Orca Communications Client Spotlight – eat2explore

December 13, 2022 | Amanda Green

Welcome to the Orca Communications PR client spotlight. Each month our clients tell you in their own words why they do what they do and provide tips for other growing small brands and businesses. 

eat2explore

eat2explore is an award-winning educational food & culture “explorer box” that inspires families to cook, taste and discover the world’s different cuisines and cultures. We sat down with founder, Rowena Scherer, to find out how she turned her passion for food and culture into an opportunity for families everywhere to create lasting memories at home. 

How did you come up with the concept for eat2explore? 

The idea for eat2explore came to me during a family vacation in Thailand back in 2016.  I discovered during a cooking class that although my kids loved to travel and try different cuisines, they couldn’t even chop an onion. I felt like I had failed as a parent, as some of my fondest memories were cooking with my family as a child.  After some serious soul-searching during that vacation, I decided that life is too short. I had a successful career on Wall Street but now it was time to pursue my true passion for food, travel, education and kids!

How do you decide which countries to feature in your boxes?

I started with countries where I have lived or visited.  Over time, I added countries where I have friends or chefs connections.

What’s been your favorite box to create? 

My favorites are Singapore and South Korea. Singapore is like my 2nd home and it has the best street food in South East Asia!  As for South Korea, I’ve worked in Seoul and have always loved Korean food. It was so fun to curate our South Korea box with Chef Jae Jung (she was recently in Top Chef, Season 19.)

What’s one lesson you hope families take away from after doing the activities in your boxes?

Create Lasting Memories As a Family Have fun cooking as a family while building kids’ confidence through cooking.  Share a meal experience as a family, and teach kids to be culturally aware through food.

Onto more serious business questions: what’s been the biggest challenge running a subscription box and eCommerce store like eat2explore and how have you overcome that challenge? 

With a subscription business, you have to continue making each monthly box interesting and fun so that customers will continue to subscribe.  eat2explore is perfect as a subscription business because we introduce a new country every month.  We overcome the challenge of keeping our subscription fresh and fun is by introducing 2 new countries every year.  

Can you share one piece of advice you’d give to a new entrepreneur who wants to start a subscription box? 

Be willing to listen and accept feedback, and continue to find ways to improve or tweak the business.

Now for a question I ask all of our clients. Name one thing you like about working with Orca Communications. 

Orca is like an eat2explore family member!

Are there any specific projects you’re working on right now that you’d like to share? 

We are working on adding explore Ukraine and explore Iran/Persia in 2023.

(sounds yummy and exciting!)