Chef Curtis Stone and the Ocean Spray® CranMa™ Team Help First-Time Hosts Tackle Thanksgiving

The best helpers are those who know the holiday best – grandmas, or as Ocean Spray calls them, CranMas! The CranMas, an elite group of multi–generational Ocean Spray farmer grandmas, will hit the road and web to offer their time-tested wisdom and advice to first-time Thanksgiving hosts. On Nov. 1, the CranMas will team up with award-winning Chef Curtis Stone to turn Rockefeller Center® into CranMa^™ Thanksgiving Boot Camp.

"Hosting a holiday like Thanksgiving for the first time can be a daunting task," said Chef Stone. "I know firsthand how vital my grandmother's advice was when I started cooking, so being able to partner with the CranMas means a lot to me. My grandma taught me how to prepare my first dish and inspired me to become a chef. I would have been lost without her time-tested advice."

At Ocean Spray's CranMa^™ Thanksgiving Boot Camp, hosts will learn everything from setting the scene to how to give guests a warm welcome to turkey techniques and semi-homemade holiday hacks.

Need Help? No Need to Fear, CranMa^™ is here!
Not in New York City and don't know where to start? Don't fret. From Nov.1 through Thanksgiving Day, first-time hosts (and everyone else) can get time-tested advice to ease their meal planning anxiety courtesy of Ocean Spray's virtual CranMa^™, who is available to chat on Facebook Messenger. CranMa^™ can help with everything from tackling the turkey to mastering high-profile fixings like cranberry sauce and stuffing. Her no-nonsense advice and tips are sourced straight from Ocean Spray's own farmer CranMas.

"We saw this as the perfect opportunity to deliver the time-tested advice and wisdom from our Ocean Spray farmer grandmas to the millions of first-time hosts seeking help this holiday in real-time," said Kristen Borsari, VP, North American Marketing at Ocean Spray. "We're offering the tools and advice first-time hosts need to make sure their holiday hosting goes as smoothly as possible."

For CranMa^™'s top advice, visit OceanSprayThanksgiving.com, visit Ocean Spray on Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to share your hosting happenings on social media with #WinThanksgiving.

Survey Says: First Time Hosting Fears Are Real
Hosting fears are real. Nine out of ten first-time hosts have a hosting fear hanging over their heads. The top five fears of first-time hosts include:

• Over- or under-cooking the turkey or burning something
• Guests not enjoying the meal or disappointing family
• Not timing everything perfectly
• Cooking won't be quite as good as parent or grandparent's
• Forgetting an important ingredient

In order to help first-time hosts rise to the occasion, Ocean Spray polled them to find out how they're prepping for the big day. Here's what they found:

• Classics never go out of style: 73 percent of all first-time hosts say they'll serve up a traditional Thanksgiving with ALL the fixings – turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce.
• Cranberries are a star side: Nearly all (96 percent) of first-time hosts plan to incorporate cranberries in some shape or form – with the most popular being in a traditional sauce, either canned or homemade (61 percent).
• Practice for the big day: More than half of first-time hosts will practice in advance, cook the day before, or serve semi-homemade dishes to lighten the load (59 percent). Millennials lead that charge and are significantly more likely to practice, prep or use semi-homemade than Gen-X first-time hosts (62 vs. 52 percent).
• Grandma versus machine: More than half of all first-time hosts (58 percent) will look to their family, including grandparents, for recipes, hacks and side dish inspiration for the upcoming meal while roughly a third (31 percent) will rely solely on online sources for recipes, tips and advice. In fact, many Millennials lean towards tradition, with 41 percent saying that they plan to rely on mom or grandma to teach them how to make special family dishes.

About Ocean Spray
Ocean Spray is a vibrant agricultural cooperative owned by more than 700 cranberry farmers in the United States, Canada and Chile who have helped preserve the family farming way of life for generations. Formed in 1930, Ocean Spray is now the world's leading producer of cranberry juices, juice drinks and dried cranberries and is the best-selling brand in the North American bottled juice category.

The cooperative's cranberries are currently featured in more than a thousand great-tasting, good-for-you products in over 100 countries worldwide. With more than 2,000 employees and nearly 20 cranberry receiving and processing facilities, Ocean Spray is committed to managing our business in a way that respects our communities, employees and the environment. For more information visit: www.oceanspray.com or www.oceanspray.coop.

About Curtis Stone
Curtis Stone is a chef, restaurateur, author, media personality, and businessman. He began his cooking career in his homeland of Australia and later honed his skills at Michelin-starred restaurants in London under renowned chef Marco Pierre White. His first solo restaurant, Maude (Beverly Hills, CA), opened in 2014 to rave reviews. Curtis opened his second restaurant, Gwen Butcher Shop & Restaurant (Hollywood, CA), with his brother Luke in July 2016. He has appeared on a number of top rated programs including Take Home Chef (TLC), Celebrity Apprentice (ABC), Top Chef Masters (Bravo), and Food Network's All-Star Academy. Curtis is Head Judge on Top Chef Junior, an extension of the NBC Top Chef franchise, alongside host Vanessa Lachey. He is also hosting his first season of Moveable Feast with Fine Cooking on PBS.  Curtis is a New York Times bestselling author with six cookbooks, his most recent titled, Good Food, Good Life, and is a regular contributor to several magazines and television shows in the United States and Australia.

www.curtisstone.com @CurtisStone

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¹ This research was conducted by KRC Research between September 14th and 18th, 2017 via an online survey of 2,343 U.S. adults ages 18+. The total number of first time hosts is calculated based on the survey finding of 8% planning to host Thanksgiving for the first time: eight percent of 249,454,440 (2016 US Census Estimate of adults 18+) is nearly 20 million.

SOURCE Ocean Spray