Five years ago when the world shut down, Kim Ettinger, much like everyone else, hit the kitchen. She started to make soup. A lot of soup. So much soup, in fact, Ettinger decided it would be a good idea to go into business. “I’ve worked with restaurants since coming out of college,” said Etting er, who has helped promote chefs across the region as the founder and CEO of Pearl Communications for the past 20 years. “I’ve always loved cooking and my friends have always said, ‘open a restaurant, open a restaurant.’ “ “One day, I had a friend, she was just like, ‘You know what? You really have to hone this in and just do one thing. So when I thought of the one thing I’ve always done and love to cook, it’s always been soup.” Ettinger started the endeavor during a particularly hot stretch of the summer, so she initially concentrated on cold soups like gazpacho. “It just kind of took off. People told people about it and then they demanded hot soups when it was cold outside,” said Ettinger. “It’s just gotten busier and busier and busier.” This year, Ettinger is celebrating the third anniversary of Cool as a Cuc. The business, though, is a little different than many others. Each Thursday, Cool as a Cuc announces two fresh soups for the next week on Instagram. Orders can then be placed on coolasacuc.com through Sunday for pickup the following Tuesday from a self-serve fridge in Penn Wynne. Balsamic Beet and Detox Vegetable soup can be on the menu at Cool as a Cuc. (COURTESY OF KIM ETTINGER) The lasagna and French onion soup are some favorites at Cool as a Cuc. (COURTESY OF KIM ETTINGER)) Broccoli Chedder and Tortellini Florentine are just two of the soups sometimes available through Cool as a Cuc. (COURTESY OF KIM ETTINGER) Turkey Cheeseburger and Veggie Farro soups can be a crowd pleaser with Cool as a Cuc. (COURTESY OF KIM ETTINGER) Show Caption1 of 4Balsamic Beet and Detox Vegetable soup can be on the menu at Cool as a Cuc. (COURTESY OF KIM ETTINGER) Expand Ettinger spends her entire Sunday making soups in a commercial kitchen at the Center for Creative works in Wynnewood. “To be honest, I don’t even know what I’m going to cook the next week,” Ettinger said. “It keeps it fun for people. It’s fun for them to just not know each week what they’re going to get. And it helps them engage with the brand and keep checking on me. “I like to keep it super interactive. I think that’s due to my whole background in social media. Sometimes I’ll do polling online. ‘What soups do you guys want this week?’ It could be this or this, or ‘I just went to the market and I found these incredible peaches. Would you guys want this?’ So it’s kind of a very fluid operation.” Ettinger has a diverse menu, which includes some popular frozen entries. “So, there’s always, for instance, the chicken pastina soup has become very popular and that’s the soup that sort of started everything so that I have 24/7 available frozen,” said Ettinger. “It’s easier with the hot soups because I can freeze them. I always have some backlogs and then there are some I know are popular, so they’ll pop back up. So it’s not like a different soup I’m creating every week of my life. I know French onion is popular, then I’ll make it this week and maybe again in three weeks. So there’s more of like a core of rotating ones, but then every now and then I pop in new ones. I’ve gotten up to like 49 different flavors at this point.” Cool as a Cuc’s business model is working for Ettinger, so she’s not looking to do much more at the moment. “Well, my husband would like me to build a soup empire,” said Ettinger, who has two daughters, ages 11 and 8. “It’s kind of like finding the right balance.” ...read more read less