Gathering Boards - Ripen Company

 

Ripen - Local, Seasonal Gathering Boards

Ripen was founded in 2018 by chef Sophie Speer.

We produce seasonal, locally sourced gathering boards that are easily ordered online and delivered to your home or office. The boards come beautifully packaged in a custom box and we use wooden boards, glass or metal jars, and bamboo utensils (no plastic!) that you can keep and reuse (if you’d like). In addition to our drop-off option, we also build custom cheese, charcuterie, and crudités spreads for up to 500 people, creating bountiful tablescapes tailored to your needs.

Ripen boards are perfect for:

  • Employee bonding at your company happy hour or retreat
  • Birthday parties and half-birthday parties
  • Celebrating a politician you dislike losing an election
  • Relationship repair (tastier than flowers!)
  • Non-denominational holiday parties
  • Unconventional bachelor parties
  • Baby showers - we’ll use pasteurized cheese!
  • Picnics in easily accessible locations

Ripen's Values:

Ripen commits to:

  • Sourcing locally (why not? California has the best stuff!)
  • Sourcing seasonally as much as possible
  • Giving back to our community
  • Being thoughtful about sustainability; reducing plastic usage, offering vegan and local options
  • Making every customer experience truly delightful

 

Custom Gathering Boards - Sophie Speer - Ripen Founder


About our Founder

Sophie grew up in Chico, CA, a farm town nestled at the base of the Sierra Nevadas where everything grows in abundance. She grew up visiting the farmer’s market on Saturdays with her mom, who instilled in her a love of beautiful produce and creative cooking.

In her early twenties, Sophie lived in Vienna, Austria, where she learned to love cured meats and began her lifelong habit of consuming salami and cheese for dinner and considering that perfectly nutritionally adequate. It’s also where she first started entertaining seriously, hosting dinner parties in her tiny apartment around a fold-out table.

In the many years since, Sophie worked as a private chef, specializing in intimate sit-down dinner parties. Her gathering boards, as she calls them, became her most requested and fawned-over offering, and in 2018 she decided to make them into her full time fig.

Ahem…*gig.