OUR TEAM
Led by Esther Luongo Psarakis, a subject matter expert in the field to provide you with a comprehensive educational “Foodpreneurial” experience.
Esther Luongo Psarakis- Managing Partner- Foodpreneur®
Esther Luongo Psarakis brings business experience of over 30 years. Creator of Foodpreneur®, a strategic sales/marketing and educational consultancy, she saw a need to better address the educational needs of entrepreneurial food companies, creating a comprehensive curriculum for launching a specialty foods company. She also works with established international companies seeking to launch products in the US.
As an advisor with the NJ Small Business Development Centers and with the Rutgers Food Innovation Center, and as a Business Coach with Rising Tide Capital, she primarily focuses on food and beverage-centric companies. Her strong skill set on mentoring, concept development, business plan and sales strategies has been applied to a wide range of companies. Examples include; extra virgin olive oil, olive products, bakery products, healthy frozen meals, baby food, ethnic foods, healthy beverages, popcorn, jams, dips, and vegan foods. One of her business plans was selected for publication in the latest edition of “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Business Plans”.
With international companies, ranging from Tunisia, El Salvador, Ecuador, Brazil, Canada, Greece and other countries, she has crafted effective sales and marketing strategies for US launch. This has included trade show management, sourcing and on-boarding of personnel and resources, developing branding and sales distribution for entry into the US ethnic, specialty and food service channels.
As an entrepreneur, Esther launched Taste of Crete, a gourmet food company which imported a variety of artisan Greek food products and created a line of Greek cookies and fresh prepared meals which sold at King’s, Whole Foods, and Shoprite. Its products had been featured in The New York Times, New Jersey Monthly, Star Ledger, Food & Wine, Saveur, Better Homes & Gardens, USA Today, Huffington Report, and Philadelphia Inquirer.
Esther has been a speaker and educator for a variety of organizations, including the Specialty Food Association, Raritan Valley Community College, Bergen Community College, Fairleigh Dickenson University, St. Joseph’s University, Rutgers University Food Innovation Center and Jalima & Associates. She has been featured in The New York Times, New Jersey Monthly, USA Today and Huffington Report, appeared on FOX News, ABC, Channel 12, Ebru TV, WSOU 89.5 and Martha Stewart Radio. Some awards include, NJSBDC Success Award, Somerset County Business Partnership Small Business Economic Vitality Award, BPeace VERA Award, and Sam’s Club Emerging Women Entrepreneur.
Denise Caracappa-Marketing Manager, Foodpreneur®
Denise is the founder of Caracappa Culinary Consulting. She has fifteen plus years of field sales, marketing communications, promotion/public relations, brand development, trade show/event-publicity experience all geared for meeting sales/marketing goals for gourmet international and American specialty food products. Held title of National Sales Manager for New Jersey based European food importer. Traveled to Europe to attend prestigious Food Trade Shows and tour facilities of gourmet food and beverage producers in Austria, Germany, Italy and Croatia.
At the summer 2017 Specialty Food Show in New York City, in conjunction with a USAID initiative, Denise partnered with Esther Luongo Psarakis of Foodpreneur assisting with “missionary sales efforts” at the ‘Taste of Tunisia’ Pavilion.
Presently, she is USA Contact for ZENA EXOTICFRUITS, with a line of drinks/jams/syrups/ condiments, based in Dakar, Senegal, managing their USA sales operations. In 2020 and 2021, along with Esther Luongo Psarakis, was part of West Africa Investment Trade HUB/USAID team promoting a portfolio of food products seeking USA market entry.
Holds a Master’s Degree in Food Marketing from Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the only such program in the world.