About us
Culinary Culture Connections imports unique, sustainably sourced foods that allow you to explore the wonderfully rich culinary traditions of Latin America. As curators of foods and beverages that provide unique, fun and global eating experiences, we want to help the discerning cook and eater to take an amazing culinary journey into the heart of Latin America.
Our purpose is to create partnerships between chefs and adventurous eaters that recognize and appreciate the social, cultural, economic and environmental value of unique ingredients; with those who truly appreciate culinary exploration and experimentation, ethical trading practices, preservation of cultural heritage and environmental stewardship.
Today, there exists a growing global, gastronomic subculture that has a greater interest in social and environmental responsibility, as well as a penchant for new eating experiences based on discovery and exploration. In this group, the collection of social experiences around food and commensality, assumes greater importance. Experiences with new and distinct flavors are often as important as the food itself. Thus, the collection of culinary experiences becomes a significant feature for this group, which is the target of this enterprise because we share certain, unique values.
- Authenticity
- Transparency - traceability
- Taste - distinctions of unique qualities
- Novelty, exploration, and discovery
- Fair economic returns to producers
- Sociocultural preservation
- Importance of historical or geographical origins
Who we are
Culinary Culture Connections is the product of our passion for the cultural and natural marvels of Latin America. The culmination of over 50 years of combined experience in economic and community development, biodiversity conservation, and education throughout, as well as our intense interest in gastronomy, brought us to the conclusion that not enough of the culinary traditions from throughout Latin America are known to the American palate. We were inspired by great chefs like Alex Atala in Brazil and Gastón Acúrio in Peru who reimagined Peru's national cuisines by rediscovering and fusing the wealth of culinary traditions and ingredients found within the wide variety of cultural and environmental diversity in their respective countries.
Brian Kermath
Co-founder Brian Kermath has worked in Latin America since 1985 and is a long-time aficionado of unique foods from the region. Brian is a geographer by training with a background in biodiversity conservation, sustainability, and regional and community development. His work has included sustainable development in Latin America and food plant diversity in the Americas. Brian has been a professor of Environmental Science, Geography, and Latin American Studies and has directed programs and conducted research in rural sustainability in Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Venezuela, and the U.S. Career highlights include working briefly with the late Chico Mendes, writing a nearly 2,000-page dictionary of edible plants in the Americas, and winning competitive grants for sustainable community development in Latin America.
Greg Prang
Greg is co-founder and managing partner. He is an anthropologist who spent more than 20 years living and working in Latin America. Working in sustainable development with artisanal fishing communities at the Universidade do Amazonas and the Zoological Society of London, he developed a passion for the history, and the cultural and landscape diversity of Amazonia. After working for 8 years of snooping around pantries and refrigerators of hundreds of households as a consumer researcher in the food and beverage industry, he decided to meld his passions for socio-environmental resiliency and food culture. Greg is driven to build thriving gastronomic networks that connect innovative chefs and adventurous eaters with the traditional Amazonian and Andean societies that produce distinctive foods of great cultural and environmental importance.
- CCC is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington (near Seattle)
- Contact us at info@culinarycultureconnections.com
- Visit us on Facebook
What Matters
Environmental Stewardship
We only source products that are grown and processed with environmental stewardship in mind, protecting socio-biodiversity and habitat. We promote genetic diversity of traditional cultivars that are unique to their environment and the traditional societies that produce them. Products reflect values and beliefs they believe about forests, rivers and diverse cultures, including local knowledge that is adaptive and harmonious with local ecological conditions. Learn More
Authenticity and Transparency
Our Goal is to offer socio-biodiversity products of traditional/forest peoples, with their own brands or in partnerships that recognize the social, cultural, economic and environmental value of them. For all our products, we want you to know where it is from, who made it, how it was made, and what’s in it. Traceability is also a critical value for us. Every product is identified according to a specific biome/geographical region with identifiable environmental characteristics. No additional ingredients are ever added along the supply chain and no synthetic agricultural inputs are used in production. Learn More
Social Responsibility
We value contributing to economic opportunity and security for small producers: indigenous, peasant, and other traditional producers through fair income generation. We aim to ensure the preservation of cultural heritage and the celebration of cultural diversity, especially as seen in food systems where traditional knowledge is passed down through generations. and from identifiable producers paid just prices. Learn More
Culinary Excellence, Adventure & Discovery
Our products offer the finest in culinary distinction. Our expert curation of unique and rare foods inspires quality gastronomic experiences motivated by the desire for exploration, discovery, and adventure in eating. Claude Levi-Strauss claimed, “things that are good to eat, are good to think.” With this in mind, every product we sell provides an opportunity at the table to ponder and chat about the unique origins, production methods, and producers that create amazing culinary memories. Learn More