Celebrity chef Anna Rossi takes center stage with The Fresh Market

The Fresh Market is teaming up with Boston-based celebrity chef Anna Rossi, who will serve as a brand ambassador and spokesperson for the grocer. 

The Emmy Award-winning chef will “create recipes, lifestyle content and host a monthly livestreaming shoppable event on the company’s website,” Greensboro, North Carolina-based grocer The Fresh Market said. 

The partnership kicked off with the livestream “Plan an Easter to Remember with The Fresh Market & Chef Anna Rossi,” which includes recipes and tips for the holiday. The video event originally aired on Thursday and is available online through April 9. 

“The Fresh Market has served as a cornerstone of inspiration for me as a chef and home cook for years,” said Rossi in a statement. “I'm thrilled to join forces professionally with a team that shares a passion for thoughtfully sourcing and celebrating delicious products, quality ingredients and unforgettable recipes. We are now taking that to the next level on an innovative platform that has the capacity to connect and engage with customers in a meaningful and immersive way.” 

This is not the first team-up The Fresh Market has done with Rossi. The grocer noted The Fresh Mark and video commerce company Firework were awarded Best Live Video Strategy at this year’s Digiday Video and TV Awards, for “The Fresh Market’s Ultimate Thanksgiving Meal” livestream with Rossi in November, which attracted more than 845,000 viewers. 

“By leveraging the Firework platform to enable a video driven RMN experience, The Fresh Market believes that providing brands the opportunity to engage, inspire and convert shoppers through a hosted cooking and lifestyle segment will heighten that brand’s visibility in a marketplace where and when shoppers are most likely to transact,” The Fresh Market said in a statement.

The partnership comes about a month after The Fresh Market announced the launch of the first shoppable video-live commerce (SVLC) retail media network (RMN) in the nation via Redwood City, California-based tech company Firework. 

"Having proven the power of Firework's video commerce content in 2022, we're excited to offer our partners an innovative and differentiated means of storytelling in an entertaining new way. We call it shoppertainment," The Fresh Market Chief Marketing Officer Kevin Miller said in February.