Most of the time, these local business owners pass each other as they come in and out of the industrial kitchens at Hesperides Kitchens in Hawthorne, where they create the soups, sauces, sweets and other products they market in the area. On this occasion, they came together to enjoy each other's company and to sample each other's wares. It was a true festival of flavors – complete with turkey dinner – as they paused from the hustle and bustle of the production line to sit down and enjoy themselves.   

"It's such a wonderful and talented group of people," Ridgewood's Gabriella Wilday, who is marketing her own line of pasta sauces, says. "We work in the kitchens together but rarely have a moment to spend getting acquainted. This was a rare treat."

Tableware flowers provided by Mango Jam, Ridgewood