Rebecca Staffel: Interview!
Make sure to visit Rebecca Staffel and her Deluxe Foods at the Summer Show. Featuring handmade locally-produced jams, jellies, butters and preserves!
Tell us bit about yourself, your company.
RS: I’m Rebecca Staffel and I’m the Chief Tasting Officer of Deluxe Foods. We make delicious preserves in the French style from sustainably grown Washington fruit. I’ve been a jam-maker and jam-lover for years. In 2009, I quit my job and decided to follow my jam bliss. I’m having a great time.
When you were young, what did you want to be when you grew up?
RS: I think my first aspiration was stewardess (yes, in the era before they were known as flight attendants). From there I sailed on to lawyer, actress, teacher, journalist. And funnily enough, once I grew up, I had jobs that entailed aspects of all of those.
Is there a certain person/place/object you draw inspiration from?
RS: I am incredibly inspired by the independent farmers of Washington. It’s back-breaking work with little monetary return but they grow such beautiful fruit! I try to respect their work with mine by celebrating the produce and cooking it only very gently.
If you had no boundaries: money, time, space, support, etc. what dream project would you pursue?
RS: Deluxe Foods might just be it. Second to that might be attempting to read all of the books on my “want to read” list.
What’s your favorite thing to do to kill time? Any secret Internet time wasters, guilty pleasures?
RS: I have a pretty big cookbook collection and I can spend hours sitting in front of my bookshelf comparing recipes when really I just need to get dinner on the table. Current guilty pleasure is watching cycling on TV. The Tour de France is about to begin!
Where do you like to go when you just want to get away? A beach, a mall, a market? What’s your favorite type of spot to go unwind.
RS: I’m an extrovert, so even “getting away” has to involve other people! Cocktails in the afternoon at an outside table in the sunshine with my husband or a dear friend = bliss.
If you only had one more meal to eat on this world what would it be? (It can be several courses!)
RS: It depends on the season and the time of day! My ideal breakfast in November is completely different from my favorite lunch in May. How about a late-summer dinner of mache salad with blueberries and candied pecans, then garden-fresh tomatoes with corn and basil, then Dungeness crab and drawn butter, and finally a peach pie. Oh, and let’s fit a big cheese plate in there somewhere. Yum.
What do you love about most UCU’s Summer Show?
RS: I love that it’s a little more relaxed than the winter. There’s enough space to stroll slowly through the aisles and see Every Single Thing the amazing crafters make! I still manage to get a lot of holiday shopping done.
Tell our readers what they should expect to see when they stop by and see you at UCU.
RS: I can’t wait to see them! They’ll get to taste some of our yummy spring and summer flavors, including Gingered Rhubarb Jam and Strawberry Balsamic Preserves. Then they’ll get to buy a jar and admire the lovely blue label as it sits on their refrigerator shelf… and then they’ll finish it up and want more!
http://www.deluxe-foods.com
