Christina shares her stories of growing up in a multi-cultural food home and what she learned and was inspired by before working in TV with Martha Stewart and other food lifestyle titans.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (00:01):
I think you're gonna love listening in to this conversation I had with Christina Deyo. She was my guest on this next episode of More Than A Mile. Christina is an Emmy award-winning producer of cooking shows and segments for Martha Stewart, Rosie O'Donnell, Emerald Lagasse and more. She now runs Cook n Craft Academy near Knoxville. And this is a great opportunity for me and you to learn from her amazing food experiences and about her love of supporting local food. Enjoy listening in to the conversation.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (00:31):
Welcome to More Than A Mile, a local food podcast from Market Wagon, focused on connecting you to local food through farmer stories from across America. I'm Nick Carter, your host, a farmer and CEO and co-founder of Market Wagon. We are your online farmers market with a mission to enable food producers to thrive in their local and regional markets. Food is so much more than just nutrients and calories. It's actually the fabric that holds us together. And I look forward to crafting a generational quilt of farmer stories and experiences, the victories and challenges of individuals, families, and teams doing their part to help democratize food in America. Thanks for joining me for this episode of More Than A Mile, and thank you for buying local food. It's one critical step in making an investment in food for future generations.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (01:21):
My guest today is Christina Deyo and I'm excited to talk about her business Cook n Craft Academy down near Knoxville. And guess some stories sounds like we're gonna get a lot of good stories of about the background that led up to this. So I'm looking forward to this welcome, Christina.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (01:40):
Well, hello, Nick. Thank you so much for having me.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (01:43):
You're an Emmy award winner--eight time. You teach kids and adults how to cook but now we can also buy your food on Market Wagon. So there's a lot of ground to cover and I'm gonna start all the way from the beginning though. You're--can you tell me a little bit more about your family background? Where did your cooking come from? Is that is that from history? Family?
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (02:07):
Yes. Mom and dad both cook. So my dad is Italian and he learned cooking from his mom. And so every Sunday I would be sitting with my dad watching him make homemade pasta, homemade sauce, meatballs you name it. It's great. I always say like, I've had the best of all worlds because yeah, you know, I've got the great delicious Italian food and then my mom is Slovak. So I've got the stuffed cabbage, the pierogi and the thing I love about you know, their recipes and how they've taught them to me is I feel like it has kind of linked me to relatives in the past that I've never even met. You know, it's a generational thing. It's a link to our history is, you know, those recipes just as like, what's your favorite dish that you had growing up?
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (03:05):
Me?
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (03:06):
Yes.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (03:06):
Something called hamburger rice casserole, which I've learned as an adult--it's one of those Campbell's soup can dump recipe, things that was basically made up and invented by the Campbell Soup Company in the fifties to try and sell their stuff.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (03:22):
Wow, and sometimes those are the best ones, right?
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (03:24):
Oh, it's just loaded with fat and sodium and it's just fantastic.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (03:29):
There you go!
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (03:29):
There's a lot of people that grew up in, you know, Midwest America, that those seem like the good old family recipes, like green bean casserole, a classic one. And they're inventions of our industrial food, you know, they don't have, they're not really rooted in the history like what you're talking about--coming across from the old world. Traditions passed down from generation to generation. So...
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (03:54):
But now that recipe that you love and you maybe make now for dinner, I'm sure it's something your children will love or do love and you know, years from now, when they have maybe kids of their own, they're going to make it and share it with their kids and so on and so on. Yeah.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (04:13):
Yeah. For all levels allow them to, sure.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (04:16):
Yeah.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (04:17):
So I I'd have to ask my mom where she even got that recipe. I should do that.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (04:20):
Yes, definitely. Especially, you know, we, we celebrate moms this month. I say celebrate them all all month long. But you know, it's interesting. I remember seeing a coffee table book that came out, I guess it was years ago and it's called "My Last Supper," and they got together 50 chefs and they asked them if you had one last meal, what would it be? And almost all of them referred to something in their childhood that mom made. Some delicious dish that mom made. And that's, that's what I take from, you know, my parents, I I'm so grateful for all the great recipes, even recipes that maybe gave me an idea. And then I made it my own and I added this. Yeah. Or that, and, and twisted it around a little bit. I mean, that's the beauty of cooking. And I always encourage, even in our classes or people I just meet on the street--take a recipe, make it your own, add your favorite ingredients. If it's a cheese recipe and you don't like cheddar, add a smoked gouda instead, whatever you like, make it your own.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (05:26):
But that's a level of creative exploration that I think a lot of people are terrified to do. Do you think that you learned that--I know that this is an Italian cooking. I don't know much about Slovak cooking, but in Italian, you, there is a there's--you're not measuring out the garlic. Right. You're smelling the sauce and you're sprinkling it in. You are working without the constraints of it is one and one eighth tablespoon of garlic clove, right? How do you think people who maybe didn't grow up watching their father cook Italian--from scratch every Sunday in the kitchen, how do they gain that freedom to experiment?
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (06:06):
Well, I think it comes with the confidence of cooking all the time or cooking on a regular basis. The more you cook, the more you feel a little bit more confident. I know my sister--now we're in the same family, my sister and I--but she was a little bit more book smart and you know, she's a neonatologist today, so I guess it paid off, but she does not cook. Now we have the same dad teaching us Italian and the same mom teaching us Slovak. But, you know, she doesn't cook because she just doesn't have the time for it. But I'm always telling her, you know, it's as simple as you could take a roast chicken, add a little salt and pepper and roast it slowly, and it's delicious. And it's not, you know, this involved recipe with sauces and things like that starts slow if you have to. But the one key thing which I love that Market Wagon stands for is really taking ingredients that are local to you, especially that are seasonal to you. And when you can buy organic, I mean it, you know. I worked for Martha Stewart for many years and I worked in her kitchen which she had a chef on her show every single day. And the one common denominator that they all really promoted was just cooking with seasonal ingredients. You know, buy what's in season, buy fresh.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (07:30):
Because that constraint actually forces you to be creative. Right? If it's the winter time and all you can get is butternut squash, you have to figure out how to make butternut squash delicious. As opposed to just buying in-- the stuff that you can get from overseas, that is no longer seasonable.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (07:45):
Absolutely. And you know, if you, if you are, can attend a local farmer's market or, you know, you can, you're lucky to buy on Market Wagon. You can buy now. And there's many things you can freeze for the winter, you know, or the months that are, they're not going to be in season take advantage of that.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (08:03):
So you asked me--you put me on the spot--and I told you about our deliciously awful hamburger rice casserole, which I'm happy to share with the rest of you.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (08:09):
It sounds delicious. It really does.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (08:11):
It really is. It's so good. there's not an ounce of nutritional value in it at all. What's your, what, what about you? What about your favorite, Christina? You, is there something that you watched dad make or mom making what's yours?
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (08:25):
You know, it's funny because when that book came out about your last supper, I thought, 'what would my last supper be?' And without a doubt, my mom's stuffed cabbage. It is just, I love it. And it's like, I have six kids and two of my children say that that is their all time favorite dish. And it's not even so much the like, you know, the deliciousness of it, the stuffed, you know, ground beef in the cabbage. I think when I eat it, it brings me back to my childhood and I can remember sitting at the table rolling cabbage leaves with my mom and her telling me about stories from her childhood. Oh my girlfriend and I did this, we ran into the neighbors, farmers backyard and we stole a carrot and ate it, was so good. And you know, just hearing those stories, it, there's just, it's so much nostalgia with it and I think that's what makes the food even that much better. But yeah, stuff cabbage is really my favorite.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (09:21):
Wow. All right. Well, we're gonna have to both share those recipes. I think the same is true for me. I, the hamburger rice casserole, granted it is loaded with salt and fat, which are two things that our bodies just naturally crave. But also I remember whenever I'm eating it, I can remember sitting in the back of the minivan on the side of the road at a--we would take dinner to dad in the fields during spring and fall and planting and harvest. He didn't have, I mean, that's just what it was like. You had to bring the food to them. And so having dad covered in, in you know, corn shaft coming over and sitting down in the car and eating dinner with us, kids in the car because we drove to the fields where he was and this casserole was really easy to transport. I have those memories as well. So you learned how to cook then you went into showbiz, right?
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (10:14):
I did. You know, I always loved cooking, but when I was a young kid, I knew I really wanted to work in TV. I didn't know to what aspect, but I knew I wanted to work in television. And so went to college, studied communication. And I remember my college professor day one my first class, it was a lecture hall. There were 300 students in the classroom. And the professor said out of all of you students, this, the world of communication is so competitive that only three of you in this classroom right now will land your dream job. And I look around the room and I see 300 people and I thought, oh my gosh, I need to be one of those three. How do I do it? So after class, I went up to the professor and I said, excuse me, I wanna be one of those three.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (11:06):
How do I do it? And he said to me, he goes, well, first of all, you've taken the initiative to really want to pursue it and have the passion. And that's the key is to have a passion that this is what I wanna do. This is what I believe in. He said, the second thing is, he said, you really need to believe that you should take your dream job. And if you have to work for free and not get it paid at all, take it. And so he said, start with an internship. So I did, I started with an internship at a local TV station. I loved it. They recommended you do it three days a week. I said, I'm gonna do it five days a week. and right after when I finished my internship, they offered me a job. Now I was a junior in college.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (11:49):
I still had a year left. And when they offered the job to me, I was super excited, but I did what probably any college student would do. I said to the boss, I said, let me go ask mom and dad if I should take this job. And I discussed it with my parents and my parents were like, you cannot take this job. You have to get your degree. You have to finish. And I said but timing is everything. And I may lose this opportunity. And my parents said, get that college degree. You know, reluctantly, I went back and I said, I'm sorry, I can't get this job. But in a year from now, I'm graduating. So I hope that it's available. And you know, and they repeated, well, timing is everything. And so a year later I graduated and I went knocking on the door and sure enough, there was no job for me.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (12:38):
And so I called every single day, I was persistent. I remembered the college professor saying, be persistent. And I knocked and knocked and everyday called. And one day, I guess I bugged them too many times. They said, you know what? We do have a job. They said, it's only a two week window. Somebody's going on vacation and we're gonna have you fill in. And I took that time and I ran with it and I filled in. And while I was there, a job opening opened up and it was actually for a secretary position. And I kind of wondered, well, you know, I went to college, I, I waited a year for that degree. Do I really wanna take a secretary position? And this girl who I considered my mentor said, get your foot in the door, take it. And so I took it. And the first week on the job, I messed up everything you could mess up.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (13:32):
I mean, I the guy, like he ordered a Turkey sandwich, a ham sandwich was delivered,
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (13:38):
Wait, wait, wait, you messed up food? You're not supposed to do that.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (13:43):
I know I, well, I wasn't cooking, but I ordered him. I ordered him a sandwich and the wrong sandwich came. I sent something FedEx. It was supposed to be overnight. It came two day delivery well, anyway, at the end of the week, he called me in his office and I knew it was coming. You're fired. I knew it. I was waiting for it. I'm like, how do I fight the tears? So they don't fall, like, you know, kind of put on your big girl pants and be brave. And he called me in and he said, you know, Christina he said, I have to make some changes.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (14:16):
And I thought, oh, well, yeah, I know here it comes. And at the time he had produced a show called the Morton Downey Jr. Show, which, you know, was kind of this conservative loud mouth radio host who kind of switched to TV. And he was producing the show and he said, you know, nobody on that show gets it. I've gotta let them all go. And I was like, okay, well, I thinking, how does that affect me? And he said, I wanna put you on that show. I think you could do really, really well. I'm gonna move you to that position. And I went and I worked there and based on my intern training, I really did very well. And from there, I like to say the rest is history. I did well, I got moved up to producer and just kind of continued my way in TV and loved it and loved working there.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (15:06):
And still had that love of food and a love of crafts with me. And so kind of went to some other TV shows like the Rosie O'Donnell show, Martha Stewart and kind of always lent myself to producing food segments or craft segments when I could just because I had that connection to it. And so that's how, like, the food just always stayed with me, even though I had this TV career. And so you know, it's, it's a detailed job when you're producing food, you've gotta plan those swap outs and you've gotta plan you know, each detail very specifically. And I use that same training philosophy when I teach at my academy. You know, sometimes when I'm teaching the students don't wanna wait four hours until the stew is finally done. So I gotta swap out for that. So I kind of lend my TV background to my academy, which has worked out well for me.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (16:07):
So let's talk about that and then transition from being a producer to starting your own small business. What was the most surprising thing?
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (16:18):
Okay. The most surprising thing without a doubt is I am not a businesswoman. I am creative. I am a great cook at least in my own mind, I think so.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (16:29):
I'm sure you are right.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (16:29):
My kids they say they are, but business wise, I am absolutely the worst. I don't have any business sense whatsoever. I actually made some scones for a local coffee shop and they said they would carry them. My pricing was so off it--the spreadsheet said you could buy a hundred cookies for a dollar, or you could buy 200 cookies for I think the same dollar. Like I thought I was doing a deal, but I was like hurting myself. I just, like, I was not good. I was like, I need a business manager. And thankfully my husband came in and helped out and helped get me on course. And I've been able to correct my ill ways, but...
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (17:17):
So the creative side of the cooking and recipes and exploring that kind of stuff doesn't always lend itself to running the spreadsheets and the numbers in the business.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (17:27):
Absolutely. And so for anybody who is thinking of, Hey, you know, I wanna start my own business, I encourage it. I think it's great. But wherever you feel you may have shortcomings or maybe you don't know the shortcomings yet, and you say, you know, I need help with this. Or you see you're lacking in a certain area, reach out and get help, like hire somebody or call in a friend or, or something. So it will definitely benefit you.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (17:53):
Where are you--how's the scone business these days?
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (17:57):
The scone business is doing really well. And thank you.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (18:01):
And you're making money at it. You finally got the prices, right?
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (18:03):
I've got my prices, right. We're we are selling them on Market Wagon, which we're excited about. But you know, when I made the scones--I'm not like somebody who's been making scones for 20 years and it's not a family recipe, but...
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (18:16):
Yeah, that's not Slovak and that's not Italian. That's baking.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (18:18):
Yes. So I had gotten a call from a group cuz we do catering as well. And they asked to do a tea party--and they wanted scones. And so I started baking scones and I couldn't figure out why some were falling flat. Some were holding its shape and looking fine. And I just said, well, you know, I've gotta kind of approach this as a producer and research. What makes good scone what doesn't and you know, one of the keys is frozen butter and the butter's gotta be grated really, really well. So the next time you make your scones, Nick...
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (18:54):
Frozen butter?
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (18:55):
Frozen butter, just like a pie would. And so, anyway, so I made the scones--everybody, loved them. Well, one night separate my husband and I went out to dinner and we went for after dinner to a walk to a local coffee shop. And he said, let's go in for dessert and get some coffee. And I said, great. And we walked in and my husband said, what do you have for dessert? And the girl said, we've got bagels. And we were like, bagels for dessert? Like, is that a Southern thing?
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (19:25):
No.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (19:26):
Bagels.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (19:27):
That's not a thing. It's not anywhere.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (19:29):
No, I was like, we, I mean New York, but that's a breakfast thing. So anyway, so my husband said your scones would do really, really well here. They're great for breakfast. They're great. Anytime he's like, let's email the owner and see if they like them. And I, you know--you sometimes I just--me personally, I never think it's good enough. And I was like, no, no, it's not gonna be good enough.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (19:51):
You didn't think your scones were good enough to sell at a coffee shop?
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (19:54):
I mean, I thought they were good. Yeah.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (19:55):
That was currently selling bagels for dessert?
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (19:58):
So anyway, so I, I baked some, so my husband actually emailed the owner and he emailed us back and said, I'd love to try your scones. And so like a week later I go there, I baked three different flavors, my orange, cranberry, chocolate chip, and blueberry. I figure those, everybody likes one of those flavors. And so since I work in TV, I figured I'm a good judge of character. So if you eat that scone in front of me, I can tell, do you really like it? Are you pretending to like it? You know, do you like it? So I brought them and I meet the guy and I'm like, here, go ahead, try 'em. And he said, well, I think I'm gonna take these in the back and try them with the staff. And in my head, I'm thinking, well, that's not gonna work because I'm not gonna be able to read...
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (20:42):
That wasn't the plan.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (20:44):
Can I come in the back with you? So he took the bagels. I mean, he took the scones and he
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (20:49):
Took the bagels. we're not cutting that by the way.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (20:53):
That's please, please. So he took, he took the scones in the back and you know, that night I must have looked at my phone a hundred times waiting for this guy to call waiting me no phone call. Next day, no phone call. Day after that, no phone call. And I'm wondering like, do they have the right number? Well, of course they have the right number. I gave them my business card. So the third day--and I'm kind of annoyed at this point--I thought, well, the very least the guy could do was call me back and say, you know what? They didn't work. They not, for us, not a good fit or anything. The third day, this woman called back from his office and she said, I'm sorry, we didn't get back to you. We've been very, very busy. And I'm thinking, okay, again, but you know, here's this build up to the failure. And she said, you know, I wanna let you know something. She said, the owner is a bit of a scone snob.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (21:47):
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (21:48):
And it was the first time I ever heard scone snob and...
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (21:51):
Right. That's not a thing.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (21:53):
Yeah. And, and it's not a thing, but it, it sounds like it's a thing to like a, a lead up to telling me that it's a no go. And so anyway, so she said, you know, he travels the world, getting different coffee beans and such, and wherever he goes, he always orders scones. That's his thing. He loves scones. And I was like, okay. And she goes, I wanna quote him. He tried your scones. And he said, these are some of the best scones I've ever had. And I thought, coming from a scone snob, I am running with that. I will take it. And so he said, she said, based on your scones, you can sell anything you want in this coffee shop, but please definitely your scones. So we've still been selling our scones there. And, um...
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (22:40):
What else do you sell there?
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (22:41):
We sell our banana bread, blueberry muffins, lemon loafs, a lot of similar things that I've now shared on Market Wagon, which has been doing well. People seem to really enjoy our baked goods, which we enjoy making.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (22:58):
Well I'll I wanna get to that, but you, okay? Yeah.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (23:02):
Are you a scone snob by any chance?
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (23:03):
I'm not a scone snob.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (23:07):
You like scones?
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (23:08):
I do like scones. I do. I like bagels too, but not for dessert. You know what I am a snob of is pancakes and this relates and here's why. It's because the reason I like pancakes is because pancakes are like cooking. You can--you can experiment with them. They're not as temperamental as baking. So, so I've made pancakes with, with sour cream in them, with apple sauce in them. I've cut all the sugar and milk and used just a can of Dr. Pepper for all of the sugar spices.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (23:41):
Oh my gosh.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (23:42):
Yeah. Don't put any vanilla in. Don't put any salt in, put any sugar in and don't put any milk in and just use a can of Dr. Pepper on the rest of your dry ingredients. And it comes with 23 different flavors. Also all the sugar that you're gonna need for it. And it's just a really good flavor. It's it's different. I love doing that. All that to say baking and cooking are vastly different things.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (24:02):
Oh, absolutely.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (24:03):
So you, we talked the whole first half of this conversation about how you learned to cook from your Italian and Slovak parents where you're experimenting and you're dropping new things in and you're not using measuring sticks and you're being creative. You can't do that in baking, can you?
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (24:20):
No, baking...
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (24:20):
Baking is chemistry.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (24:21):
It's a science. You really have to follow those recipes.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (24:26):
Where'd you learn to do that?
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (24:27):
Well, you know, I will say my mom did some baking, not as much with cooking, you know, we had our poppy seeds and nut breads and things like that. Yeah. But you know, I working with Martha for almost 20 years, Martha Stewart she had this mantra, you have to learn something new every day. And so she baked almost every day on the show and I would look at those recipes and say, you know, although I may not have time every day to bake on the weekend. I would say, I wanna try this. I wanna and if it didn't work, I was lucky enough to like go in on Monday and say, Martha, my bread didn't rise. Why not? Yeah. Did I do wrong? Or if she had a chef on the show, I could ask, you know, Emeril or Mario Batali or any of them, you know, tell me about this or Lydia. So I was very fortunate to have that, but you know, today, you know, thanks to the internet, there are so many like cooking videos or baking videos that for anybody out there who wants to try to learn you know, and can't come to Loudon [County] to learn and take one of our classes...
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (25:34):
Or for people who can't answer the question, how did you learn? I give you the question, how did you learn to bake? And I just love how nonchalantly--like it's not even a big deal--You're like, well, you know, Martha Stewart taught me and Chef Emeril. But anybody who wants to can Google it yeah. Okay. Sure,
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (25:55):
Well, I,--you know, I am--I do feel very fortunate to have worked with some of the greatest chefs that are out there and known today. And you know, Martha, she's not a, a trained chef. She never went to cooking school, but she learned from her parents, she learned from her mom. And she, you know, having her chefs on every day learn from them. So, you know, sometimes people will ask me what cooking school did you go to? And I'm like, I went to the Martha Stewart school of cooking where I just, you know, learned something new every day. And--but I'm not perfect. And I--there are recipes that sometimes go terribly, terribly wrong.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (26:35):
So alright. How did we become so fortunate to have your food offered on Market Wagon and delivered to people's doors? How did that come about?
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (26:46):
Well, you know, a friend of mine actually told me about Market Wagon and you know, I think the way she described it was, she said think of--because I do crafts--and she goes, think of crafts being sold on Etsy. She said, Market Wagon is like the Etsy for farmers. She's like, you get all this great seasonal, local food. It's awesome. And it's funny because, I think back in the day there was this commercial where the Hair Club for Men. I don't know if you remember that you were probably too young.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (27:23):
I do. Not only am I the president, I'm also a client.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (27:27):
I'm a client. And so not only do I sell on Market Wagon, I'm also a client of Market Wagon and you know, just starting to buy local seasonal, fresh food. I thought this is great. And a lot of the things I was buying, like I did buy a butternut squash. I thought, you know, I could make a delicious salad out of this or soup and I could then sell it on Market Wagon. And so a lot of the ingredients that we use, I get from your local farmers--again, buying what's in season, buying organic when you can. You know, buying local I will buy from Market Wagon. I often sell our things sometimes just at local farmers markets in town. And when I'm there, I love to hear what's, you know, what they have, what, you know, new things they have, what new varieties of tomatoes that we can add to salads, et cetera. And so when this friend had told me about Market Wagon and I started exploring, I said, this is such a great, great thing and was super excited to find out about it. And I tell everybody wherever I go about it, I said, you know, you've gotta check out Market Wagon and...
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (28:37):
Well, thank you.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (28:38):
Yes. Well, you know, I, I, I kind of like to be this walking advertisement and I, I don't only push my food. That's on Market Wagon. I just tell them, you know, you want a great head of lettuce, go on Market Wagon. You want some great tomatoes. You know, when you taste that fresh, locally grown--like fresh fruits or vegetables, it, it just tastes so much better than, you know, the store bought ones. I, you know, I just, I notice a difference. It's it's amazing. It's, you know it, I tell everybody to, to try it, you know, try it one time. If you, you know, you'll never go back and you try it one time. You'll love it.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (29:16):
Try the scones, maybe a bagel. all right.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (29:20):
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (29:21):
So well, thank you. For sharing your wonderful foods on Market Wagon. We know we can find food from you on Market Wagon. Where else can our listeners find out about what you have to offer and maybe even come and see you face to face?
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (29:38):
Well, we do go to local farmers markets in the Loudon Tennessee area, which is about 20 minutes from Knoxville, but we also do some Knoxville, local markets as well. And also our website CooknCraftAcademy.com. You can find our, if you're in the area and you wanna stop by, you can come by and buy local foods. You know, you can order online from us as well. We're not shipping our food right now, but if you're local to the area, you can buy online and swing by and pick it up. Maybe that'll be at one of our next phases is, you know, being able to, to ship food. But some of the things, the scones are easy to ship, but some of our salads. They, they would never make it.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (30:22):
No, they they're shipped through Market Wagon cuz we can get it there fresh.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (30:25):
absolutely. Absolutely. That's the nice trade off.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (30:29):
Great. Christina, thank you so much for being my guest today. It's been a delight to talk with you about your history and food and how you got into a food business. It's been a pleasure.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (30:43):
Well, I appreciate the opportunity. Go have a bagel on me.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (30:48):
I'll have bagel for dessert tonight
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (30:53):
And I'll ship you some of our scones.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (30:56):
Well and they better be the best scones in the world.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (30:59):
Yes. And before you know it you'll be a scone snob.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (31:01):
I'll become a scone snob. You're gonna turn me into one
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (31:05):
Thank you, Nick. I appreciate it.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (31:07):
Thank you, Christina.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (31:15):
Thanks for listening to this episode of More Than A Mile. Be sure to sign up for Market Wagon at marketwagon.com or after downloading the Market Wagon app for iOS or Android. Follow us @MarketWagon on Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook for stories, recipes, special announcements, news, and just digital handshakes from our friendly farming community. If you enjoyed More Than A Mile, please rate the podcast and write a review on iTunes, CastBox, PodChaser, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcast. Thank you for continuing to support local food.
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By Nick CarterChristina shares her stories of growing up in a multi-cultural food home and what she learned and was inspired by before working in TV with Martha Stewart and other food lifestyle titans.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (00:01):
I think you're gonna love listening in to this conversation I had with Christina Deyo. She was my guest on this next episode of More Than A Mile. Christina is an Emmy award-winning producer of cooking shows and segments for Martha Stewart, Rosie O'Donnell, Emerald Lagasse and more. She now runs Cook n Craft Academy near Knoxville. And this is a great opportunity for me and you to learn from her amazing food experiences and about her love of supporting local food. Enjoy listening in to the conversation.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (00:31):
Welcome to More Than A Mile, a local food podcast from Market Wagon, focused on connecting you to local food through farmer stories from across America. I'm Nick Carter, your host, a farmer and CEO and co-founder of Market Wagon. We are your online farmers market with a mission to enable food producers to thrive in their local and regional markets. Food is so much more than just nutrients and calories. It's actually the fabric that holds us together. And I look forward to crafting a generational quilt of farmer stories and experiences, the victories and challenges of individuals, families, and teams doing their part to help democratize food in America. Thanks for joining me for this episode of More Than A Mile, and thank you for buying local food. It's one critical step in making an investment in food for future generations.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (01:21):
My guest today is Christina Deyo and I'm excited to talk about her business Cook n Craft Academy down near Knoxville. And guess some stories sounds like we're gonna get a lot of good stories of about the background that led up to this. So I'm looking forward to this welcome, Christina.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (01:40):
Well, hello, Nick. Thank you so much for having me.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (01:43):
You're an Emmy award winner--eight time. You teach kids and adults how to cook but now we can also buy your food on Market Wagon. So there's a lot of ground to cover and I'm gonna start all the way from the beginning though. You're--can you tell me a little bit more about your family background? Where did your cooking come from? Is that is that from history? Family?
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (02:07):
Yes. Mom and dad both cook. So my dad is Italian and he learned cooking from his mom. And so every Sunday I would be sitting with my dad watching him make homemade pasta, homemade sauce, meatballs you name it. It's great. I always say like, I've had the best of all worlds because yeah, you know, I've got the great delicious Italian food and then my mom is Slovak. So I've got the stuffed cabbage, the pierogi and the thing I love about you know, their recipes and how they've taught them to me is I feel like it has kind of linked me to relatives in the past that I've never even met. You know, it's a generational thing. It's a link to our history is, you know, those recipes just as like, what's your favorite dish that you had growing up?
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (03:05):
Me?
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (03:06):
Yes.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (03:06):
Something called hamburger rice casserole, which I've learned as an adult--it's one of those Campbell's soup can dump recipe, things that was basically made up and invented by the Campbell Soup Company in the fifties to try and sell their stuff.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (03:22):
Wow, and sometimes those are the best ones, right?
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (03:24):
Oh, it's just loaded with fat and sodium and it's just fantastic.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (03:29):
There you go!
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (03:29):
There's a lot of people that grew up in, you know, Midwest America, that those seem like the good old family recipes, like green bean casserole, a classic one. And they're inventions of our industrial food, you know, they don't have, they're not really rooted in the history like what you're talking about--coming across from the old world. Traditions passed down from generation to generation. So...
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (03:54):
But now that recipe that you love and you maybe make now for dinner, I'm sure it's something your children will love or do love and you know, years from now, when they have maybe kids of their own, they're going to make it and share it with their kids and so on and so on. Yeah.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (04:13):
Yeah. For all levels allow them to, sure.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (04:16):
Yeah.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (04:17):
So I I'd have to ask my mom where she even got that recipe. I should do that.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (04:20):
Yes, definitely. Especially, you know, we, we celebrate moms this month. I say celebrate them all all month long. But you know, it's interesting. I remember seeing a coffee table book that came out, I guess it was years ago and it's called "My Last Supper," and they got together 50 chefs and they asked them if you had one last meal, what would it be? And almost all of them referred to something in their childhood that mom made. Some delicious dish that mom made. And that's, that's what I take from, you know, my parents, I I'm so grateful for all the great recipes, even recipes that maybe gave me an idea. And then I made it my own and I added this. Yeah. Or that, and, and twisted it around a little bit. I mean, that's the beauty of cooking. And I always encourage, even in our classes or people I just meet on the street--take a recipe, make it your own, add your favorite ingredients. If it's a cheese recipe and you don't like cheddar, add a smoked gouda instead, whatever you like, make it your own.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (05:26):
But that's a level of creative exploration that I think a lot of people are terrified to do. Do you think that you learned that--I know that this is an Italian cooking. I don't know much about Slovak cooking, but in Italian, you, there is a there's--you're not measuring out the garlic. Right. You're smelling the sauce and you're sprinkling it in. You are working without the constraints of it is one and one eighth tablespoon of garlic clove, right? How do you think people who maybe didn't grow up watching their father cook Italian--from scratch every Sunday in the kitchen, how do they gain that freedom to experiment?
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (06:06):
Well, I think it comes with the confidence of cooking all the time or cooking on a regular basis. The more you cook, the more you feel a little bit more confident. I know my sister--now we're in the same family, my sister and I--but she was a little bit more book smart and you know, she's a neonatologist today, so I guess it paid off, but she does not cook. Now we have the same dad teaching us Italian and the same mom teaching us Slovak. But, you know, she doesn't cook because she just doesn't have the time for it. But I'm always telling her, you know, it's as simple as you could take a roast chicken, add a little salt and pepper and roast it slowly, and it's delicious. And it's not, you know, this involved recipe with sauces and things like that starts slow if you have to. But the one key thing which I love that Market Wagon stands for is really taking ingredients that are local to you, especially that are seasonal to you. And when you can buy organic, I mean it, you know. I worked for Martha Stewart for many years and I worked in her kitchen which she had a chef on her show every single day. And the one common denominator that they all really promoted was just cooking with seasonal ingredients. You know, buy what's in season, buy fresh.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (07:30):
Because that constraint actually forces you to be creative. Right? If it's the winter time and all you can get is butternut squash, you have to figure out how to make butternut squash delicious. As opposed to just buying in-- the stuff that you can get from overseas, that is no longer seasonable.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (07:45):
Absolutely. And you know, if you, if you are, can attend a local farmer's market or, you know, you can, you're lucky to buy on Market Wagon. You can buy now. And there's many things you can freeze for the winter, you know, or the months that are, they're not going to be in season take advantage of that.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (08:03):
So you asked me--you put me on the spot--and I told you about our deliciously awful hamburger rice casserole, which I'm happy to share with the rest of you.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (08:09):
It sounds delicious. It really does.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (08:11):
It really is. It's so good. there's not an ounce of nutritional value in it at all. What's your, what, what about you? What about your favorite, Christina? You, is there something that you watched dad make or mom making what's yours?
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (08:25):
You know, it's funny because when that book came out about your last supper, I thought, 'what would my last supper be?' And without a doubt, my mom's stuffed cabbage. It is just, I love it. And it's like, I have six kids and two of my children say that that is their all time favorite dish. And it's not even so much the like, you know, the deliciousness of it, the stuffed, you know, ground beef in the cabbage. I think when I eat it, it brings me back to my childhood and I can remember sitting at the table rolling cabbage leaves with my mom and her telling me about stories from her childhood. Oh my girlfriend and I did this, we ran into the neighbors, farmers backyard and we stole a carrot and ate it, was so good. And you know, just hearing those stories, it, there's just, it's so much nostalgia with it and I think that's what makes the food even that much better. But yeah, stuff cabbage is really my favorite.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (09:21):
Wow. All right. Well, we're gonna have to both share those recipes. I think the same is true for me. I, the hamburger rice casserole, granted it is loaded with salt and fat, which are two things that our bodies just naturally crave. But also I remember whenever I'm eating it, I can remember sitting in the back of the minivan on the side of the road at a--we would take dinner to dad in the fields during spring and fall and planting and harvest. He didn't have, I mean, that's just what it was like. You had to bring the food to them. And so having dad covered in, in you know, corn shaft coming over and sitting down in the car and eating dinner with us, kids in the car because we drove to the fields where he was and this casserole was really easy to transport. I have those memories as well. So you learned how to cook then you went into showbiz, right?
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (10:14):
I did. You know, I always loved cooking, but when I was a young kid, I knew I really wanted to work in TV. I didn't know to what aspect, but I knew I wanted to work in television. And so went to college, studied communication. And I remember my college professor day one my first class, it was a lecture hall. There were 300 students in the classroom. And the professor said out of all of you students, this, the world of communication is so competitive that only three of you in this classroom right now will land your dream job. And I look around the room and I see 300 people and I thought, oh my gosh, I need to be one of those three. How do I do it? So after class, I went up to the professor and I said, excuse me, I wanna be one of those three.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (11:06):
How do I do it? And he said to me, he goes, well, first of all, you've taken the initiative to really want to pursue it and have the passion. And that's the key is to have a passion that this is what I wanna do. This is what I believe in. He said, the second thing is, he said, you really need to believe that you should take your dream job. And if you have to work for free and not get it paid at all, take it. And so he said, start with an internship. So I did, I started with an internship at a local TV station. I loved it. They recommended you do it three days a week. I said, I'm gonna do it five days a week. and right after when I finished my internship, they offered me a job. Now I was a junior in college.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (11:49):
I still had a year left. And when they offered the job to me, I was super excited, but I did what probably any college student would do. I said to the boss, I said, let me go ask mom and dad if I should take this job. And I discussed it with my parents and my parents were like, you cannot take this job. You have to get your degree. You have to finish. And I said but timing is everything. And I may lose this opportunity. And my parents said, get that college degree. You know, reluctantly, I went back and I said, I'm sorry, I can't get this job. But in a year from now, I'm graduating. So I hope that it's available. And you know, and they repeated, well, timing is everything. And so a year later I graduated and I went knocking on the door and sure enough, there was no job for me.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (12:38):
And so I called every single day, I was persistent. I remembered the college professor saying, be persistent. And I knocked and knocked and everyday called. And one day, I guess I bugged them too many times. They said, you know what? We do have a job. They said, it's only a two week window. Somebody's going on vacation and we're gonna have you fill in. And I took that time and I ran with it and I filled in. And while I was there, a job opening opened up and it was actually for a secretary position. And I kind of wondered, well, you know, I went to college, I, I waited a year for that degree. Do I really wanna take a secretary position? And this girl who I considered my mentor said, get your foot in the door, take it. And so I took it. And the first week on the job, I messed up everything you could mess up.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (13:32):
I mean, I the guy, like he ordered a Turkey sandwich, a ham sandwich was delivered,
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (13:38):
Wait, wait, wait, you messed up food? You're not supposed to do that.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (13:43):
I know I, well, I wasn't cooking, but I ordered him. I ordered him a sandwich and the wrong sandwich came. I sent something FedEx. It was supposed to be overnight. It came two day delivery well, anyway, at the end of the week, he called me in his office and I knew it was coming. You're fired. I knew it. I was waiting for it. I'm like, how do I fight the tears? So they don't fall, like, you know, kind of put on your big girl pants and be brave. And he called me in and he said, you know, Christina he said, I have to make some changes.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (14:16):
And I thought, oh, well, yeah, I know here it comes. And at the time he had produced a show called the Morton Downey Jr. Show, which, you know, was kind of this conservative loud mouth radio host who kind of switched to TV. And he was producing the show and he said, you know, nobody on that show gets it. I've gotta let them all go. And I was like, okay, well, I thinking, how does that affect me? And he said, I wanna put you on that show. I think you could do really, really well. I'm gonna move you to that position. And I went and I worked there and based on my intern training, I really did very well. And from there, I like to say the rest is history. I did well, I got moved up to producer and just kind of continued my way in TV and loved it and loved working there.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (15:06):
And still had that love of food and a love of crafts with me. And so kind of went to some other TV shows like the Rosie O'Donnell show, Martha Stewart and kind of always lent myself to producing food segments or craft segments when I could just because I had that connection to it. And so that's how, like, the food just always stayed with me, even though I had this TV career. And so you know, it's, it's a detailed job when you're producing food, you've gotta plan those swap outs and you've gotta plan you know, each detail very specifically. And I use that same training philosophy when I teach at my academy. You know, sometimes when I'm teaching the students don't wanna wait four hours until the stew is finally done. So I gotta swap out for that. So I kind of lend my TV background to my academy, which has worked out well for me.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (16:07):
So let's talk about that and then transition from being a producer to starting your own small business. What was the most surprising thing?
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (16:18):
Okay. The most surprising thing without a doubt is I am not a businesswoman. I am creative. I am a great cook at least in my own mind, I think so.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (16:29):
I'm sure you are right.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (16:29):
My kids they say they are, but business wise, I am absolutely the worst. I don't have any business sense whatsoever. I actually made some scones for a local coffee shop and they said they would carry them. My pricing was so off it--the spreadsheet said you could buy a hundred cookies for a dollar, or you could buy 200 cookies for I think the same dollar. Like I thought I was doing a deal, but I was like hurting myself. I just, like, I was not good. I was like, I need a business manager. And thankfully my husband came in and helped out and helped get me on course. And I've been able to correct my ill ways, but...
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (17:17):
So the creative side of the cooking and recipes and exploring that kind of stuff doesn't always lend itself to running the spreadsheets and the numbers in the business.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (17:27):
Absolutely. And so for anybody who is thinking of, Hey, you know, I wanna start my own business, I encourage it. I think it's great. But wherever you feel you may have shortcomings or maybe you don't know the shortcomings yet, and you say, you know, I need help with this. Or you see you're lacking in a certain area, reach out and get help, like hire somebody or call in a friend or, or something. So it will definitely benefit you.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (17:53):
Where are you--how's the scone business these days?
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (17:57):
The scone business is doing really well. And thank you.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (18:01):
And you're making money at it. You finally got the prices, right?
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (18:03):
I've got my prices, right. We're we are selling them on Market Wagon, which we're excited about. But you know, when I made the scones--I'm not like somebody who's been making scones for 20 years and it's not a family recipe, but...
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (18:16):
Yeah, that's not Slovak and that's not Italian. That's baking.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (18:18):
Yes. So I had gotten a call from a group cuz we do catering as well. And they asked to do a tea party--and they wanted scones. And so I started baking scones and I couldn't figure out why some were falling flat. Some were holding its shape and looking fine. And I just said, well, you know, I've gotta kind of approach this as a producer and research. What makes good scone what doesn't and you know, one of the keys is frozen butter and the butter's gotta be grated really, really well. So the next time you make your scones, Nick...
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (18:54):
Frozen butter?
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (18:55):
Frozen butter, just like a pie would. And so, anyway, so I made the scones--everybody, loved them. Well, one night separate my husband and I went out to dinner and we went for after dinner to a walk to a local coffee shop. And he said, let's go in for dessert and get some coffee. And I said, great. And we walked in and my husband said, what do you have for dessert? And the girl said, we've got bagels. And we were like, bagels for dessert? Like, is that a Southern thing?
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (19:25):
No.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (19:26):
Bagels.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (19:27):
That's not a thing. It's not anywhere.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (19:29):
No, I was like, we, I mean New York, but that's a breakfast thing. So anyway, so my husband said your scones would do really, really well here. They're great for breakfast. They're great. Anytime he's like, let's email the owner and see if they like them. And I, you know--you sometimes I just--me personally, I never think it's good enough. And I was like, no, no, it's not gonna be good enough.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (19:51):
You didn't think your scones were good enough to sell at a coffee shop?
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (19:54):
I mean, I thought they were good. Yeah.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (19:55):
That was currently selling bagels for dessert?
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (19:58):
So anyway, so I, I baked some, so my husband actually emailed the owner and he emailed us back and said, I'd love to try your scones. And so like a week later I go there, I baked three different flavors, my orange, cranberry, chocolate chip, and blueberry. I figure those, everybody likes one of those flavors. And so since I work in TV, I figured I'm a good judge of character. So if you eat that scone in front of me, I can tell, do you really like it? Are you pretending to like it? You know, do you like it? So I brought them and I meet the guy and I'm like, here, go ahead, try 'em. And he said, well, I think I'm gonna take these in the back and try them with the staff. And in my head, I'm thinking, well, that's not gonna work because I'm not gonna be able to read...
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (20:42):
That wasn't the plan.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (20:44):
Can I come in the back with you? So he took the bagels. I mean, he took the scones and he
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (20:49):
Took the bagels. we're not cutting that by the way.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (20:53):
That's please, please. So he took, he took the scones in the back and you know, that night I must have looked at my phone a hundred times waiting for this guy to call waiting me no phone call. Next day, no phone call. Day after that, no phone call. And I'm wondering like, do they have the right number? Well, of course they have the right number. I gave them my business card. So the third day--and I'm kind of annoyed at this point--I thought, well, the very least the guy could do was call me back and say, you know what? They didn't work. They not, for us, not a good fit or anything. The third day, this woman called back from his office and she said, I'm sorry, we didn't get back to you. We've been very, very busy. And I'm thinking, okay, again, but you know, here's this build up to the failure. And she said, you know, I wanna let you know something. She said, the owner is a bit of a scone snob.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (21:47):
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (21:48):
And it was the first time I ever heard scone snob and...
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (21:51):
Right. That's not a thing.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (21:53):
Yeah. And, and it's not a thing, but it, it sounds like it's a thing to like a, a lead up to telling me that it's a no go. And so anyway, so she said, you know, he travels the world, getting different coffee beans and such, and wherever he goes, he always orders scones. That's his thing. He loves scones. And I was like, okay. And she goes, I wanna quote him. He tried your scones. And he said, these are some of the best scones I've ever had. And I thought, coming from a scone snob, I am running with that. I will take it. And so he said, she said, based on your scones, you can sell anything you want in this coffee shop, but please definitely your scones. So we've still been selling our scones there. And, um...
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (22:40):
What else do you sell there?
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (22:41):
We sell our banana bread, blueberry muffins, lemon loafs, a lot of similar things that I've now shared on Market Wagon, which has been doing well. People seem to really enjoy our baked goods, which we enjoy making.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (22:58):
Well I'll I wanna get to that, but you, okay? Yeah.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (23:02):
Are you a scone snob by any chance?
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (23:03):
I'm not a scone snob.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (23:07):
You like scones?
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (23:08):
I do like scones. I do. I like bagels too, but not for dessert. You know what I am a snob of is pancakes and this relates and here's why. It's because the reason I like pancakes is because pancakes are like cooking. You can--you can experiment with them. They're not as temperamental as baking. So, so I've made pancakes with, with sour cream in them, with apple sauce in them. I've cut all the sugar and milk and used just a can of Dr. Pepper for all of the sugar spices.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (23:41):
Oh my gosh.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (23:42):
Yeah. Don't put any vanilla in. Don't put any salt in, put any sugar in and don't put any milk in and just use a can of Dr. Pepper on the rest of your dry ingredients. And it comes with 23 different flavors. Also all the sugar that you're gonna need for it. And it's just a really good flavor. It's it's different. I love doing that. All that to say baking and cooking are vastly different things.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (24:02):
Oh, absolutely.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (24:03):
So you, we talked the whole first half of this conversation about how you learned to cook from your Italian and Slovak parents where you're experimenting and you're dropping new things in and you're not using measuring sticks and you're being creative. You can't do that in baking, can you?
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (24:20):
No, baking...
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (24:20):
Baking is chemistry.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (24:21):
It's a science. You really have to follow those recipes.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (24:26):
Where'd you learn to do that?
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (24:27):
Well, you know, I will say my mom did some baking, not as much with cooking, you know, we had our poppy seeds and nut breads and things like that. Yeah. But you know, I working with Martha for almost 20 years, Martha Stewart she had this mantra, you have to learn something new every day. And so she baked almost every day on the show and I would look at those recipes and say, you know, although I may not have time every day to bake on the weekend. I would say, I wanna try this. I wanna and if it didn't work, I was lucky enough to like go in on Monday and say, Martha, my bread didn't rise. Why not? Yeah. Did I do wrong? Or if she had a chef on the show, I could ask, you know, Emeril or Mario Batali or any of them, you know, tell me about this or Lydia. So I was very fortunate to have that, but you know, today, you know, thanks to the internet, there are so many like cooking videos or baking videos that for anybody out there who wants to try to learn you know, and can't come to Loudon [County] to learn and take one of our classes...
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (25:34):
Or for people who can't answer the question, how did you learn? I give you the question, how did you learn to bake? And I just love how nonchalantly--like it's not even a big deal--You're like, well, you know, Martha Stewart taught me and Chef Emeril. But anybody who wants to can Google it yeah. Okay. Sure,
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (25:55):
Well, I,--you know, I am--I do feel very fortunate to have worked with some of the greatest chefs that are out there and known today. And you know, Martha, she's not a, a trained chef. She never went to cooking school, but she learned from her parents, she learned from her mom. And she, you know, having her chefs on every day learn from them. So, you know, sometimes people will ask me what cooking school did you go to? And I'm like, I went to the Martha Stewart school of cooking where I just, you know, learned something new every day. And--but I'm not perfect. And I--there are recipes that sometimes go terribly, terribly wrong.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (26:35):
So alright. How did we become so fortunate to have your food offered on Market Wagon and delivered to people's doors? How did that come about?
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (26:46):
Well, you know, a friend of mine actually told me about Market Wagon and you know, I think the way she described it was, she said think of--because I do crafts--and she goes, think of crafts being sold on Etsy. She said, Market Wagon is like the Etsy for farmers. She's like, you get all this great seasonal, local food. It's awesome. And it's funny because, I think back in the day there was this commercial where the Hair Club for Men. I don't know if you remember that you were probably too young.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (27:23):
I do. Not only am I the president, I'm also a client.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (27:27):
I'm a client. And so not only do I sell on Market Wagon, I'm also a client of Market Wagon and you know, just starting to buy local seasonal, fresh food. I thought this is great. And a lot of the things I was buying, like I did buy a butternut squash. I thought, you know, I could make a delicious salad out of this or soup and I could then sell it on Market Wagon. And so a lot of the ingredients that we use, I get from your local farmers--again, buying what's in season, buying organic when you can. You know, buying local I will buy from Market Wagon. I often sell our things sometimes just at local farmers markets in town. And when I'm there, I love to hear what's, you know, what they have, what, you know, new things they have, what new varieties of tomatoes that we can add to salads, et cetera. And so when this friend had told me about Market Wagon and I started exploring, I said, this is such a great, great thing and was super excited to find out about it. And I tell everybody wherever I go about it, I said, you know, you've gotta check out Market Wagon and...
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (28:37):
Well, thank you.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (28:38):
Yes. Well, you know, I, I, I kind of like to be this walking advertisement and I, I don't only push my food. That's on Market Wagon. I just tell them, you know, you want a great head of lettuce, go on Market Wagon. You want some great tomatoes. You know, when you taste that fresh, locally grown--like fresh fruits or vegetables, it, it just tastes so much better than, you know, the store bought ones. I, you know, I just, I notice a difference. It's it's amazing. It's, you know it, I tell everybody to, to try it, you know, try it one time. If you, you know, you'll never go back and you try it one time. You'll love it.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (29:16):
Try the scones, maybe a bagel. all right.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (29:20):
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (29:21):
So well, thank you. For sharing your wonderful foods on Market Wagon. We know we can find food from you on Market Wagon. Where else can our listeners find out about what you have to offer and maybe even come and see you face to face?
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (29:38):
Well, we do go to local farmers markets in the Loudon Tennessee area, which is about 20 minutes from Knoxville, but we also do some Knoxville, local markets as well. And also our website CooknCraftAcademy.com. You can find our, if you're in the area and you wanna stop by, you can come by and buy local foods. You know, you can order online from us as well. We're not shipping our food right now, but if you're local to the area, you can buy online and swing by and pick it up. Maybe that'll be at one of our next phases is, you know, being able to, to ship food. But some of the things, the scones are easy to ship, but some of our salads. They, they would never make it.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (30:22):
No, they they're shipped through Market Wagon cuz we can get it there fresh.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (30:25):
absolutely. Absolutely. That's the nice trade off.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (30:29):
Great. Christina, thank you so much for being my guest today. It's been a delight to talk with you about your history and food and how you got into a food business. It's been a pleasure.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (30:43):
Well, I appreciate the opportunity. Go have a bagel on me.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (30:48):
I'll have bagel for dessert tonight
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (30:53):
And I'll ship you some of our scones.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (30:56):
Well and they better be the best scones in the world.
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (30:59):
Yes. And before you know it you'll be a scone snob.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (31:01):
I'll become a scone snob. You're gonna turn me into one
Christina Deyo (Cook n Craft Academy) (31:05):
Thank you, Nick. I appreciate it.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (31:07):
Thank you, Christina.
Nick Carter (Host - Market Wagon) (31:15):
Thanks for listening to this episode of More Than A Mile. Be sure to sign up for Market Wagon at marketwagon.com or after downloading the Market Wagon app for iOS or Android. Follow us @MarketWagon on Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook for stories, recipes, special announcements, news, and just digital handshakes from our friendly farming community. If you enjoyed More Than A Mile, please rate the podcast and write a review on iTunes, CastBox, PodChaser, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcast. Thank you for continuing to support local food.