How GOODLES Made Mac and Cheese for Grown-Ups | Foodfluencers

On this episode of Hospitality Hangout’s Foodfluencers series, Jen Zeszut, co-founder and CEO of GOODLES, joins the show live from Pepsi Studios in New York City to talk about reinventing one of America’s favorite comfort foods: boxed mac and cheese.

Jen shares the winding road that led her to GOODLES, from studying psychology and French, working at Cosi in Paris, helping document the operations manual that later helped bring Cosi to the U.S., moving to Mendocino to learn from Cafe Beaujolais, and eventually realizing that the day-to-day of restaurants was not her path.

The conversation digs into the origin of GOODLES, the “cherry, cherry, cherry” startup moment, the wall of more than 100 investor nos, and why Jen still believed there was a massive opportunity in mac and cheese. Instead of treating the category as food only for kids, GOODLES set out to bring adults back to the mac aisle with bold packaging, playful branding, premium flavors, protein, fiber, prebiotics, and nutrients from plants.

Jen also talks about competing with Kraft and Annie’s, building a mass brand without trying to look like traditional health food, using Hollywood and athlete investors for reach, the Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively cream cheese moment, the Dreamy Creamy flavor, Goodles.com, Amazon, Costco, Whole Foods, Target, and why the brand is gaining millions of new customers.

Episode Credits:

• Produced by: Branded Hospitality Media
• Hosted by: Michael Schatzberg, Jimmy Frischling
• Producer: Julie Zucker
• Creative Director: Adam Levine
• Show Runner: Drewe Raimi
• Post Production: Three Cheers Creative

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