As Plums Cooking Company approaches 40 years in business, it continues to celebrate the heartbeat of the home—the kitchen.
The kitchen is where life happens, describes managing partner Lizzie Stewart. Along with being the place weeknight dinners are made, it’s also where people gather to celebrate birthdays, holidays, and milestones.
“We believe investing in the kitchen isn’t about having the most expensive things, but it’s about having things you love to use—a knife that feels wonderful in your hand, a pan you’ll own for decades, a beautiful serving piece that comes out every Thanksgiving,” said Stewart. “Those objects become part of your life, and eventually part of your family’s story.”
Plums Cooking Company’s talented team has witnessed how the way people cook, shop, learn, and gather has changed dramatically over the last 40 years. The next chapter for the downtown Sioux Falls boutique is about bringing the very best parts of the Plums experience forward, including a new partnership (Stewart joining Penny Klinedinst), a new website and online shopping experience, a fresh set of cooking classes, and more ways to educate and inspire customers both in the store and at home.
This holiday season is the beginning of that forwardthinking strategy. The team is launching Plums Host & Roast—a holiday experience designed around something they hear from customers often: “I want to have people over, but I don’t want it to be so stressful.”
“Instead of simply selling holiday products, we’re going to help people through the whole experience,” explained Stewart. “We’ll have 21 Days of Holiday Sides, followed by Four Days All About That Bird, with recipes, techniques, tools, wine and food pairings, entertaining ideas, and plenty of help from the Plums team.”
Stewart says this is a great example of where they’re taking the business.
“We don’t just want to sell you something for your kitchen,” she said. “We want to help you use it, enjoy it, and bring people around it.”
With the upcoming anniversary, the team feels a responsibility to honor their history, while also preparing Plums for the next generation. There are customers who have been shopping with Plums for decades, and now the team says they’re meeting their children and grandchildren, which is “incredibly special.”
“We don’t want to reinvent what Plums is,” said Stewart. “We want to protect what has always made it unique and find new ways to share it.”
For the Host & Roast, the team created a hosting personality quiz that helps people discover what kind of host they naturally are. The team then uses that to help guide them toward menus, serving ideas, wine pairings, products, and tips that fit their style of entertaining.
“Some people love planning every detail, while some want everything beautiful, but simple,” said Stewart. “Some would happily spend three days cooking, and others need us to tell them what they can buy, what they can make ahead, and what they absolutely don’t need to worry about.”
There’s no “right” way to host.
As the holiday season can get stressful, Stewart says quality tools remove friction from cooking. A sharp knife set, dependable pans, or the right kitchen instrument or device can make it easier and more enjoyable.
The food matters just as much. Plums has evolved beyond cookware over the years with wine, cheese, olive oils, vinegars, and pantry ingredients.
“We love being able to help someone with the entire experience,” said Stewart. “Not simply selling them the pan, but helping answer, ‘What are you going to make in it?’”
100 GOLDEN TICKETS. 100 WINNERS.
The Plums Golden Ticket Holiday Promotion begins Small Business Saturday on Saturday, November 28. Get a Golden Ticket, and everyone is a winner. You could win cooking classes, olive oils and vinegars, cheese, gift baskets, special discounts, and even a Plums shopping spree.
Food creates connection, and the team believes a kitchen doesn’t mean much if no one is cooking in it. Cooking is one of the most accessible forms of creativity, from choosing the ingredients, to color options, to texture, to flavors, to the presentation.
“You can follow the exact same recipe as someone else and still make it your own,” said Stewart. “And then you give it away. That’s what we love most about food as an art form—ultimately, it’s meant to be shared and creates memories.”
The team at Plums Cooking Company says watching food create connection during cooking classes is their favorite part, from strangers talking across the table to friends laughing over butchering a recipe to a couple celebrating an anniversary.
Customers have taken classes at Plums, registered for weddings, bought gifts, discovered favorite recipes, and returned year after year.
“There’s tremendous history behind us, but there’s also so much energy around what’s ahead,” said Stewart.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT PLUMSCOOKING.COM+
