We’ve been quiet on this channel for a while – and if you already follow us on Facebook and Instagram, chances are you know that’s because we’ve been out and about quite a bit.
But there’s been much more to our September than what we shared on social media, so I wanted to wrap it up for you before resuming our regular newsletters.
First and foremost: our space meals have been featured in the prestigious Italian culinary magazine “La Cucina Italiana”, both on their web news and in the current October paper issue! It makes us really proud to give this contribution with the ongoing candidacy of the Italian Home Cooking to UNESCO intangible cultural heritage and we hope to see it fly high in the coming months!
On a more practical note, after losing not one, but two production sites during the pandemic, our top priority has been to find a reliable partner to make our meals.
Sounds straightforward? Well, it was no trivial task. Most facilities that comply with both EU and US food safety standards do not necessarily allocate (affordable) production slots to a start-up with no historic records. The few who did soon found out that our treats cannot be produced in a fully automated industrial run without paying a toll on the ingredients we use.
Premium quality requires time and extra care, and while we are not going to compromise on the very core of your food experience, we needed to make sure that we can do so without choking right at the start.
We are happy to share that we are wrapping up a successful pilot production – which will enable the long-planned launch of our products on Kickstarter!
With the new samples, we’ve also been up for a few events this past month – and more is coming in October!
We offered a cooking show and food tasting at the M9 Museum in Mestre, near Venezia, centered on the space meals that we developed for the ongoing Minerva Mission of the European Space Agency. The pouches are on display at M9 in the “Future” section of the exhibit “Gusto! Gli Italiani a tavola 1970-2050” until October 23rd.
The space menu has been covered in the national press from Style – Il Corriere della Sera followed shortly after by a special video on the most innovative recipe we’ve been challenged to create: a snack bar that includes cricket flour, to trailblaze the use of insects in deep space missions as high-value protein sources. Since the video appeared on TikTok our “Grillo al mirtillo” was in the middle of lively discussions on the topic of insects in human nutrition!
For me, September started off where everything began: in the Italian mountains around the alp of Malciaussia, in the Lanzo Valleys, near Torino. There, we were among the sponsors of the highest sky marathon in Europe, the beautiful Via di Annibale, and I had the pleasure to introduce our first official brand ambassador, Paolo Frisa. A savvy VP for Corporate Finance at a major cruise line, Paolo is a person I do have the privilege to call a friend since my university years, and truly embodies the philosophy “work hard, play harder”. Just 10 days before running this sky marathon, he successfully completed the TDS race in the Mont Blanc area – showing us how far we all can go with the right mindset, preparation, and support!
We are honoured to have him carry our flag, and give us advice on how to tweak our treats to best meet the needs of exceptional athletes during both their training and the races!
