National Soup Month All Year Round

January is national soup month, but Julie Shipley celebrates soup 365 days of the year.

Shipley is the owner of The Soup Shop in Melbourne, Florida, where she offers 70 varieties of homemade soup daily.

Shipley’s culinary career started after a chance conversation with a local café owner. She had gone to culinary school as a hobby, so when the café owner asked her if she knew how to make soup she said “yes!”

She took samples of 6 kinds of soup the next day and was hired immediately to make soup from a 3’ x 4’ prep table and 2 burners in a tiny corner of the kitchen.

Her soup was so popular she started supplying two dozen restaurants. Next she tested the idea of selling her soups directly to individual retail customers. Shipley received such an overwhelmingly positive response that she opened a retail location. Now her team cooks on 24 burners in a 1500 square foot kitchen where they make 1000 gallons of soup per week!

Shipley’s dine-in and takeout business took off and she now offers soup delivery nationwide at https://www.thesoupshop.com

Shipley’s advice for culinary entrepreneurs? Avail yourself of the classes, counseling and other resources offered through The Small Business Administration.