Food Flair You Will Wear With Pride—Each Purchase Aids Hunger Relief

Jewelry has long been used as an accessory to express personality; to show the world who you are and what you love.

And, in the food world, home cooks and chefs alike have had mostly crafty or casual options if they want to express their love of cooking or a specific food. But this is not the case with Delicacies Jewlery.

Nicolle Nelson, founder of Delicacies, literally had a dream about “a tiny, elegant head of garlic, shining brightly on leather…”

And that began her journey to create food jewelry, “I love the idea of ingredients as pretty, wearable tokens that bring us home. Delicacies is about finding your center, with food as your guide. It’s about honoring and respecting simple ingredients, and recognizing a bit of ourselves in them. We are food lovers, story tellers and knowledge gatherers on a long journey,” explained Nicolle.

Nicolle and her husband, John Larson, created the company in 2013 and launched the first collection in October 2015. John worked in television food production in Minneapolis with Andrew Zimmern and is a food industry insider. Being an insider has helped the couple create simple and meaningful jewelry that all food lovers—home cooks and professional chefs—can wear daily and can relate to.

Each piece has a “guide” to its underlying meaning/energy so you can choose the talisman that represents your spirit ingredient.  For example, if you are a pig lover like me and many of my barbecue buddies, you will discover that the pig is representative of “good fortune, progress, fertility and creativity.” But the pig is not alone, all of the ingredients are tied to meaning.

Regardless of whether you choose a bracelet, pendant, earrings or rings, they all give back. “Giving back is baked into each purchase,” explained John. Delicacies is set up for focused giving and the purchase of one of the pieces automatically donates 10% to a hunger organization. The recipients change as different partners are chosen for different collections, but they are all focused on elevating hunger. To date, Delicacies has donated more than 525,000 meals.

The newest collection which begins shipping on August 2 is ‘The Dumpling Collection.’ Customers requested a dumpling collection for years, and as they developed the line, they partnered with Welcome to Chinatown and Grace Young, advocate for Chinatown and acclaimed author of three bestselling cookbooks, including The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen. 

Vic Lee, founder of Welcome to Chinatown explains their mission, “our organization was founded to establish a lifeline for Chinatown’s devastated small businesses, and by extension, for the community’s overall well-being.”  Welcome to Chinatown purchases meals directly from restaurants in Chinatown, delivering meals to food insecure people in Chinatown, benefitting restaurants and food insecure people.  People can also donate directly to Grace Young’s Support Chinatown Fund |Created by Welcome to Chinatown. 

The dumpling collection has something for every dumpling lover and if you don’t know which one to choose, the Delicacies’ website has a fun interactive quiz that will help you pinpoint your “soul dumpling.”  I took the quiz and found out that my soul dumpling is a ravioli and that it promotes passion, comfort and love—sounds about right, but I have to admit that it’s hard to chose a favorite because I never met a dumpling that I didn’t love.

The Dumpling Collection is available online and you can choose necklaces made from either sterling silver or yellow gold-plated silver in the following seven shapes, ravioli, soup dumpling, pierogi, gyoza, momo, potsticker and empanada.  The collection is priced at $85.00 for silver and $95.00 for yellow gold-plated.