Honest Food:  A Message From The Cook

Hello.  My name is Jim Chapman.  I am the executive chef and, along with my wife Brenda, the founder of Running Rooster.  Throughout my life, food has been a way of showing love for family and friends.  It was true of my grandmothers and my mother, and it is true of me.  I’m sure that it is also true for many of you, whether you have time to cook or not.  Nothing is more fundamental than nourishing those that are near and dear to your heart.  You take it personally.

I am often asked what “Honest Food” means and why I put it in the company logo.  Simply put, Honest Food is any food that is prepared with pride and served with respect for those that will eat it.  It is simple real food.  It doesn’t have to be fancy chef stuff.  It may be only a bowl of instant oatmeal, but if you serve it to your little girl with love, then that is Honest Food.

Nowadays everyone is so busy, people are cooking less and less, and so increasingly they turn to meals that someone else has made.  As a result, the food industry has changed completely over the years.  Instead of small local restaurants, it is now dominated by big corporations focused on brand, market niche, and distribution efficiency.  This is true of restaurants as well as the convenience foods you find in your grocer’s freezer case.

For example, the pasta sauce at that casual chain restaurant was made a month earlier by some company who packed it and sold it to a distributor who sold it to the corporate buyer who ordered it for the restaurant where someone warmed it up and put it on top of the pasta. That pasta sauce is many layers removed from anyone who has pride in how it turns out.  That’s not Honest Food.  The fast food burger at the corner drive-thru has been analyzed, planned, and managed, down to the gram, by 3 dozen MBAs before it is sold.  Even the equipment it is prepared on is custom built to remove any variation in how it turns out no matter who makes it (even Emeril).  Any personal touch has been zealously designed out of that burger.  That’s not Honest Food either.  The microwavable pot roast dinner is full of things like hydrocolloids, carrageenans, and “micro-encapsulated flavor modifiers”.  I’m not sure those are even food, period.

I believe we need to get back to more Honest Food in this hectic environment.  I cook at home when I can.  We get a pizza or a burger when we have to.  But Brenda and I weren’t happy with most of the easy pre-made dinner options that are available to us and our kids.  And so we founded Running Rooster to make dinners that are wholesome, tasty, really convenient, and above all, Honest Food.

I encourage you to cook for your family when you can.  It doesn’t have to be gourmet, complicated, or expensive.  When you don’t have the time yourself, I encourage you to seek out good, real food for your family.  I hope that Running Rooster will be one place you turn to.  My commitment is that I will always respect the people who eat the food we prepare, that I will always take pride in that food, and that I will always take it personally.

Thanks,

Jim (The Cook)