is my
grandmother left behind her mom,her dad and 10 brothers and
sisters to come here to start anew life, which says a lot about
you know being dedicated andyou know believing in our
country.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
So yeah and no.
No FaceTime, no Facebookupdates.
I think, like when we reallystop and realize what that
looked like for them, it's youget a new appreciation, a new
empathy, right Understanding ofwhat they went through.
Yeah.
I remember there were a lot ofstories, too, that family
(09:30):
friends have told me.
All of my grandparents havesince passed away, so in my
adulthood I don't have them toshare those stories, but we have
family friends.
Yeah, and they would say thatas Italian kids in America they
would get beat up Like it waspretty intense racism against
Italians.
And yeah, it's.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
I mean, I've heard that you know, I grew up in an
Italian neighborhood in Brooklyn, so you know, I didn't, I
fortunately I didn't experiencethat.
But good.
And it was a diverseneighborhood as well, but
everyone seemed to get along.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Yeah, it's good, definitely has changed.
Well, your background is veryinteresting to me and I don't
think so.
I've interviewed a lot ofpeople in the food scene.
I have never had anyone with astory like yours.
So you made, I mean, talk aboutdrastic shifts.
The reason I love sharing aboutcareer shifts is because I feel
(10:21):
like so many people want tomake them but they're scared to
take the step.
They think kind of like yours,like oh, I have, I'm interested
in something totally different,but it's never going to work.
And your story says somethingdifferent, right?
So so you were in the retailapparel space.
Did I say that, right?
Is it safe?
Speaker 2 (10:39):
to say yeah.
So I actually started in theretail apparel space working for
a department.
So is that a long gone?
Probably before you're born,abraham and Strauss and Gimbels.
And then I made a career changein like 83 to the manufacturing
business in New York, clothe,the garment business.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Yeah, how did you get into that Cause?
That's very I mean, that'sreally specific.
You'll hear people like doingfashion week jobs or things like
that, like all content creators.
That's what my generation hears, but retail apparel
manufacturing that's veryspecific.
So how did that start?
Speaker 2 (11:17):
So I was working uh, again in department stores my
whole career at that point andthe last job was working for a
department store calledAlexander's.
And this was when all these bigsale days started.
Years ago they didn't havesales.
It was like once a year it wascalled the day, and tonight sale
.
Now, all of a sudden,everything was a sale day and I
(11:39):
remember sitting in the officeclosing the store at midnight.
That was when we were closingand I looked at the clock and I
said I've lost my mind.
I got to make a career change.
So I actually called a friendof mine who was in the garment
business, a family friendforever.
My wife and Debbie her name isDebbie have been together
forever as friends and she wasin the garment business.
(12:00):
She said I have a friend, letme connect you.
And I moved from.
She said I have a friend, letme connect you.
And I moved from uh, uh,alexander's to uh, a company in
the garment business, likeovernight, which I love, by the
way.
I loved it, I loved it.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
I absolutely loved it .
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Yeah, I did it for a long time, 25 years.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
I mean, I feel like we can make a whole episode just
diving into that.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Oh, I have stories about the garment business back
in the 80s when it was what youhear about.
It was pretty wild, but Iremember my grandpa, I
absolutely loved it.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
My grandpa, who was a true I mean true Italian man
through and through.
I mean everything that youwould expect he was.
And then he was actually in thetrash business as well.
He had a trash business but hedressed so sharp and loved his
clothes and loved the shoes andwhat was as fashion started to
change.
He got so frustrated with fastfashion, you know he missed that
(12:54):
kind of like old world'sdepartment store.
You know industry.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
It's true, it's sad, it's gone right.
Yeah, it is, it really is.
You know, now we go on onlineand we buy everything which is
what I do also but you miss thatwhole environment of really
seeing like a fashion show inevery store.
You go to right, it's reallywhat it is.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
And the connection to a person right, yes, yes, like
he always talked about, like hisshoe.
You know, I don't want to sayshoe guy in a negative way, but,
like you know, there was aperson for everything.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Oh, absolutely yeah, and that probably had the shoe
guy.
He probably had the suit guy,the guy who went for his shirts
his hat probably wore fedoras orhats, right?
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, not as much, but a little bit, yeah
, yeah, wow, that's so.
It brings me back, as we'retalking about this, to all the
stories that you know.
It's so sad.
As a kid, a young teenager Iwas a teenager when he passed.
I would hear these stories androll my eyes, and now I'm like
man.
I wish I'd sit for hours andlisten, you know, yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Yeah, it's important to capture those stories.
I tell people because peopleask me now, how did you get the
recipe?
Like what happened, and I saidI was very fortunate.
You know, I spent a lot of timewith my grandmother and I say
capture all the stories.
And I didn't.
I learned all the food but Ididn't capture all the stories
about their life in Italy.
And you know I feel bad Ididn't.
(14:17):
But I always tell everybody ifyour grandparents are alive or
your parents are alive capturethe stories.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
They're important.
There's that company.
They don't sponsor us.
Probably should, is it?
Is it story worth?
Do you know what I'm talkingabout?
Speaker 2 (14:31):
it's, uh, yeah, it's, I'm gonna look it up, though
sounds I know colin might workwith them or something.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Um, uh, it's this company where it sends, like
your grandparent or thematriarch, patriarch in your
family, an email or a text, likeevery day, every week, with a
question prompt, and they fillit out and then at the end of it
it prints it into a book andyou could buy one for everyone
in the family.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Oh, that's really cool.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
It is really cool.
We were given one from myhusband's grandparents.
It's really special as pictures, but I'm definitely missing
that from my family as well.
So your career switched prettydrastically, though.
From here you moved to the foodindustry.
So here's the deal.
My husband and I worked in thefood industry just a little bit.
(15:20):
We had talked about thepossibility of having products
on shelves, possibility ofopening a brick and mortar.
We mass produced food and soldit at expos.
We've had like little tastes ofeverything.
I've taught food stylingworkshops.
There's a lot of the industrythat people don't know about.
There's a lot to learn,especially if you're not from it
(15:41):
.
So when you made this leap toenter the food industry, did you
have some kind of a backgroundor did you just go in and deep
dive?
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Knew nothing about it .
Wow, absolutely nothing.
I was.
You know it was about 2008.
You know, if you think back2008,.
The economy was crashing, youknow everything was turning
upside down.
And then the garment businessit became really tough.
I mean, it went from whereMacy's had eight Macy's across
(16:11):
the country, corporate offices.
You had one, so now you'redealing with one buyer and it
just was so difficult.
I said I can't do this anymoreand I just had this thought what
if I took my grandmother'srecipe for her meatballs and her
sauce?
Because I knew you could find ameatball in the supermarket in
the frozen aisle, and I justcalled it a lab project?
To me it wasn't a meatball.
(16:32):
I would be like what is this?
And you could find decent saucein jars that you could, but you
couldn't find it put together,which is the way it's supposed
to be.
And I just thought to myselfyou know what, maybe, if I find
a way and this is truly where myhead was if I find a way to
take my grandma's recipe formeatballs and sauce in this
climate we're living in, whereeverybody's freaking out, maybe
(16:54):
it'll help people go back to thedinner table, like I remember
growing up simple dinner, sit atthe table.
You know you have your familyfights and your discussions and
good days and bad days.
But there was.
I just that's really what Ithought about and I took a pot
of meatballs no company, nothing, no name and I went into Whole
(17:15):
Foods with it to try to getsomeone to try it and they just
kept trying to throw me out.
They were like you can't come inhere with a pot of meatballs.
I said, well, you know, I justand this was on a monday, the
night before was 60 minutes andthey did this whole thing on
whole foods and how they like tohelp local people, start
companies and or at least youknow, support it.
So I said, wait a minute, youjust did this whole thing on 60
(17:37):
minutes.
And they were like, yeah, butyou just, you know, you can't
come in here with a pot ofmeatballs, so, so I wouldn't
leave.
And eventually the guy said allright, sit down at the cafe.
And out came the prepared foodmanager and he tried the
meatballs and he said this isthe best meatball I've ever had.
What's the name of the company?
And I said I don't have acompany.
So that's truly how the wholething started.
(17:58):
So it really and that gave me,you know, the hearing.
You know, to me Whole Foods wasthe supermarket.
Right To hear this guy say tome this is the best meatball
I've ever had.
That was like my, you know,check that.
Okay, this is not a bad idea.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
So maybe other people don't care as much as I do.
I'm kind of geeking out because, again, I know that process and
once you get into Whole Foods,that's a huge like accelerator
right To have them behind youand so that's a it's a huge food
career milestone.
So I mean you could sharewhatever you wanted, whatever
highlights you wanted, but whatwere the next steps for you?
Because now you guys are QVCCostco, I mean the whole country
(18:44):
.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
It's insane, it's in the whole country.
It's wild.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
So I think what I'm really appreciating is you made
a career shift.
You were incredibly determined,which I appreciate, because it
requires that.
I mean, it requires that, butthen things really took off.
So what were the next few stepsafter that?
Speaker 2 (19:04):
So the next thing I did was I approached a local
supermarket opening up in ourtown that was in South Orange,
new Jersey, and it was asupermarket opening up called
Eden Gourmet.
They were a division of Gardenof Eden in Manhattan and I met
with the three owners and I saidlook, I really want to do
(19:26):
something with this meatball.
And they tried it and they saidthe same thing.
They said you know what?
We'll support this if youfigure out a way to make it.
And honestly, I didn't have aclue how to make bulk meatballs
right.
I knew how to make shirts andpants, ladies' sportswear.
So a neighbor of mine hadretired.
(19:47):
He was in the food business formany years.
His name was Carl Wolf and hehad another business, was an
appetizer business, but he was aguy who started a company
called Alpine Lace Cheese Verysuccessful, really nice guy.
And I went to him with it and Isaid what do you think of this?
And he goes I think it's agreat idea, let's do it.
He said, but you're going tohave to be the one he goes to
run this thing around and get itgoing.
(20:08):
He said well, you know, we'llmake the meatballs, you know
we'll be that part of this withyou, but you're going to get it
going.
And I literally just tookpackages of meatballs to all the
local supermarkets and, littleby little, it was like I tell
people, one meatball at a timeis how the company started,
literally, and it wasn't easybut it was a struggle.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
I love hearing, though.
I mean, so many parts of yourstory are similar to parts of
our story where you have to ask.
Once you have the dream, youhave to speak it, you have to
tell people about it, you haveto network and find community
and keep knocking.
And it's incredible.
I'm incredibly excited for youguys.
Costco is my favorite.
I always say I do like so muchfree advertising for them
(20:55):
because I'm just obsessed withtheir company.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
I don't know the ins and outs.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Yeah, I don't know the ins and outs, but for you
guys to land there and just hugenames getting to everyone's
tables, that's a hugeaccomplishment.
So we're excited for you.
But the lady behind it all isyour grandmother, Anna.
What did you guys call her?
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Nana.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Nana, you did so, not Nana, yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
No Nana.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Nana, that's really sweet.
Okay, so my Italian grandpasomehow ended up Nana with an A
at the end, which is not thecorrect one.
But no, that's more of thefeminine version, but that's how
we ended up.
No one knew that was my Nana,but your grandma, anna Nana is
(21:41):
the lady behind it all, so whatwas it about her cooking and her
recipes that you were like, oh,this is different.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
So first of all, I grew up in her home.
Right After my grandfatherpassed away, we moved in with my
grandmother.
The old saying is to take careof her, but she truly took care
of all of us and she would cookseven nights a week.
I don't ever remember going outto dinner when I was a little
kid.
We all just ate home andeveryone loved her food.
(22:08):
So you know, fast forward, whenI had this thought of you know
doing this at the time crazything, which you know really was
it was like you're going totake a meatball and sell this
meatball.
But I remember when she madethe meatballs, everyone loved
them.
There was no one who said Idon't like this.
And also people would say to usin the neighborhood, the
(22:29):
neighbors next door, or we haddistant cousins who lived in the
area or just friends.
So when's your grandmothermaking the meatballs?
We want to come over.
And I just connected with thefact that when she cooked,
whether it was the meatballs orthe lasagna or anything else,
the house filled up witheverybody and it was a happy.
Everyone loved it.
So you know, I kind of thoughtyou know, grandma's got the
(22:51):
recipe.
It's not a complicated recipe.
What I realized was that, likeI said in the beginning, you
know all the meatballs you seein the supermarket I call land
projects and I didn't understandit.
And that could be a reason whythis thing actually happened the
way it did was because wedidn't go into this with, okay,
we have to add all theseingredients like everyone else
(23:12):
does, because that's whatAmerica wants.
I thought to myself I don'tthink America really wants that.
I think that's all America isbeing offered.
Think america really wants that.
I think that's all america isbeing offered.
So we you know I we followgrandma's recipe beef, romano
cheese, eggs, parsley, onion,breadcrumbs, that's it.
And little by little, you knowpeople caught on that.
(23:33):
Okay, this first of all.
When I say grandma's recipe,there truly is a grandma.
A lot of people say in the foodbusiness oh, this is my mom's
or my aunt's or my cousin's ormy grandmother's, and then you
look at the ingredients and yougo your grandmother used these
ingredients.
And then you know these arelike from, from, like you know a
pharmacy, she didn't use this.
(23:53):
So it truly is grandma's recipe.
So that's.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
That's such a good quote, dan.
That's such a good likesoundbite.
It's so real, you know, so real, it's very real.
It's very real.
Like I don't know if you feelthis way, I feel the same way
about sausage in our countryright now.
So there's a lot of people inour life that aren't Italian and
so they'll use sausage and Ichew it and I'm like this is
(24:18):
like rubber.
This is an Italian sausage,right.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
You know it's great, it's funny you say that so fast
forward.
You know, when we got thecompany off the ground, we were
trying to add new items and oneof the items we wanted to add
was a traditional Italiansausage pepper and onion and
onion.
Now, keeping to grandma's youknow, not her, maybe, her recipe
for the sausage, but her, hervision of what a sausage is
(24:46):
supposed to be for us.
You know, I always say she'swatched, she's on North Star.
So I always say but grandma putthis on the table.
We couldn't find a sausage thatdidn't have nitrates in it and
we're like this is no good.
So it took us over two years toreally put a recipe together.
And you know, you know, andmake this sausage that was pure.
(25:07):
For the same reason you saidand when you know people eat the
sauce and they're like, wow,this doesn't taste like any
other Italian sauce I had, Isaid in a good way or in a great
way.
You know this is because it'swhat grandma would put on, like
what any grandma would want onher table.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
It's so funny.
Sometimes people will cookItalian food and they're like oh
, it doesn't taste the same aswhen you make it or when I eat
it at this restaurant.
And I think that the ingredientquality, like you're saying, is
what people are missing, like agood Parmesan versus a cheap
Parmesan right or a goodbalsamic versus a cheap balsamic
.
It makes a drastic instantdifference?
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Yes it does, and it's a little bit more expensive.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
But to me I'm like I'll sacrifice, I'll leave
something else behind for a goodbalsamic, because-.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
Absolutely, and so the way I address that is.
Some people will say well, youknow, the sauce is a little more
expensive than I said, but waita minute, you're holding a cup
of, you know I won't name thechains coffee.
You just spent six bucks for acup of coffee, but you're not
going to spend, you know, sixbucks for sausages that could
feed family of four.
So they go.
(26:13):
Yeah, I guess that's true.
So quality, you know, andquality has become really
important these days.
I've noticed, you know I'll goto the supermarkets, but Costco
especially, and that's the placeand I could send you 20 photos
of this People read the labelsnow.
Yes, everything they pick up,they turn it around, and of all
ages, you know my daughter.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
That's why we're on this interview right now.
I'll be honest, because peoplewill say can you like?
Can we talk about this packagefood or this package food?
And my husband and I reallyvalue quality food.
You know, like we have a familynow, I've had my own health
issues that we're trying to like.
We worked through for a fewyears and the first thing that I
did was look at youringredients on your packages, on
(26:55):
your products, and I was likeyou guys, we share a value here.
And I'll tell you even morethan that you guys definitely
value quality ingredients.
You show that in everything youdo, but it shows in the taste
too, so it's a ripple effect.
So you're right, it is.
People do read the ingredients.
It's important.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
Yeah, and they're important.
So one of the first times Irealized that those ingredients
made that big of a difference,back in 2009, when we just
really started going, Inetworked with everyone I knew
in life and I said I want to geton either the Rachel Ray show,
the Martha Stewart show, andMartha had her show.
Remember, it was the Marthashow.
(27:35):
Right, did you do it?
So what happened was I went onfor the longest time networking.
No one knew anything.
And then I finally connectedwith a friend who knew how to
get me to Martha and within likea week of bringing her up a
Martha package of my meatballsand sauce, I'm on the show and
she opened the show talkingabout she holds the package up
(27:57):
and she talks about mygrandmother and she talks about
the ingredients.
And when that happened I saidthere it is, it's it matters.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
Yes, Goodness.
Well, I am very excited for you.
That's like everyone in thehospitality industry.
It's like just got to get some.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Martha, I love her.
I love her what she did for methat day.
You know, it was a time when alot of people thought you know,
I was crazy, like you know,really, and when I stood like if
you watch the videos on YouTube, when she actually holds the
actual package up, you could seeme almost pass out.
I was like, wow, you know, thisis so.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
Those moments I mean I can almost like get the chills
as you're saying that when Iwas first kind of like starting
this show and taking a pivot inmy career to Jacques Pepin or
people say his name differently,but yet he came on my show.
He lives in the same town thatI live on, I live in and his
support for us just in the showand to sit down and take an hour
(28:58):
of just like undividedattention, it had a very similar
effect and so I can understandthat he's a big deal.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
He's a big deal.
Yeah, he's a great guy.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
He is.
He is very, very sweet.
Well, one other.
If you see me typing, I'mtaking notes.
I forgot to put a pen and paperhere.
I wrote this note that peoplesay that food doesn't matter
when it comes to hospitality,and I understand what people are
saying.
People are busy and they'resaying don't make food be the
end, all be all, just make, justspend time together.
That's what's most important,and I can understand where
(29:32):
people are coming from.
You don't want to wait forperfection in order to gather,
but I want to challenge that alittle bit.
I think that food matters morethan we realize, and the example
that you gave with your grandma, anna, where, when she had
meatballs, it created this wholeexperience.
It was a core part of thememory.
(29:54):
And so what happens is, as acountry, we've gone to fast food
so much chips and dip, thingslike this, which all have its
place but we've lost what I callslow food, we've lost the slow
cooked, we've lost the quality,and food really does matter, oh,
absolutely.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
Food is what brings people together.
Yes, right.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
And good food inspires and connects us in a
way that's hard to put words to.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Yes, right, so, and good food inspires Right and
connects us in a way that's hardto put words to.
Yeah, yes, absolutely, and it'sabout slow food on.
So I go, I'm on QVC prettyoften.
I'm on at least once a week,sometimes twice a week, and one
of the expression Thank you.
One of the expressions the hostwill use is when they talk about
they go.
Mama Mancini's is not fast food, it's slow food.
Fast meaning because of thequality we bring to you.
(30:47):
We're bringing you slow cooked,real food that you can get to
your table quickly and spendmore time with your family or
your friends and enjoying yourlife.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
So do you use that on ?
Like every t-shirt and everypackage that is such?
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Yeah, we're slow food fast.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
That is a fabulous way to describe what you guys
have created.
Yeah, yeah, so good food.
Yeah, no-transcript.
(31:46):
You guys are in the right placeat the right time.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
Okay.
So we talked a little bit aboutQVC.
We dropped the Costco word,which my listeners love.
We've dropped a few of theseother retailers.
We haven't yet talked aboutwhat you specifically offer, and
so I know you offer quite a bit.
I sent you guys an email whenwe first started and said,
listen, I'm gluten-free, what doyou have for me?
(32:16):
And you sent me a greatselection.
But talk to it doesn't justhave to be the gluten-free
listeners.
What are you proud of that youoffer these days?
Speaker 2 (32:26):
So, first off, we offer my grandmother's original
recipe for her beef meatballsand her sauce.
Right, and that's what you'regoing to find Like if you go to
Costco or if you go to prettymuch any supermarket across the
country Publix, the wholecountry and then we offered from
there we have our turkeymeatballs and sauce.
And you know, people would sayto me back then well, your
(32:47):
grandmother didn't make turkeymeatballs.
I said yeah, but my grandmotherwould approve of this turkey
meatball.
So right, and she would, and Iknow she would.
So from there we offered thesausage, peppers and onions and
we have an extensive line.
Now.
We have a fettuccine Alfredowith roast chicken.
We have these paninis we justlaunched.
These Italian paninis are sodelicious.
We have meatloaf, anItalian-inspired meatloaf, and
(33:10):
my grandmother would make thismeatloaf.
She found a way to takeAmerican dishes and put her spin
because that's what she knew.
So it has pecorino Romanocheese in it and that's what
makes it.
You know a little bit Italian,so we have that.
You know, I always tell peopleyou can go to our website.
You know mamamansinescom, andwe have a store locator.
(33:30):
We have a list of all the itemsbut it's extensive and we keep,
you know we keep adding, youknow, like we just added these
paninis recently and we alsojust added, which we're rolling
out now, roasted chicken breastsand flame grilled chicken
breasts, italian seasoned, thatI could tell you they're so
(33:51):
delicious.
And going back to quality, mydaughter, with kids four and one
, I had sent her some of thisroasted chicken we do and she
texted me yes, she goes, dad,the kids love it, do you have
any more?
And I feel good giving it tothem because she's a Costco
(34:12):
shopper and she reads everylabel like most do.
So it's pretty extensive atthis point.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
Yeah, how does it come, dan?
So I know that mine came frozen.
Is that common?
How does it arrive to shoppers?
Speaker 2 (34:24):
Right, so well, we shipped it to you frozen,
because that's how we would shipto you.
Know someone.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
It's great though.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
It's convenient.
Yes, so we're fresh in thestore.
So if you were to go to Costco,that big deli section where all
the packages are the food,we're there, so it's, we're in
delis across the country.
If you go to a store likePublix, you'll see in the deli
section are fully branded, saysMama Mancini meals, ready to go,
and a lot of them come with apasta, if you are, which I'm so
(34:52):
proud of, if you're a publicshopper and you look at the
sandwich board, the home stylemeatball sandwiches Mama
Mancini's meatballs, so.
But it's shipped fresh allaround the country and it's sold
fresh in every deli where we're.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
We love the deli department, yeah, so that's kind
of like that old world Italiantoo right, the deli.
I just I don't know I miss.
I miss that Dan, I miss thatdeli, just going with my grandpa
to the Italian delis and Idon't know?
Do you call them hard rollswhere you live?
Do you know what I'm talkingabout?
Speaker 2 (35:27):
when I say a hard roll, yes, yes, yeah, so like a
hard roll sandwich and myhusband, who's Swedish, always
laughs.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
He's like it's not even hard, it's a soft roll yeah
.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
I think everybody has their own name for it, right?
Speaker 1 (35:42):
But what else do people call that roll that we're
talking about?
Is it a Kaiser?
Speaker 2 (35:48):
roll.
Yeah, I think it's actually.
That's what it is.
Okay, Maybe sometimes it haslittle seeds on it, or it has.
Yeah, but it's round and it'svery it's round.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
It's very soft, but there's a slight crisp.
I remember before we found outI was gluten-free and really had
to stop for health reasons Onthe way to school.
Like in high school, middleschool, my favorite breakfast
was an egg and cheese on a hardroll.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
So good, oh yeah, I still have them.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
Do you, man we'll enjoy one for me.
Next time you order one, gettwo and have it, we'll get a
gluten-free roll, I know.
If you have a good gluten-freebread supplier, let me know.
I'm still looking.
I'm still looking.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
You'll find one.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
I know right.
Well, there is another side ofjust your life I guess that I
want to tap into for a second.
From your bio, you are said tobe a master relationship builder
and I read this and it warmedmy heart because for that to be
said about you is so beautifuland so rare in this time and
(36:58):
culture.
And so so rare in this time andculture.
I think a lot of Italianheritage probably speaks into
that, because I think a lot ofItalians are great with
relationships, generallyspeaking, of course, but I want
to hear from you what we're in,a time and culture right now,
where people are cravingrelationship and craving
(37:19):
building relationship and theydon't know where to start all of
these things right, we'relonely right now.
We're desperate for people.
What would you say to peoplethat are like I would not say
that about myself, but I wish Icould, I wish I was a master
relationship builder.
What are the keys torelationship building?
Speaker 2 (37:38):
I think one of the first keys is you have to listen
to people when they talk.
And I think a lot well,especially in I've been in sales
my whole life with some form ofit, and I find that a lot of
people in this industry, or they, don't listen.
If you want to build arelationship with someone you
(37:58):
know, whether it's outside orinside, you need to listen to
what people have to say.
And look, not everyone you comein contact with is going to be
someone you're going to be ableto build a relationship with,
right so?
But I think being nice topeople is really important.
I mean I don't see any reasonnot to be nice and over the
years, even going back to what'sin the garment business, I mean
(38:21):
I've, I mean I built theserelationships only because I
respected the people who, uh,you know, I worked with, whether
it's a department store buyeror, you know, a food buyer in a
supermarket, uh, I mean I would,it's it, and I'll sit in
meetings sometimes and I'lloverhear people in another room
(38:43):
or whatever, and somebody willcome in and they'll start
talking, but they don't listento when someone else talks and
you could see it starts to builda little bit of aggression
maybe.
So I say I've always listenedwhen someone talked, I respect
what people say, and I've alwayslistened when someone talked.
I respect what people say.
And and again, not every personyou come in contact with you're
(39:09):
going to jive with and be ableto build a relationship with,
but it's, I think, genuine.
I mean it's tough for me toanswer because it's like no, I
hear what you're saying.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
No, did you say you're embarrassed by it?
No, but you know Well.
No, because the thing is I tellso recently it's one of the
greatest compliments I can getis people will say, katie,
you're such a great questionasker, like when I just meet
them in public and someone askedme recently how did you learn
to be such a great questionasker?
My gosh, my light is doing allthis weird stuff on my end.
(39:47):
It's like illuminating overhere.
Ignore that, but I tell peopleI only learned to be an
intentional question askerbecause I was surrounded by
intentional question askers, andso I actually love hearing
about you that you're a masterrelationship builder, because
it's contagious, because itshows people what's possible,
like when you're saying that youjust want to listen, that you
just listen to people.
People aren't listened to inculture right now, and so when
(40:11):
they are on the other side ofthat, it's refreshing, it's
healing to a lot of people,which sparks connection, it
sparks relationship, and I tellpeople right now Sorry, my light
is really going- that's OK OK.
I tell people right now I thinkit's hard.
People think it's hard tolisten when you're carrying a
(40:33):
heavy load, and life is reallyhard for a lot of people right
now for different reasons,especially around the holiday.
But if we just realize thateveryone's carrying a heavy load
and if we just stop and listen,we stop and express interest.
What happens is when you showsomeone they care, they care in
return and so you don't have toworry about leaving your stuff
(40:53):
behind because they'll pick itup.
It starts to create aconnection where you're carrying
each other and, yeah, that'swhat people are needing.
Speaker 2 (41:03):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (41:04):
Yeah, don't be embarrassed by it, dan.
I think that in culture, rightnow too, there's definitely a
shift happening where there'sthis relational intelligence
happening with men, and I thinkthat's so needed.
Happening with men, and I thinkthat's so needed.
I don't know if you've heard ofthe Harvard study that shows
that men I need to get the exactnumbers straight.
But men over the age of 50typically don't create, don't
(41:28):
form another new friendship forthe rest of their life, and it's
heartbreaking, it's devastating.
It doesn't have to be that way,because then you put those
numbers next to the depressionstatistics, right, and the
quality of life statistics, andthey go hand in hand.
But we don't want to see it asthat.
And so, especially for men,keep going, dan, keep heading in
(41:51):
that direction with confidenceand strength.
Speaker 2 (41:53):
Yeah, it's needed.
What you just said about thatstudy really blows my mind.
What you just said about thatstudy really blows my mind.
I mean, I think everyone inlife has friends and there's
probably a few they can callreally really good friends,
right, and whether you've hadthem your whole life or not, we
(42:16):
live in Tewksbury, new Jersey,which is out pretty far from
where we were.
We were living in a town calledSouth Narns, new Jersey, and we
had friends in that town whichI'm still friends with, and I
moved out here and we'reliterally in, like I want to say
, the middle of the country,right, yeah, and there's one
really cool restaurant in townthat we frequent and I've, in
(42:39):
the last three years, made someof the best friends of my life.
Speaker 1 (42:47):
Wow, so it's, yeah, it's um.
Speaker 2 (42:54):
I'm just going to let this light situation be Um, but
I think it's also interestingbecause it depends on I get I
don't get that study, but Icould understand.
If you know, when you're over50, which I am you may be just
living in the same place for thelongest time, so maybe you
don't have access or a reason tomake new friends.
So we've I mean I moved and wemaybe that's maybe that they
need to go back and ask thosepeople if they moved.
Speaker 1 (43:17):
I think people get so complacent too, and there's
this embarrassment that happensand I don't know what it is.
So I call myself like a chronicnew kid.
I've moved almost every twoyears my whole life and I just
had to learn how to formrelationships out of survival.
Honestly, I had a single momwho worked a lot, my
(43:37):
grandparents worked a lot andthey were very social, and I
just kind of had to learn who mypeople were.
I had to learn how to survivein a new setting, and I think it
breaks my heart when peopledon't get to know their
neighbors because things likethat like someone will live in
the same house for 10 years,which is a gift.
(43:59):
It's a gift not to have to moveRight, but there are people
that are around us, just inproximity, that we're like, oh
well, if I haven't said hi, yes,I shouldn't reach out now.
It's like no, it's actually thebest time.
Speaker 2 (44:10):
Yeah, it's the best.
You know what's reallyinteresting.
You say that I find that.
So my, our youngest daughter,her husband and little baby live
in Manhattan in a high rise andand people in the city.
At times when you speak to themthey could be living on floor
number 13 with eight otherapartments and have no idea
who's living next to them.
Speaker 1 (44:30):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (44:31):
It's weird.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
Yes, yeah, I think someone I heard a recent kind of
approach to this lately that weare so desperate as a culture
right now to have connectionsacross the country.
Like, if you're in business,you want connections in New York
, if you're I don't know aninfluencer, you want connections
in LA, I don't know all thesedifferent places, whatever your
(44:54):
industry is.
But because of that, we'relosing the people around us,
right, and that's, that's thelifeline, that's the those are
the healing relationships andconnections, and so um we need
more master relationshipbuilders.
We tell our listeners.
We need a culture of peoplethat are going first and
(45:15):
pursuing relationships,initiating them.
Speaker 2 (45:17):
Um because yeah, so people just need to say hello to
their neighbors, or hello mygosh eye contact, especially in
the Northeast.
Speaker 1 (45:25):
I'm like, goodness friends, like let's just lock
eyes again, Right, a negativeway, you'd be walking down even
in the town we lived in, whichis suburbs, nobody like talked
(45:52):
to each other.
Speaker 2 (45:52):
Here we leave, we go down the road.
If you pass someone walking adog, they're waving to you.
Everyone says hello and youknow what?
When you do experience it, yourealize how important that is.
Speaker 1 (46:00):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (46:00):
Yeah, you do it's.
Speaker 1 (46:02):
So I have a few friends and my husband that
cringe sometimes.
My husband and I are on thesame wavelength when it comes to
relationship building, but ifI'm out in public or like we're
on a walk and someone doesn'tmake eye contact, I almost like
duck to get eye contact, likeyou're worth the eye contact.
You're worth it and you knowlife's hard for both of us.
Speaker 2 (46:23):
Does he hide when you do it?
Speaker 1 (46:25):
Say it again, does your husband?
Speaker 2 (46:26):
walk the other hard.
When you do it, your husband,does he like walk the other way?
Does your husband walk theother way when you do it?
Like he's gotten?
Speaker 1 (46:30):
more confident as the years go.
He knows he's not changing me.
Oh man, well, that is abeautiful thing to be said about
you and keep kind of owningthat loud and proud, because, um
, that's a, that's somethingthat a lot of us aspire for and
(46:53):
need in our own communities, soit's really good.
Well, I am gonna ask you thequestions that we ask every
guest at the end of our.
I'm gonna ask you, oh my gosh.
Let me rephrase that I'm goingto ask you the same three
questions that we end everyepisode with.
But before we do that, I wantto hear where can people shop
your products?
If they're like, I want to getthem today or this week when I
(47:15):
go grocery shopping.
Speaker 2 (47:16):
We have mamamanciniscom.
There is a store locator.
Just put your zip code in.
It's going to tell youeverywhere where you live and
we're pretty much in every cityand state across the country to
some level, so pretty easy tofind and just ask me, ask me to
(47:40):
go in the supermarket, say doyou have Mama Mancini's?
And if they say no, say, sayyou got?
Speaker 1 (47:46):
to start carrying them.
What an awesome kind of likeit's awesome to be able to
answer that question that way.
What a huge accomplishment,instead of only in this region
and this state, you know.
Speaker 2 (48:00):
Yeah, it's.
You know, I still think tomyself.
Unfortunately, you know, mygrandma was not around, but if
she could, and anytime, I dostill to this day walk into any
supermarket and see that package.
You know, with the photo at thetop is my grandmother holding
me when I was a baby like wesaid, left her entire family in
1921 to start a new family.
(48:21):
And here she is, america's,enjoying her meatballs and sauce
and other items for theirfamily.
Speaker 1 (48:33):
It's just incredible.
Wow, goodness gracious, that isa powerful, powerful legacy.
Well, here are the threequestions that we ask every
guest after a conversation offood.
This is always a funny one, butsomething you have eaten
recently and loved.
Speaker 2 (48:50):
Okay.
So, as I was telling you, welive in Tewksbury, new Jersey,
and it's a small country townand there's one restaurant in
town called the Tewksbury Inn.
It's a they serve like a mixedmenu, it's not any particular
cuisine.
But about six months ago I wastalking to the chef and I said
(49:10):
to him or my wife said to himwhat would your last meal be?
And he goes pasta with pomodorosauce.
And it intrigued me becauseit's not an Italian restaurant,
and I said, oh, my goodness, Ilove that.
I said can you make cacio e pepe?
And he goes, of course I can.
I said can you make cacio epepe?
And he goes, of course I can.
I said wait a minute, I go likethis real cacio e pepe, because
(49:31):
it's very.
He goes no, I know what you'resaying.
I said no, real cacio e pepe.
He goes.
Yeah, pasta, pepper, pecorino,romano cheese and water.
I said, okay, fast forward.
Uh, I actually had it lastnight, was what I had there for
dinner and he makes it for me,my wife's special.
It's not even on the menu and Ialways say this is the best
(49:55):
cacio e pepe you could find,unless you plan on getting on a
flight and going to Rome.
His name is Chef Alex, it'sjust.
Yeah, so his Cacho.
So if you're ever out hereyou're at Tewksbury Inn you say
to one of the servers youwhisper, I want Dan Mancini's
Cacho e Pepe.
And if Alex is there he'll makeit it's a secret menu item.
Speaker 1 (50:20):
So I love it.
I love it too, and Trader Joe'scame out with their kind of own
version and I tried it.
Speaker 2 (50:29):
It was not awesome and the crazy part is it's only
three ingredients, but it's themost difficult thing to make is
cacio e pepe, so I love it.
Speaker 1 (50:42):
That sounds wonderful right now.
How about this, something youhave found to be beautiful
lately, and it could be anything.
Speaker 2 (50:50):
So, for the first time last month, we traveled to
Provence, france.
I've never been and I'll bevery honest with you when I get
on a plane, I would prefer tohead to Italy, because I love
Italy.
And we did this, my wife and Idid it.
She loves France.
I, you know, I love Paris, sheloves Paris, and we took this
(51:12):
trip and I fell in love with it.
It's absolutely.
I don't know if you've everbeen it's beautiful.
Speaker 1 (51:22):
So what's the climate right now?
What?
What's the weather there now?
Speaker 2 (51:25):
Well, we were there mid October and it was like in
the 70s or low 70s in thedaytime.
I think what happens this timeof year they get these massive
winds and that's a lot of reasonwhy a lot of people don't go.
It sounds crazy, but that'swhat I've learned.
But the weather is kind of mild.
Speaker 1 (51:42):
Yeah, that's nice though.
Speaker 2 (51:43):
I would go now.
You know a lot of places close,but I would definitely tell
people off-season go Just likerelax there.
It's beautiful.
Speaker 1 (51:50):
I haven't been to France in years, but we've spent
a lot of time in Asia in ouradult life.
But I'm craving Europe.
Speaker 2 (51:57):
Oh, what part of Asia .
Speaker 1 (51:59):
We lived in Chiang Mai, Thailand, for four years.
Oh wow.
Speaker 2 (52:03):
Yeah, that's cool, it is, it's home.
Speaker 1 (52:06):
Say it again.
Speaker 2 (52:07):
That's on the bucket list here.
Speaker 1 (52:09):
Is it Well?
Let us know when it's home forus.
Speaker 2 (52:12):
Yeah, really Wow.
Speaker 1 (52:14):
We thought we'd be there forever, got a different
plans.
We had a house there, we workedthere.
We have friends familynonprofits, like whatever
direction you want to head wehave some kind of insight into.
So, oh, very cool.
Yeah, we're hoping to go backthis year with our son.
(52:34):
He's 15 months, but it's it's20 hours.
Speaker 2 (52:36):
It's a 20 hour flight , and so I'm like and he is very
active.
Speaker 1 (52:41):
So I'm like, okay, what are my options here?
Speaker 2 (52:43):
You're going to be the person on the plane that
everyone's like.
I know they're not sitting nextto me, so thankfully.
Speaker 1 (52:50):
Thankfully his temperament is good, like he's a
good kid, um, and so usuallythe way that we approach it is
as few layovers as possible.
But I'm like you know what,colby, my husband, I was like, I
think like five layovers soundsperfect, because it's like it's
breaks, you know, it's like itbreaks it up for the kid.
We'll see, but he'll sleep,he'll sleep.
I know I was gonna joke aboutbenadryl, but you can't do that
(53:13):
right now.
Speaker 2 (53:15):
No, melatonin, no you could take it for the exact
right.
Just fall asleep.
You know when we just flew,kids are on the plane, I the
plane.
I don't know why people getupset, yeah.
Speaker 1 (53:28):
I know I mean kids are kids, right, kids are kids.
Most of us have been through it.
Yeah, he's done a ton of shortflights domestically, just
nothing that long yet.
So we'll see, we'll see.
But yeah, definitely let usknow we love sharing, oh, thank
you.
Sharing our people and ourplaces with people traveling
(53:48):
through and, last but not least,a gathering you attended that
made you feel a strong sense ofbelonging and, if you could
pinpoint it, what it was thatmade you feel that way?
Speaker 2 (53:56):
So this may sound odd , but last week, for the first
time in our town, the volunteerfire department has particular
pancake breakfast to raise money.
And we went and not knowingwhat to expect, I mean the food
was great, but it was thisincredible sense of community.
Like people, you sit at thiscommunity table and it just it
(54:20):
really cause.
Again, we've only been livinghere three years, Right, and
again we're out, kind of out inthe country, so you don't have,
you know, our neighbors arehorses, so we don't have a lot
other than the restaurant we goto.
But it just felt so incrediblewhen you sit there and you're
talking to people and you know,the person to my right was the
guy who owned the local farmthat sells the apples we buy and
(54:44):
it was just a strong sense ofcommunity and everybody coming
together and we're talking.
It was amazing Hundreds ofhundreds of people coming
through here to support thislocal fire department.
So it was great.
Speaker 1 (54:56):
I love hearing that answer and again, that reminder.
I think so many of us arethinking like we can't wait
until we're on this trip or thisretreat in this part of the
world or whatever and we've, wemiss those local things and, um,
they're important.
So I mean that's a really goodkind of urge to people Like if
you see those signs pop updowntown main street they're
(55:19):
great oh yeah, yeah, that'sincredible.
I love that answer.
Well, thanks so much for takingthe time.
That's incredible.
Speaker 2 (55:26):
I love that answer.
Speaker 1 (55:26):
Well, thanks so much for taking the time.
You fed my husband and I wellthis week, oh great.
Speaker 2 (55:30):
I'm glad to hear.
Speaker 1 (55:32):
Yeah, and we are excited to continue to support
you.
Well, guys, if you buy anythingthat we talked about in this
episode, be sure to tag us bothon Instagram.
We'd love to see your familyeating, we'd love to see the
products in your stores, and wewill see you next week.
Thanks so much, dan.
Speaker 2 (55:50):
Thank you very much.
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