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Meet Julianna McIntosh of Bringing It Home

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Julianna McIntosh.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Julianna. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I was born and raised in Northern California surrounded with a wonderfully large Italian family filled with plenty of food, family farmers, and loving parents. Growing up in a small farming town, I always knew where my food came from, those behind it, and the passion behind what it meant to be a farmer. I was blessed to always have family around, from Sunday family dinners with my grandparents to walking through the orchards to eat fresh cherries. Growing up this way helped shape my passion for wanting to inform people more about their food and the beauty behind being together. I grew up unknowingly blessed to know about the importance of seasonality, the story behind flavors, and the joy of gathering around the table. Looking back, it truly was so special to have grown up with my grandparents, learning stories from my aunts and uncles, and having my parents as driven as they were.

As I got older, I saw my mother work extremely hard as she started a company, our company: Bringing It Home. She built Bringing It Home with the idea that everyone should know where their food comes from. That still holds true today. Bringing It Home is a television show that showcases the farmers behind our food, amazing local chefs, and great recipes. So, as she started this company with her brother as 5th generation farmers, they both kept the tradition of family farming in the family through the world of entertainment. I grew up having my mother come home late and tired, but she always told me… I am building this for you, for your future as I would be the 6th generation farmer. It was in 2013 that Bringing It Home became nationally syndicated on PBS and my mother continued her dream to tell stories about farmers and our food.

Once I went to college and left home, it was a rude awakening for me. I realized that no one knew (and many didn’t care) where their food comes from. I attended SDSU and during my freshman year, I saw my peers completely oblivious to seasonality, uninformed about where our food came from and purchasing food that was extremely harmful for our bodies. Initially, I had no intention of working for the family business, no matter how badly my mother wanted me to. But, once I realized how much I knew about food and the passion I had to inform others about their food, I knew there was something there. So, being in the younger generation, I found that social media was the best way to reach a big demographic. I began helping local San Diego brands with their social media and marketing and started freelance work. I still, to this day, help local brands with growing their brand, managing their content, and helping with web design. But, Bringing It Home is where my true passion lies.

Now, for the past two years, I have been partners with my mother running this company as Bringing It Home’s Director of Marketing. Together, women-owned and driven by our passion, we are working harder than ever to ensure our followers and viewers see the importance in where our food comes from and how exciting food can be.

Today, we are expanding our brand – my older sister and I are beginning a subset of Bringing It Home called “Saluti, Sister”. Keeping our Italian roots, we decided to use Saluti meaning cheers in Italian. This all started in January 2020 when I started to teach people how to make craft cocktails in the comfort in their home using fresh ingredients. Though I had never been a bartender or mixologist, I did know flavors and seasonality and I used that to my advantage. Today, I am expanding this brand with my sister. A professional photographer here in San Diego to capture delicious recipes, telling amazing stories, sharing our travels and working together to create a place where everyone can come together. Bringing It Home’s goal will always be to bring people together through the power of food to help bring us back to our roots, back to our home.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The path that I am on has been a rocky one and will continue to be, but it’s a climb. With each setback, frustration and hard times we may have, I believe it has helped to make our path forward even better. But more importantly, it has helped us create an even stronger relationship with others all around the world. As hard as it may get, being able to work with and travel the world with my sister and mother makes any hardship worth it.

Take it from me, working with family is NOT easy and I don’t recommend it for everyone. But, I do believe we are the lucky ones. I believe that growing up with family as such an important role in all of our lives has helped us to cope with the frustrations of family business. One of the hardest moments is separating family from work, but in the end we find ways to make it work.

Now, I am on several career paths with Bringing It Home, Saluti Sister, Join Jules and my personal freelance work. This has in turn led me to have many long nights, stressful days, and sacrificing many weekends. At my age, it can be hard to sacrifice my weekends with friends. It can be hard to work long hours, but no matter how long or how hard these climbs maybe, when I look back, the view is always great.

Bringing It Home – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Bringing It Home is a television show that airs nationally on PBS. After two years, I am now a partner with Laura McIntosh, the Director of Marketing, as well as an associate producer. Bringing It Home is bigger than a television show on PBS. Bringing It Home is a multimedia brand that brings people together through food and our knowledge of where our food comes from and those heroes behind it through all media outlets. Both Laura and I are expanding our brand in order to share amazing recipes on both www.bringingithome.com, Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest to sharing amazing stories via YouTube. It is our goal to give our viewers a more in-depth look into the lives of these farmers, chefs and amazing brands.

Along with Bringing It Home, Join Jules is a cocktail blog where I create original cocktail recipes, create video recipe tutorials and share all things in the beverage industry. I began sharing on Instagram and that expanded to blogs, recipe development for brands and sharing all of this online and on bringingithome.com. What sets me apart is that I am teaching my friends, family and new followers that you don’t have to be a master mixologist to use fresh ingredients and simple techniques to create something delicious. It’s my goal to show others how easy it can be. But why cocktails? While Laura’s passion is telling the stories of farmers and chefs, my passion just happened to be craft cocktails. Therefore Join Jules was created.

Along with Bringing It Home and Join Jules, currently in development, is a new online brand that will be a subset of Bringing It Home called, Saluti, Sister. Cheers’ sister started once my sister, who luckily happens to be a professional photographer, began helping me capture photos for Join Jules. As my sister and I always traveled together whether it was family trips to Peru or work trips to Ireland, wherever it was we were either always together or always traveling somewhere new. So, we decided, with her skill of storytelling through photography and my passion for creating online brands, storytelling and passion for cocktails, to create a place where people can come together and experience anything from new recipes, new stories, travel experiences, and so much more. Together, we are creating a brand that excites others to follow two sisters, working together to create unforgettable experiences.

At the end of the day, Bringing It Home will always be a place where people, no matter where we are, can feel at home in some way whether that’s a comforting recipe, a unique story, or a new place for adventure. We are bringing people together through the power of food to help make this world feel just a little more like home.

Bringing It Home is always looking for new brands, stories and ideas to share online. Laura created the slogan, “We are the only show that goes where the food grows”. So, we are always looking to work with new brands, inspiring people, and amazing new places to go and work with in order to tell these stories, creating partnerships both online and for our PBS networks. Saluti, Sister is also creating content for brands in both the food & beverage industry, creating new recipes for brands and capturing travel experiences for amazing people, places and brands. We are always looking to work with those that have the same passion to inspire all those around us.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
The proudest moment of my career has to be each and every time I feel stuck, tired and worn out, even when I feel like quitting and getting a ‘normal job’ when I visit these new places and I hear the stories of these amazing people it makes all of this worth it. I am so proud that I have the ability to share with everyone these overwhelming stories of why they started, how they started and the passion that drives them. It’s hard to pick out one particular moment that I am most proud of.

But, I think one of my proudest moments was when visiting Ireland. We had the privilege of visiting one of Kerrygold’s family farmers to sit down, meet with them and learn more about their herd. It was a beautiful experience to see the passion behind each family member from the grandfather, the father and even to his little boys who one day hope to take over. When we visited their herd, we saw their unbelievable experience to graze freely on a beautiful cliff that overlooks the ocean ( we were all very jealous of these cows). After our visit, they joined us on a boat to fish for fresh seafood. While on the boat, we were able to go towards these cliffs and both father and son were able, for the first time in their life, to see their herd grazing on that cliff. Being able to create this experience for them and seeing how proud they were to see their herd. To know we in fact do have the power to create such happiness and inspiration and then tell these stories makes every difficult time seem like a distant memory.

It truly is unbelievable how many amazing stories there are and how they are almost always rooted in the passion for food. Throughout my life and working on Bringing It Home, I have traveled around the world, meeting new and inspiring people, learning more about amazing cultures and new innovation in the food and beverage world. I am proud that I have the voice through all these outlets to be able to tell these stories and create a place where people can come together to learn more and feel connected.

When you think about it, if there’s one thing that connects us all, its food, so, being able to be in this industry is a blessing because it doesn’t matter who you are or where you are, we can all come to the table and enjoy together. We are living in the digital age, so while there may not be a physical table, Bringing It Home is creating a home that every time people visit either on PBS, on our website, or on social media, we can all feel connected and inspired.

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