Today we meet Veronica, founder of WE Factory. Since we started our boutique consulting agency we are in touch with Veronica and fascinated by her inspiring approach to food and dining. However, don’t believe us a single word and read in this blog post what WE Factory is all about, why it is so important to “eat with a smile” and how social change can be supported through food.
Veronica, can you please explain what inspired you to found WE Factory and what it is all about?
The combination of different experiences in gastronomy and strategic design as well as my daily living in the city of Helsinki (focused on everyday design) kickstarted the launch of WE Factory. However, the idea had been in my mind already for a very long time.
When I was younger I read a lot of Italian literature from the 50s and 60s regarding life in factories. At that time many bright entrepreneurs commissioned facilities for workers during their free time. Already then they knew how important this was for the wellbeing of their workforce. But a lot of this idealism has been lost over the years. My early working experiences for example were everything but human-friendly. So I started food trials within different contexts. Why food? Because in my family eating was always regarded as a joyful moment of conviviality.
2014 in Helsinki every bit fell into place and I felt it was just the right time. I founded WE Factory with the vision to bring social change through food where people spend most of their time: at work. Therefore we design creative and inspiring food services, experiences and programs for companies. We hold workshops to bring people together and empower them to live a slower and more fulfilling life, starting from what and how they eat - the source of happiness.
Your tagline is "Eat with a smile": what makes you smile when you eat?
“Eat with a smile” aims at conveying what WE Factory is all about: emotions, eating well and people. Eating good food that has been produced, harvested and prepared with the most care and attention and is served in good company makes you smile. Our tagline is about reframing time and space and enjoying every moment. “Eat with a smile” should happen at every meal one has: the breakfast at home, coffee break at the office, lunch with colleagues, afternoon snack during the brainstorming session and sleep well infusion before falling asleep.
We are specialised in crafting hotel concepts and brands: can you give our hotelier readers your TOP 3 advices on what they must consider when crafting great food experiences?
I personally like to stay at hotels with a unique personality and atmosphere. I’ve noticed that I’m not alone and more and more people seek uniqueness and authenticity. In my opinion, there is really no point to stay at a hotel that looks exactly the same in Moscow, Buenos Aires or Beirut. My top 3 advices when crafting a food experience are:
How do you see the future of dining? In which area do you see the biggest change and what will be the most influential trends?
I can’t predict the future but I hope that dining will become more inclusive. The fine dining scene is currently very exclusive. It addresses an elite of people that can afford it and has the knowledge to understand what it is all about. However, I believe that food culture and good food should reach the masses. This is the only way to promote a food revolution so many are talking about these days in terms of preventing food waste, preserving food diversity, and ultimately creating a better planet. On the other hand I also hope human beings will understand that technology needs to become more instrumental and not the end itself. I’m talking about 3D printing, for instance, or VR (virtual reality).
You are a big traveller #alwaysnomadic. What are your must-experience food spots around the world? What has been your best food design experience ever?
My travels always mix the research of what is new and cool (see hipster places, which usually represent just one part of the population) with what is authentic and the everyday kind of place. I guess this boils down to my anthropological interest to understand how “normal” people live. For instance, when I lived in Warsaw for a couple of months I asked local friends to take me to milk bars, which just recently had been revived. In Moscow, I visited some markets with a friend who claimed that tomatoes from Azerbaijan are as good as Italian ones. So we tasted (lots and lots) of different tomatoes at approximately 20 stands. That was fun!
The best food experiences I’ve had so far were somewhat unexpected and unplanned. No frills. I’m a simple woman who prefers excellent raw ingredients and rituals rather than formal dishes: freshly baked pita bread straight from the oven at Princes Islands in Istanbul, mint tea in Morocco while watching the passers-by, fika (coffee and cinnamon bun) at Rosendals Tradgard in Stockholm, polenta and stew made by my mum in Italy... What’s remarkable: from the best food experiences I remember the whole story: the smells, the sounds and mostly all the people who shared the table with me.
About Veronica Fossa:
Veronica Fossa is the founder of nomadic happiness agency WE Factory. Veronica wears many hats: she is a food experience designer & strategist, business wellbeing catalyst, international speaker, guest lecturer, and design expert. From a small town in the North-east of Italy she moved to Finland to study and fell in love with the Nordic way of living, so mindful and close to nature, but gastronomically so different from her native Italy. She spent 6 years between Sweden, Denmark and Finland – where she founded WE Factory – before deciding to embrace a nomadic lifestyle to elate her cultural curiosity and connect with different communities around the world.
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