Briefing Document

Logistics

• Interview with NewEngland.com’s food and travel journalist/editor, Kathrine Keenan, about Duck Soup’s new cooking classes and summer food events. 

• In-person interview at Duck Soup on Wednesday, April 5, at 4 p.m. The interview will take place during a walk-through of the store and the potsticker cooking class taking place at 6 p.m. 

Outlet Overview: New England from the Editors at Yankee Magazine

• New England from the Editors at Yankee is a section featuring original articles on NewEnland.com, a multi-purpose website that is the new home for Yankee Magazine. The outlet serves as an online resource for the New England region concerning food, travel, events, and lifestyle.

• Founded in 1935, Yankee Magazine (whose new online home is NewEngland.com) has a total circulation of 275,000 and an audience of 1.3 million readers. 

• The outlet’s Instagram account “Yankee” has 135k followers and features photos of different locations in the New England area, including landmarks, restaurants, food photos, and highlights from their issues, which often include “best of” style lists. 

Contact Overview: Katherine Keenan, NewEngland.com (Yankee Magazine) Journalist and Digital Editor, @katherine_keenan

• Keenan has been a New Englander her whole life, born and raised in New Hampshire. She attended Smith College in Massachusetts, which is only an hour and a half away from Sudbury. 

• Before working at Yankee, Keenan worked as a line cook and social media manager. She is a writer and associate digital editor for the magazine since 2019.

• Keenan’s primary focus of coverage is food and travel. She writes a variety of pieces, many of which include lists of where to find the best certain food in a given area (e.g. “Where you can find the best maple creemee in Vermont” and “The Best Iced Coffee in New England”). She also writes stories on local favorites (e.g. “The Chow Mein Sandwich of Fall River, Massachusetts”); in these types of establishment-specific stories, she usually includes one to two quotes from the owner/spokesperson. All of her posts include at least one photo, all of which are taken by her. 

• Keenan sees Duck Soup, its unique gourmet food items, and its new multicultural cooking class offerings, as an attraction for people that appeals to both the travel-hearted and food-minded in New England. You should be prepared to talk about the wide variety of new cooking classes that aim to bring more people together, emphasize the ever-changing product offerings that make each person’s visit a unique experience, and touch on Duck Soup’s longevity in the community.

Past Coverage

• Yankee Magazine / NewEngland.com has not covered Duck Soup previously, however, it does cover different food establishments in Massachusetts. 

• Stories include recipes, “best of” lists (e.g., “The Best 5 New England Pie Shops”), pieces about seasonal New England favorites in both travel and food, and spotlights on New England’s favorite local establishments. 

• Keenan has covered stories on other Massachusetts food establishments such as Mee Sum in Fall River and Montague Bookmill in Montague, however, she has not yet covered a shop like Duck Soup (in terms of gourmet grocery, classes, and tasting events).  

Key Messages

What: Duck Soup, a hidden gem for New Englanders in Sudbury Massachusetts, is offering a diverse range of new cooking classes in addition to its wide variety of unique specialty foods and kitchen products.

So What:  Duck Soup has been open for over 50 years and in that time has become a place where people from all backgrounds can connect and become friends, in and out of Sudbury. 

What Now: Duck Soup will be offering a series of multicultural cooking classes and food-inspired events this summer to bring people from all over the New England area together to experience Duck Soup. 

Q&A

With Duck Soup’s online-shopping struggle, how do you intend to keep your business thriving in an increasingly e-commerce-heavy landscape?

Our online store represents our business just as it is in-person: a constantly changing selection that is unique and delicious—which means that our products often sell out fast! However, for the past 50 years, Duck Soup has always first and foremost been a place for people where come together and connect over a shared love for food, whether they are shopping for cheese or coming in for a cooking class. That’s why our focus is on growing our in-person offerings. We are especially excited to expand upon this even more with the variety of food events we’ll be hosting this summer and our new lineup of multicultural cooking classes. 

Why has it taken so long for Duck Soup to offer a more culturally diverse selection of cooking classes? 

Looking at the bigger picture, we have always had the vision of bringing more cultures’ foods into our cooking classes, especially with the popularity and demand for gourmet food items that are harder to find, such as the biltong we offer from South Africa or our authentic Dutch stroopwafels. You see, what’s happened is that the popularity and high demand for products like these, in addition to our already existing diverse cooking classes–like the authentic Mexican tamale-making class and our dumpling class– have given us the ability to expand our genres even more. We’re excited to see how these classes will connect people, hopefully from all over New England.

Duck Soup has been around for over 50 years–what do you envision the next 50 to look like?

My hope is that more people from all around New England will come to Duck Soup to try all of our special cheeses, wines, coffees, and kitchen items. I see people coming to Duck Soup for a girls-night cooking class and learning to make a traditional Cuban meal or for a French wine tasting with work colleagues. Essentially, I envision the next 50 years to be as special as our customers and as delicious as all of our specialty cheeses.  

How does Duck Soup differ from other gourmet food stores in the area, or New England as a whole?

We specialize in a little bit of everything. We aren’t necessarily a cheese shop or a coffee shop, and we’re not necessarily a kitchen store, gift shop, or cooking class space either. And that is what makes Duck Soup so different from other places: for five decades we’ve always been indefinable and quirky and that’s what has resonated with our customers. We are always trying new things, whether it’s a traditional Indian cooking class or selling a new delicious cheese. People come to Duck Soup on their toes and they become part of the community of Duck Soupians,’--- a community you can’t find anywhere else. 

How does Duck Soup stay involved in the Sudbury community?

Being in Sudbury for just a little over 50 years, Duck Soup has really strong ties to the community, and because of that, we have an appreciation for all things local. We sell things made by Sudbury community members, such as the gorgeous cutting boards made by Alan Bourgault. Beyond the items we sell, we also hold events for local charities. One of our signature events we did was an Open Table CHOPPED event to raise money for the Maynard food pantry last June. I’m so happy that Duck Soup could play a part in not only giving back, but bringing people together to do the same.  

Why should people who are not from the immediate Sudbury area come to Duck Soup?

Duck Soup is truly a jack-of-all-trades. Beyond having cheese, wine, chocolate, international cuisine items—you name it—we also offer experiences. If someone is looking for something to do and to make a great day out of it, our store has the perfect combination of interactive activities and shopping, especially with items you don’t typically see in your everyday food store. We have top-of-the-line chefs from all different cultures who specialize in various cuisines coming to teach quality cooking classes; it’s worth the drive when you can leave with a gourmet food basket and a French dinner recipe under your belt!

Can you tell me about anything new and exciting—products or projects—that are in the works for Duck Soup in the near future?

We’re really looking forward to exposing more people to different cuisines from all over the world with the multicultural cooking class lineup we have on the horizon for the summer. The Cuban and Ethiopian cooking classes are two that have drummed up a lot of excitement from our staff. On top of that, we have some celebrity chefs in the works to teach these classes, which we’ll be announcing next month. We’re also really looking forward to the Taste of Sudbury Food Festival we’ll be hosting in June and cannot wait to see so many people come together over their shared love for Duck Soup and all things food.