Leigh Ann Pingree & The Kitchen
Providing Fresh, Ready-to-Go Meals Made with Love
story by KAREN SNYDER photos by CHARLOTTE BERKELEY
For almost ten years now, Beaufortonians have enjoyed delicious, healthy, ready-to-go meals prepared by the dedicated staff of The Kitchen, located in Island Square Shopping Center on Lady’s Island. Yet, talk to co-owner Leigh Ann Pingree, and she is as surprised as anyone that her dream to fill a niche, the need of helping busy parents feed their families, has blossomed into a thriving business providing wholesome, homemade food to just about everyone — from busy professionals to families to empty nesters.
“Feeding people just makes me happy,” says Pingree, “And feeding Beaufort is like feeding my family.” Pingree and her sister, Michelle Clark, co-founded The Kitchen in 2012 after realizing that busy families struggled to put healthy meals on their tables. “Today’s fast-paced lifestyle makes it difficult for people to sit down and enjoy a home-cooked family meal together.” Instead of grabbing less healthy alternatives from the fast-food line or even the grocery store, Pingree diligently curates recipes from which she plans and prepares an extensive menu of comfort foods, farm-fresh salads, soups, casseroles, pizzas, and fresh-baked breads and desserts.
“We make everything from scratch. We don’t take shortcuts. We take the time to cut all our vegetables ourselves, use the freshest herbs, and make all our own sauces, dressings, soups, etc.,” she explains. “When you think of a home-cooked meal, you think warm and inviting. That was the concept behind The Kitchen. We want our customers to feel the same way about the food we prepare when they take it home.”
Pingree’s philosophy around food makes sense. The youngest of nine children, she equates food with family. Calling the Lowcountry home since she was 11 years old, Pingree says that coming from a large family means you’re always cooking on a large scale. “I loved cooking with my mom. Since I was the youngest, I was at home the longest. I spent lots of time with my mom, cooking and preparing meals for family get-togethers. It’s something we loved doing together.”
Recalling memories of childhood, Pingree says her mom had always been such a great cook. “I remember sitting at the table, looking through cookbooks, planning out a big family meal when we knew everyone was coming back home, or planning dinner parties that my parents loved to host.” Now, she does much the same as she plans out each week’s meal specials and store offerings. “I still love to look through cookbooks, hold them in my hands, and decide on recipes I like to try. I definitely have a few go-to local cookbooks, and also rely on some family recipes and others that I find online.”
A graduate of the University of South Carolina, where she received a degree in business management, Pingree understood the challenges of getting meals on the table as a busy mom of three children, now ages 14-18. Little did she know how helpful that degree would be as she slowly launched The Kitchen.
“It really began with me prepping dinners from home for some busy friends of mine a few times a week. They thought others would like this service, too, so I sent emails out twice a week of what meals were available. Before long, that email list just grew and grew,” she explains, eventually leading her and her sister to open up commercial space in Newpoint on Lady’s Island.
“At first, the space was simply where we prepared our food and where customers came to pick up their pre-ordered meals. We didn’t advertise but word of mouth grew quickly. By 2017, we began operating five days a week and added refrigerators where customers could come and choose their meals directly.” According to Pingree, The Kitchen continued to grow beyond their expectations. “We began adding more and more refrigerators until we eventually outgrew our space.”
That’s when, after two years of planning, Pingree, her sister, and The Kitchen staff (which now includes 15-20 mostly part-time employees) made the jump to their current much larger retail space in January 2020. “We opened up just months before the pandemic hit.” But Pingree explains, it was actually “good timing” as she and the business were ready to fill what became an urgent need in the Beaufort community.
“We were already set up and ready to go when most everything else was closing down. There was so much uncertainty. People were hesitant to even go to the grocery store. But we were able to get fresh produce, food, and other items that weren’t readily available to the public, like gloves and cleaning supplies. We started thinking about what others couldn’t get and started setting up a little grocery store of these items, in addition to all the meal preparations we were doing during that time. We wanted to help our community get through a really difficult time.”
Through a service called Chow Now, customers were able to order online for pick up or delivery. “At first that meant us reworking our system and we delivered our meals by meeting people at the door. But eventually, we were able to allow limited numbers of people back into the store to shop and choose their food from the refrigerators. It was all about keeping our customers fed in the safest way possible while keeping our staff safe as well.”
Pingree reflects that, in many ways, each stage of business’ development seemed to have found her instead of her planning for it. “We just worked our way through things as the business continued to evolve along the way. It was important to us to listen to our customers and understand what they wanted. But we also wanted to be confident in each stage of growth before moving on to the next.”
Confessing her passion for being “at the stove,” Pingree says she takes the recipe inspirations she finds, tweaks them, and makes them her own. As The Kitchen continues its growth, Pingree admits that she has to step away from the stove a bit more and focus on training others at the stovetop, especially in making soups and sauces, but still makes sure she tastes everything before it gets packaged to go. “I am so fortunate and thankful to have the BEST staff here at The Kitchen. They love The Kitchen and work hard to keep it successful. We all work together to get the job done, we respect each other, and we are family.”
Anyone who shops at The Kitchen regularly knows there are some grab-n-go favorites worth picking up, such as the popular cranberry chicken salad, the to-die-for brownies, and chicken tetrazzini. “Our weekly specials are always popular, too.” Customers can find The Kitchen specials listed on the website at thebeauforkitchen.com or on social media @beaufortkitchen.
“We also have many offerings for specialized diets such as gluten-free, vegan, vegetarian, and Whole-30 meals. If we don’t have something you need for specific nutritional guidelines or dietary restrictions you’re following, please just ask us,” says Pingree, adding that The Kitchen also provides catering services for parties, office lunches, or other events.
As to Pingree and her future plans for The Kitchen? It seems she already has her eyes on a vision that one day might include a cookbook, a food truck, a vacation meal prep service, and maybe even franchising. The Kitchen proudly offers a 15% percent discount to military, first responders, and teachers.
