Sienna & Friends with Aurélie D’Hulst
“Every bite is a memory, and the most powerful memories are the first ones.”
Super excited to share Aurélie D’Hulst Belgian startup company Sienna & Friends! With a passion for food and cooking and over a decade of experience in the spices industry, Aurélie created this company in hopes that more families can bring home cooking using spice mixtures, veggie sauces, spreads, pasta and health snacks to develop the palate of little ones starting from 6 months and up! We guarantee after you read her story you will want to buy some of Sienna & Friends babyfood to feed your little ones!
Curito:
Tell us a little about who Aurélie D'hulst is and why you started Sienna Friends!
Aurélie:
Since I was a little girl, I have always been passionate about cooking & discovering new flavours. It is not by chance that I worked for the last 10 years in the herbs & spices industry. During that time, not only did I learn so much about herbs and spices, but I also fell in love with them. Their adventurous character and multiple and various benefits never ceased to surprise and impress me. So, when I became a mum, it was only natural for me to cook flavoursome, healthy, home-cooked meals, filled with spices & herbs & so many other good stuffs.
Bit by bit, my little boys both developed a very adventurous palate & now prefer complex, mixed up food from bland, single flavours. However, I was amazed about the reactions of most of my mummy friends. So many misconceptions exist about what we can and cannot feed our kids with.
Understanding the challenge faced by parents in their food adventures, I felt I could help… With this project, I hope to be able to help parents transform their little ones into adventurous foodies by establishing a healthy relationship with food since their very first bite.
I can tell you for sure that the reasons why we continue to serve bland food to babies are not based on science or research. On the contrary, it is a good thing for babies to mimic adventurous adult food. The more I read, the more confirmations I received about how important it is to introduce as many new foods & flavours as possible before a child turns one (it is called the baby’s gastronomic golden age). At that time, he is the most receptive to new tastes. Each ingredient a baby will learn to like at that age, will, most likely, be liked for a lifetime. This will help him make good food choices later in life.
The baby’s gastronomic golden age...at that time, he is the most receptive to new tastes. Each ingredient a baby will learn to like at that age, will, most likely, be liked for a lifetime. This will help him make good food choices later in life.
Curito:
Who is Sienna? How did you come up with the brand, is there a personal story to it?
Aurélie:
Sienna is the girl we will never have We have two boys Amedeo and Leopoldo. Sienna is the name we would have given, if we would have had a girl. But my husband is more than satisfied with our two sons, so now, at least I have my daughter. And… she takes me at least as much time as my two boys.
We have chosen to give her an identity, and a name, because it is a very personal project for both of us (my Italian husband Massimo is working with me on Sienna & Friends). And also, I believe it makes it much easier for the storytelling to be able to use Sienna & her friends. They make our lessons & stories lighter, more fun, less judgmental…
Sienna started her journey as a tiny foodie when she was only a few months old. Every day, her mummy’s homecooked food would take her on a little adventure into the wonderful world of new flavours, colours, smells and textures. Each meal, shared with her family, is an exciting experience for Sienna. As she is still a baby, Sienna is very curious & open to all those new flavours. And although she doesn’t know it yet, all those tastes greatly contribute to the development of her palate. She is slowly forging the foundation of a healthy and happy relationship with food that will last for the rest of her life.
Sienna met her friends during her foodie adventures. Each travel taught her new tastes, eating habits, flavours & textures, and made her the little foodie she is now. She dreamt of taking all these delicious recipes back home, so that she could propose them to all of her baby friends who only just started their food adventures. Her friends from around the world made this possible by sharing with her their family recipes. So, let the adventures of your littles foodies begin!
At first we hesitated with a more general name like “little foodies”, but we soon understood that that also was not a good choice in term of SEO and finding us on the intern.
In terms of branding, we wanted something fresh, personal, different than the typical strong colours that most of multinationals use for their baby brands. Something that made it directly clear that our products are made with love, by parents, for parents. With an organic, healthy look & feel.
Our products are made with love, by parents, for parents. With an organic, healthy look & feel.
Curito:
Did you collaborate with a branding agency to do all your design work? How did you find your designer? Any tips for individuals starting their business on how to allocate budget and have an eye for what to look for?
Aurélie:
Yes, we do. We work with Quatremains. Honestly, an easy choice for me as I have been working with them since 10 years (for my spice & herbs projects). So they know me very well I think the most important thing in finding a good branding agency fit, is to look for somebody that truly wants to translate YOUR story in design/branding. And not the other way around… We did visit some other agencies and I often felt “unheard”, like they just wanted to propose us something that they found beautiful, or trendy. For this concept, I was very happy that our designer was herself a mum, touched by our project, and understood exactly what story I wanted to tell.
However, they created the foundation of our brand and corporate identity. For the moment I translate myself this identity within social media, flyers etc.
Curito:
We know you have a background in the food and spice industry, was that the natural transition for you to go into the food business? Is baby food a competitive market in Europe? What makes Sienna Friends stand out from other baby food companies out there?
Aurélie:
Indeed, I love food, cooking and working within the food industry. And I’m a mum, concerned about the future health of the generation of my little ones. So, for me, this is indeed a perfect mix. However, it is not an easy market to start in as a small start-up. The babyfood market has been ruled for ages by a handful of multinationals. Mostly because quality needs are so high, laws are so strict and food safety matters are scary. But I also believe that they took a monopoly on this industry putting fear in the minds of mums, starting almost a century ago :
“the only SAFE thing to do is to serve your little one’s industrialized jars, with no risk in terms of microbiology, intolerances, allergies”
But honestly, we are not in the same century anymore !! Mums are not that afraid anymore, or at least know that they should not. Mums understand more and more how absurd it is to feed your baby something that they would not even try themselves. Mums are been advised and re-assured from the professionals that surround them to work on the nutritional education of their kids, to cook at home, to work on the palate development of their little ones. Especially because these professionals now understand what a bad impact feeding tasteless, bland, purees has on the relationship little ones create with food, for the rest of their lives.
So yes, the numbers of old school baby jars is decreasing in the whole of Europe (and probably of the world), and yes, you do see that smaller companies as ourselves see an opportunity there. Most of our “competitors” however, propose better alternatives to the very industrialized jars: organic ones, fresh ones, cooked at low temperatures ones, purees in pouches… However, the idea is still the same: they propose to replace a complete meal by a jarred meal (with no connection to real ingredients).
We are different ! We offer an alternative to traditional baby-food and industrialized jars which are out of fashion for many parents. We want parents to COOK and use REAL ingredients, so that children grow up knowing what a broccoli looks like. Basically we have adapted adult products to the standards and nutritional needs of the little ones. Why should kids eat jars and ready to eat products that often parents don't even want to taste? More and more parents agree with us and we are seeing a real change of mindset and the return of home-made cooking. Yet nothing is done to facilitate the lives of parents. They don't find products suitable for babies which will help them with home-made cooking. They don't find enough healthy solutions for breakfast or snack. Despite their willingness to do good, parents are often taken off guard. As a result, babies and kids are often served tasteless meals and the nutrition education of their children is regularly discarded. Don't forget, the only way, to make little one’s eat healthy, in the long run, is if they love what they eat!
Curito:
How do you come up with your recipes? What does that process look like from conception to final product!
Aurélie:
Well… They are all based on the recipes that I make/made at home for my little ones (I starting working on Sienna & Friends 2,5 years ago, when Leopoldo was only 2 months old).
After that of course they needed to be 100% babyproof: both legally and quality wise. That meant a lot of analyses, changes, re-analyzing and adapting a bit more… The challenge in making babyfood taste good is to give flavour without using any salt, sugar or fats, and that includes all ingredients that have high % of these naturally present. Ofcourse my knowledge in spices and herbs came in very handy at that time. Spices & herbs make it possible to give flavour, in a very healthy way. And let’s be honest, that’s a very good habit to learn our little one’s since the start. Tons of other laws also need to be taken in consideration: % nitrates which makes it for example difficult to add a lot of certain veggies, afterwards we needed to check texture while producing non-manually, the effect of pasteurization, defining the BBE dates, and last but not least, we tried to be very sustainable in our choice of raw materials, which made it a huge challenge to analyze every ingredient and the most sustainable origin it should have.
We offer an alternative to traditional baby-food and industrialized jars which are out of fashion for many parents. We want parents to COOK and use REAL ingredients, so that children grow up knowing what a broccoli looks like.
Curito:
What were some of your biggest challenges you faced when you started Sienna Friends and what did you learn from it?
Aurélie:
The time and money it takes And also, that even the best product needs a good marketing plan in today’s market place!
People need to see a product at least 4 times before they buy it, and they will rarely spot it themselves in store. So we are now launching more social media adds, recipes, tasting, and it works miracles. Of course the best sales stunt is to make future clients taste!!
Another challenge we face is how to make potential buyers clear that we are not selling baby jarred meals. For almost all parents “babyfood = jarred complete meals”.
Curito:
With Covid19 affecting everyone's business, how are you currently coping with the lock down, and growing your business?
Aurélie:
For us COVID had a very bad timing! We launched our products in late November and were growing every month, especially since we started our tastings etc. Until COVID. We could not have sales meetings with potential clients, we could not organize tastings, but also, people reduced their shopping trips to the minimum, buying mostly essentials in a min. of time in store. Not ideal to discover our products. So yes, our sales dropped massively since COVID.
However, we sell more via our e-shop. I enjoyed having a bit more time to share our breakfast, lunch & snack recipes on social media and that worked really well for our webshop.
Curito:
What inspires you to continue to wake up every morning to connect and deliver amazing products to Sienna & Friends customers?
Aurélie:
Honestly, for me Sienna & Friends is so much more then selling products. Yes of course I hope to sell well, but I mostly want to create an awareness about the importance of nutritional education of our little ones. Something that does not yet make a part of so many young families and in my belief should.
Nutrition education could be compared to the language of taste and good eating habits. It goes through the development of the palate (no it's not only sugar and salt that give taste), by an exposure to real food and ingredients (a chicken doesn't have the shape of a nugget), through the kitchen and by the family table. And like learning a language, the youngest the easiest it is! There is a reason why the period between 6 months and 24 months is called the gastronomic golden age. At that age, children are curious and very open and sensitive to new tastes, textures, colours, and others. It is so the easiest moment to learn them a healthy relationship with food. That, believe me, will last for the rest of their lives. After that age, around 24 months, they enter a new stage: a phase of neophobia, a phase where kids are afraid of everything that is new to them. So you can imagine that, he will be shocked if, exactly at that difficult age, he is been served only foods that are completely new to him. That also means a high risk to addiction to sugar and salt, because if their palate has not been developed, if they have not been served tasty food before, that will be their first, very fatal contact with taste. And let to all unhealthy eating habits later in life. The way back is difficult ! 1 on 5 of the deaths in the world is linked to bad eating habits. These are super hard to chance at adult age. But so easy to avoid when we learn babies to eat well since the start, and enjoy healthy food.
So parents, did you get our message? Take advantage that your children are still young to offer them this beautiful gift that is nutrition intelligence. They will quickly learn it and it will undoubtedly help them develop a healthy relationship with food for the rest of their lives.
Curito:
In this new decade how do you hope to see Sienna & Friends grow?
Aurélie:
We dream big I hope to be able to chance a generation of how parents feed their little ones and of course to sell our products that are there to help them in that battle. To make home-cooking easier, to make their recipes tastier and to work on the palate development of their little ones. We started last year in Belgium and London. Will launch in Holland and French later this year. And hopefully we will start in other countries from 2021 on.
Don’t forget, the only way, to make little one’s eat healthy, in the long run, is if they love what they eat!
Curito:
You currently sell your products in Europe, for those living in other countries how do we get a hold of Sienna & Friends products or how do we stay connected so we can follow your new recipes and Sienna & Friends activities.
Aurélie:
For the moment we deliver in the whole of Europe with our e-shop. And I post tons of tasty recipes for babies from 6 months +, but also to make with your bigger kids, on FB and our website. Also, of course you can follow us on IG, to follow our tips & tricks, our advice and recipes. These are of course available for everybody ! We already received several interests from companies in Asia for our products and are very much open to work with them, as we know that it is a very interesting market for us. So who knows we will be available soon, even in Asia. If somebody really wants a special delivery, even outside of Europe, they can also contact us by mail: hello@siennafriends.com
Curito:
What are your tips for individuals who want to start a ecommerce food business? The dos and don't and must before they start!
Aurélie:
MARKETING!!! I must admit that we counted mostly on our sales in store and use our e-commerce mostly as a marketing tool. But we more and more understand the potential of our e-shop, and invest more and more in it. I think the key to a good e-commerce business is of course: reasonable prices, quick deliveries, unique products, a personal approach, having bloggers talk about you and social media advertising and campaigns.
Curito:
Thank you Aurélie for sharing Sienna & Friends journey with us we look forward to collaborating one day and can’t wait to see Sienna & Friends in Asia soon!
ABOUT SIENNA & FRIENDS
Sienna & Friends is a Belgian start-up, trying to re-think baby & toddlers food to better respond to the shift in mentalities and the return of home cooking.
We propose 100% organic, innovative and very yummy baby- & kids food products without added salt or sugar for home cooking parents.
(we do not propose complete meals; but products to use in home cooking: spice mixtures, veggie sauces, spreads, pasta, healthy snacks)
Our range is especially designed
to develop the palate of little ones (6m+)
to propose them tasty but healthy recipes (Because the only way to make little one’s eat healthy is if they love what they eat!)
and to help & motivate parents to cook at home:
save time in home cooking
jazz up their recipes
eliminate their concerns about ingredient suitability
& to introduce new tastes and flavours to their little ones.
But most importantly, our products will take little ones from 6 months old on tasty adventures which will teach them to love & even to prefer healthy food, for the rest of their lives. Research shows that the early years (6m+ -> 24m+) are an important ‘window of opportunity’ during which nutritional, dietary and behavioural advice is best received and most effective, linked to their natural curiosity. Optimal nutrition in early life not only gives a new-born baby the best start in life, but will also have lifelong positive effects in reducing the risk of a number of chronic diseases.
Food is meant to be enjoyed, and so should baby food!
We propose the following products:
Spices mixtures (6m+ 7 products).
Veggie sauces (8m+ 6 products).
Jams, spreads and oatmeal (10m+ 8 products).
🥕 Soups & pasta (8m+ 5 products).
🥥 Healthy snacks for young & old (12m+ 8 products).
Discover in detail our product ranges on our website https://siennafriends.com/gb/2-shop
First published onJune 8, 2020
Watch Aurélie and her sons create real food in the kitchen!
