As you may know, we at Jar Store love to get in touch with our customers, and share their stories with you. Recently, we were lucky enough to speak with Ann Bloomquist, co-founder of a wonderful company known as Pantala. Operated out of Park City, Utah, Pantala provides the world with a unique product; a food topping inspired by Mediterranean dishes, bringing something delicious and proprietary to many Americans who would’ve otherwise never expanded their palates.
We’re lucky enough to work with Ann and Susan, providing them with the 8 oz canning jars that they use to package their Mediterranean topping. At Jar Store, our goal is to make premium glassware available to anyone in the nation who wants their business to succeed.
In addition to Pantala, Ann and her business partner Susan Odell also founded a non-profit organization known as EATS, or, Eat Awesome Things at School. EATS is dedicated to bringing more than just healthy foods to school-aged children, they provide kids with the generational knowledge and skills to truly understand the food that they eat. We had an enlightening conversation with Ann, where we asked all of our burning questions about her travels, Pantala, and EATS.
What is Pantala?
Pantala’s signature product is a Mediterranean blend of ingredients, featuring red peppers, Kalamata olives, feta cheese, and much more. Unique blends of bold flavors can often be surprising in their wide applications, and even Ann herself was surprised to learn just how adaptable her topping could be. The dish has a humble origin story, originally starting out as a topping for the smoked salmon that Ann would make for her friends, which turned into a pre-packaged accoutrement when her friends starting requesting jars for themselves. Ann’s partner Susan was a professionally trained chef, who had studied culinary arts at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, and once she got her hands on some of the topping, she realized that simply topping salmon was an underutilization of the Mediterranean blend. Susan had ideas and suggestions, and with their combined business acumen, Ann and Susan were able to turn a humble topping into a successful business.
While Susan’s culinary training came from one of the most prestigious institutions in the world, Ann developed her love for food, as well as her cooking skills, through life experiences. Ann detailed that her inspiration for Pantala came to her while she was traveling abroad. While living on a boat and traveling through several countries with her family for 11 years, she met people who, as she put it, “truly appreciated the food that they put in their bodies, as more than just sustenance, but as a cultural bridge as well.'”
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Being that food is an integral part of culture, it was impossible for her to not develop a deeper understanding and appreciation for cultural dishes as she traveled. Prior to her adventures, Ann was a self-proclaimed “turkey sandwich eater,” someone who was satisfied with what they already knew that they liked, and didn’t tend to venture beyond their culinary safe-spaces. However, she quickly discovered that people in other cultures respect their bodies in a way that is much different from most of the people that she knew back home.
The food that she ate abroad was fresh, safe, and free from factory modification, chemicals, and addictive ingredients. Ann told us that she experienced food in a brand new way, seeing “large wood-fired ovens, and whole pigs buried in sand to be prepared for a meal,” and her views on food widened as her exposure to new cultures grew.
“I used to say that if I could just take a pill that would satiate my hunger, I would do it in a heartbeat. After traveling and experiencing all of these new foods and cultures, I pulled a complete 180 on that.”
Those cultural experiences were valuable to Ann, and she gained more than just an appreciation for their food. Through her travels, she found that other countries view people in a different light than she was used to. When we asked Ann what pieces of those cultures she wishes she could instill in Americans, here’s what she had to say:
“I always go back to two places in my mind, Fiji and Mexico. They value family there, and they treat children so well. Family is big. When I saw how they would treat my son at the time, it made me so happy. They really embrace and revere children, they put children on pedestals. They treat children with the values that they want to see in the world, so those children grow up to embody those values.”
We think that Ann is doing an excellent job instilling that into her environment through her and Susan’s non-profit organization, EATS. EATS is an inspiring organization, providing children with an “edible education,” that will ensure that they will be able to lead a healthy lifestyle beyond just their school lunches.
Ann’s experiences abroad greatly contributed to her ideas for EATS, after seeing how children were revered in other cultures, she dedicated EATS towards instilling positive values centered around food in American children. Ann told us that she wants to “bring the experience of whole, real foods into the school foods program. Pantala’s goal is to bring the flavors of the world to your table in an easy to use way. One jar gives you all of the flavors of the Mediterranean.”
Rather than leaving the school lunches bland and boring, Ann wants to give children access to interesting foods, and instill in them the skills that they need to bring those foods to the table for the rest of their lives.
We were also curious about the name chosen for their company, Pantala. Pantala is a name belonging to a genus of dragonfly, the “pan” meaning “global,” or “everywhere,” denoting that this specific genus can be found on every continent in the world other than Antarctica. Pantala the company, however, works largely in a community-centric model, providing support and donations for Park City programs like EATS, and backing local businesses by stocking their Mediterranean topping primarily in Park City stores. The best way to make an impact on the world is to first make an impact on the people that you can reach nearby, so we asked Ann how she would like to see her organizations impact the world in the future.
“I would love to see the children impacted by EATS to take it wherever they go in the world. We want to give these children the foundation to succeed anywhere and everywhere, and as they do, spread the values that they’ve learned and raise their kids that way. For Pantala, I want to bring people together. People use Pantala products as a way to entertain, and introduce people to something new. Things like Dukka are brand new concepts and flavors for many people. Sharing food is sharing the soul, sharing love, and impacting the world through food is the same as impacting the world through shared experiences. Shared experiences can bring us all together, and food is a common ground.”
If you would like to read more about Pantala and EATS, check out Pantala’s website here. You can order their Mediterranean blend on their website, and if you love the jars they use, you can get your own from Jar Store right here!
