Get to know LÜME
"LÜME is more than just a superfood. It's a feeling that elevates your individuality, well-being & lifestyle" - Travis Piéd, Founder of LÜME
the roots.
Passion for food has run in my blood since I was born. I grew up in big, loving Italian family whose lives revolved around food. The earliest memories of my childhood surround Sunday dinners at my grandparent’s house. Every Sunday about 20 of us quiet, shy, and timid Italians (riiiiiight... lol) would meet at my grandparents house for food, conversation, connection, and of course...MORE food. We would be crammed into a tiny 4x8 kitchen where I would try to prop myself up on the counter to watch my grandparents work their magic.
During this time, I also learned one of the biggest sins you could commit, which ironically led to me to my life’s passion. The biggest SIN was that you NEVER deny food in Italian family.
As you can imagine, we ate real food, from scratch, and in huge portions. We weren't eating lots of processed or fast food but we probably ate at least 10 pounds of pasta and bread every week. We thought we were being healthy however, when I look back, maybe things weren't as healthy as we all originally thought. In fact, for all the fun everybody was having, one person very close to me was finding it difficult to enjoy.
migraines, you suck.
Some of the earliest memories of my mom revolve around her being in pain suffering severely from migraine headaches. My sister and I would come home from school only to see her lying on the couch in excruciating pain on a daily basis. The headaches prevented her from going to work, and most importantly, doing that very most important Italian mother skill; spending quality time with the family.
She spent thousands on traditional western medicine & was in and out of doctors offices trying to find solutions. After years of scans, pills and procedures with no luck, she hit a breaking point and decided to switch to a holistic dieting & lifestyle approach. If it wasn’t for my dad who had stumbled upon a group of individuals passionate about using food as a form of alternative medicine in NYC, I don’t think we would have taken the leap.
I was only 10-11 years old at the time, but after seeing how my Mom's health turned around once she changed her nutrition, I became obsessed with the foods I was putting into my body and was encouraged to be health conscious & explore unconventional ways of healing and nourishing your body from the inside-out with food instead of doctors and pills. I would spend hours in my kitchen researching and experimenting with different vitamins and herbs from around the world and making concoctions in my kitchen. I wanted to make healthy food that tasted great, but also incredibly powerful, easy and accessible to obtain for my mom and family to stay healthy.
the mecca.
Fast forward about a decade later, I was magnetically drawn to the health and wellness culture of Southern California.
Not only was it the mecca, but I simply felt out of place in my small NJ hometown. I felt a lack of appreciation for the creative outlet that I resonated with so deeply. My dad was a musician and my grandfather was an architect, and while neither of those professions truly spoke to me, the creative aspect always resonated. I realized that my form of art wasn’t music or architecture, it was food, and getting creative with exotic ingredients.
No, it shouldn't be this hard.
While I was busy in school, working and traveling throughout Europe, I felt the physical effects of not having enough time to incorporate key nutrients into my diet from whole foods. I began looking for fast and easy snacks infused with vitamin & herbal supplements targeting specific health benefits to enhance my wellbeing without compromising my lifestyle.
I loaded up on hundreds of expensive supplements, herbs & vitamins to make up for the lack of micro-nutrients I wasn't receiving in my diet despite the fact that I was ALREADY eating healthy. Seriously, “wtf”.However, there wasn’t anything on the market that didn’t need to be shaken and blended with other ingredients, lacked side effects or required a major lifestyle change.
Nourishing your best self is finally simple.
Fast forward one year later in my college house, my kitchen gets messy (real messy). I decided to take matters into my own hands (quite literally) and incorporate the holistic learnings I gained in my youth. I began infusing powerful blends of adaptogenic herbs, vitamins & minerals to create granola-based whole food alternatives to popular supplements.
Was starting in a college kitchen ideal? Hell no, definitely not, but well worth it. Long nights experimenting new concepts & flavors, unique ingredients and getting feedback from friends & roommates... the process had begun. Hundreds of batches later, LÜME was born.