瞄準吃貨的創業點子 快遞美食大綱

Blame the Food Network. The television channel and its many tentacles has transformed the idea of being foodie, once the province of boring recipe shows, into full-on adventure entertainment. If not that, then blame the Whole Foods-fueled movement toward healthy and local eating. Whatever the cause, culinary tourism is on the rise. Ten years ago, it was barely discussed. Today, it’s an estimated $150 billion industry, according to the World Food Travel Association.

都是美食頻道惹的禍。電視裏的美食頻道以及它們的觸手已經把當個美食家的概念從無聊的烹飪節目中拓展出來，轉變成了豐富的娛樂探險活動。要不是這樣的話，那就怪以全食超市（Whole Foods）爲代表的提倡健康和本土化飲食的養生食品運動吧。總之無論是什麼緣故，“美食旅遊”（culinary tourism）正在蓬勃發展。十年前，人們幾乎不會討論這個，而如今，根據世界旅遊美食協會（World Food Travel Association）的估計，這已經是一個價值高達1,500億美元的產業。

Not everyone can afford to live like Anthony Bourdain, though. The startup Try the World, Kat Vorotova and David Foult, has emerged to bring exotic foods from far-flung destinations to doorsteps around the U.S. The New York-based company has been shipping $45 boxes of various packaged foods to subscribers since the beginning of this year. (The boxes can be purchased individually or via monthly subscription.) The goal with the company’s first box, a Valentine’s Day package from Paris, was to make $1. The boxes sold out within two days, and Try the World has shipped thousands of boxes since.

然而，不是每個人都能負擔得起美食節目主持人安東尼o波登那樣的生活的。由凱特o沃洛託瓦和大衛o福爾特建立的初創公司Try the World，現在可以將外國食品從遙遠的地區送到美國境內的顧客家門口。這家位於紐約的公司從今年開始營業，不斷把價值45美元的各種食盒送到用戶手中。（用戶可以單獨購買某一食盒，也可以包月訂購。）公司的第一個食盒是來自巴黎的情人節食盒，每個能掙1美元。食盒在兩天之內售罄，從那時起至今，Try the World已經運送了成千上萬個食盒了。

The company tapped into a trend that grocery stores are only beginning to recognize: Americans are hungry, literally, for variety. “Customers are becoming more sophisticated,” Vorotova says. “If they want coffee, they want it to be from Brazil, or if they want pesto, they want it to be from Italy.”

這家公司利用了一個食品商店纔剛剛開始意識到的趨勢：美國人對品種的多樣化如飢似渴。沃洛託瓦表示：“顧客開始要求越來越精緻的生活。如果他們想喝咖啡，他們希望那是巴西出產的；如果他們想要香蒜沙司，他們會希望那是意大利進口的。”

Thus a box that allows curious eaters to sample snacks and flavors of other cuisines without actually traveling there. Try the World’s boxes are curated by local “culture guides,” which tend to be chefs or people in the food industry looking for exposure in the U.S. The goal is to offer an authentic mix of local favorites, packaged with background information to put the food into context. The Paris box, for example, features a chestnut spread from a region protected by a government standard called appellation d’origine controlée, a package of hand-harvested salt from the Camargue region, and teas from Palais des Thés.

如此一來，通過食盒，好奇的美食家們就能嘗試其他烹飪風格炮製的食品，而不必親自去到那裏。Try the World的食盒都由當地的“文化指導”準備，他們是希望讓自己的產品走向美國的大廚或食品業的專家，通過將當地的流行食品與相關背景信息糅雜在一起，讓顧客知道食物的來龍去脈。比方說，巴黎的食盒中包含一顆來自政府法定控制產區的栗子，一袋來源於卡瑪格（Camargue）地區的手工鹽，還有法國連鎖商“茶宮”（Palais des Thés）的茶葉。

“We really want it to feel like the experience of someone who is traveling and sending you the best goodies,” Vorotova says. The company works with foreign brands to get deep discounts on the items included in the boxes, since many foreign food brands are seeking to grow in the U.S.

沃洛託瓦表示：“我們想要營造出一種氛圍，就像有人正在旅行，並給你帶來了當地最棒的產品。”公司與國外品牌合作，在食盒中囊括的食品上獲得了相當的折扣，因爲有許多國外品牌也想開發美國市場。

Try the World has shipped boxes from France, Japan, Brazil, Italy, Turkey, and India. The next box will be focused on foods from Great Britain. The boxes are marketed as city boxes, focused on one location, but feature items from around the country that would appear in a store in a particular city.

Try the World已經開始提供來自法國、日本、巴西、意大利、土耳其和印度的食盒。下一個食盒中將包含來自英國的食物。食盒被定位爲城市型，主要包括一個地區的產品，不過也含有某個城市的一家商店中售賣的全國特產。

Try the World has raised $700,000 in seed funding from angel investors to expand its offerings and invest in marketing. The investors include Georges-Henri Levy, a French entrepreneur; Brian Kleinberg and Beth Lacey, former American Express executives; Ketty Maisonrouge, a professor at Columbia Business School and luxury strategist; Kevin Quinn, a financial advisor at Genki Advisory; Dominique Faye, a food industry executive; and The Eugene Lang Entrepreneurship Fund at Columbia Business School.

Try the World已經通過天使投資募集了70萬美元，用於營銷投資以及拓展食物的範圍。投資者中包括法國企業家喬治斯-亨利o列維，前美國運通（American Express）高管布萊恩o克萊因伯格和貝斯o萊西，哥倫比亞大學商學院（Columbia Business School）教授兼奢侈品分析師凱蒂o梅森盧茲，Genki Advisory諮詢公司的財務顧問凱文o奎恩，食品業高管多米尼克o法耶，以及哥倫比亞大學商學院的尤金郎創業基金（The Eugene Lang Entrepreneurship Fund）。