Iconic Concierge Fall 2022

BIRKENSTOCK, ChefWorks, Emeco,
ChopValue, Welcome Industries, and PRISE
Inc.
Little Kitchen Academy’s flagship venues
are located in Vancouver, B.C., and Los
Angeles, California. We have nine locations
open across Canada, Los Angeles, and Portland,
and have recently inked development
deals to open over 240 locations in Colorado,
Illinois, Michigan, Oregon, Texas, Washington,
and Canada. Additionally, we recently
launched our Meet Me in The Kitchen podcast,
to share intimate, unexpected stories
that explore the common threads of humanity
and illuminate what brings us together,
which can be found on Apple Music, Spotify
and at LittleKitchenAcademy.com.
IC: You launched Little Kitchen Academy
after many years of success growing
businesses in the food and beverage
and retail sectors through a franchising
model. Please can you tell us what you
like about that model and what are the
challenges with it?
BC: Much like as a family we approach
life, with care of self, care of others and care
of environment, franchising enables likeminded
people to come together and make
an impact at an accelerated pace. For us, we
get to share the gift of LKA globally, with
partners that have the same purpose-driven
mission that we do and that believe in our
vision. Franchising allows for people to be
part of our vision by getting into business for
themselves with best-in-class systems, support,
and guidance, so that they are confident
in the fact that they are not on their own. The
challenge is to find the right people who want
to be partners in our business for the right
reasons and who can execute in their local
communities delivering our brand promise
and experience.
IC: What unique challenges have you
encountered in growing Little Kitchen
Academy, that were different to any of
the other businesses you’ve previously
built and what lessons have you learnt in
overcoming them?
BC: LKA is a purpose-driven company and
with that comes a lot of passion, stubbornness,
and education. Every decision made
comes from the heart and is very personal.
We have forced a new business category into
the market, and this takes repetitive conversations,
educating our community as to why
this is essential, and finding the right people
to join us.
IC: Both Felicity and you are huge advocates
for creating environments that
promote diversity, equity, and inclusion.
In cities such as Vancouver where the
economic and social pressures contribute
to significant inequality of access to
resources between and within communities,
how is Little Kitchen Academy
working to provide opportunities for
children from all socio-economic
backgrounds to access
such valuable education?
BC: We know that LKA is for
EVERY child, but not every
family has the means to enroll.
We connect with many organizations
to open the opportunity up
to those children but simply providing
the classes isn’t enough.
We need to educate the families
too on the choices they need to
make to pay for nutrient dense
ingredients and develop the understanding
of how to make great
decisions. It’s vital that they have
the CHOICE to make but many
families in our communities don’t
have a choice.
IC: The COVID pandemic
created new factors and exacerbated
the prevalence of
existing factors in our society
that contribute to mental
health problems, which
have effectively precipitated
a subsequent mental health
pandemic. How have you seen that present
on the ground with young people at
Little Kitchen Academy and can you
explain how the work you do is helping
address some of these issues?
BC: During the first few weeks of re-opening
after the government lockdown we saw the
changes in our students. Young children who
didn’t feel safe outside of their parents’ arms,
curious ones feeling nervous to touch things,
and the older, more social students desperate
for face-to-face connection. Having an environment
that is free of judgement like LKA,
we are going to meet every child where they
are at and that is very necessary in supporting
their personal development. A beautiful
Montessori term is “Follow the Child”, and
we understand that to mean ‘step back, observe
with love and let the child show you
what they need.’ We practice it daily and our
students can feel it.
IC: Food plays such an integral role in
forming and developing our social relationships.
I often feel that European cultures
embrace this aspect far more readily
than in North America, where eating
is often seen as a very functional activity.
Have you seen the children that come to
Little Kitchen Academy improve their
ability to socialize as well as just develop
their understanding of the nutritional
benefits of creating healthy meals?
BC: The LKA food philosophy is very simple.
We follow the oldest, wisest woman on
the planet - Mother Nature. Our job is to discover
what is in season, what is local, create
wonder as to where it came from, add science
to change it so it tastes delicious, and simply
celebrate a child when they CONSIDER
these aspects. When we empower children to
make these choices, they build confidence,
connection, and curiosity. Learning the science
behind food substitutions required to
accommodate food intolerances, cultures or
simply taste preferences is powerful. You
can’t eat eggs? What do eggs do in the recipe?
What can we use instead? This thinking
can remove biases that are formed through
lack of understanding.
IC: How do you feel social media contributes
to our relationship with food in
the current day and age. What impact
does this have and how can we leverage
the benefits of social media, whilst mitigating
the negative influences, to create
positive change in this area?
BC: LKA has decided to embrace social media
as a power tool. We can’t beat it, so let’s
find the opportunity that it creates. We are
all constantly barraged with advice on what
we should and shouldn’t be eating, what we
should or shouldn’t look like. Let’s take this
opportunity to talk about taking care of ourselves
by making choices that are important
to us! There are as many food philosophies
as there are types of apples and it certainly
isn’t a one-size-fits-all. We also love to take
on the fun TikTok food trends and in learning
how to make dishes that are all over our social
media gives some of our older students a
‘social currency’, so to speak. They may not
be on the winning team, the student council
leader, or the coolest dresser in school, but
they can talk about the latest food trend and
how they have learned to master it!
IC: Over the next five years, what would
success for Little Kitchen Academy look
like to Felicity and you?
ICONIC CONCIERGE
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