Serving homemade dog food

In Hollywood, a land known for its marquees and famous signs, there’s probably no sign that’s more on the nose than the Just Food For Dogs store. There, four-legged customers taste today’s offerings while their owners stock up on food.

Sarah Rector and her French bulldog, Lulu, buy her regular order, which includes beef with russet potato and venison with pumpkin. Rector says she feels better buying Lulu’s store-bought food than commercial dog food: “I just know she’s getting the best possible ingredients, health and overall well-being.”

She and her husband don’t have children yet, but they do have another French bulldog, “so I feel like we have children.”

It’s tempting to write this off as a trendy LA fad, but Carey Tischler, president of Just Food For Dogs, says this store is here because of a permanent shift in the roughly $50 billion U.S. pet food industry. “The last year of research shows that 82% of families view pets as family or children, and that has increased significantly,” he said.

Joe Ovalle is Just Food’s guest experience manager. He says all of their pet food is approved by the USDA for human consumption. “It’s human-grade food, something you and I could eat,” he said.

He tasted one of their recipes, for fish and sweet potato. “Oh my God, it’s like ceviche,” he smiled.

It may seem a bit indulgent and can cost double the price of kibble, but some say feeding our dogs natural food is what we should have been doing all along – and making our own can cost the same as buying it. of food in the store.

“It’s about getting back to what’s biologically sound, what they’ve been eating for tens of thousands of years,” says pet nutritionist Christine Filardi. “They ate prey and table scraps. So I’m just teaching people how to get back to what they ate for tens of thousands of years before commercial pet food.”

Filardi is the author of “Home Cooking For Your Dog,” a cookbook with recipes that include what she says are the three essentials: animal protein, a carbohydrate and a vegetable, as well as a few extravagant treats, like her bacon and cream cheese muffins. .

Filardi says that whether it’s store-bought or homemade fresh food, the results are the same: well-fed animals live longer, have cheaper vet bills and are happier… which also makes the owners happy.

“They take such good care of us,” she said. “We have to take good care of them.”

RECIPE (FOR DOGS): Savory Hamburgers

RECIPE (FOR DOGS): Friday Playdate pizza

RECIPE (FOR DOGS): Muffins with bacon and cream cheese

RECIPE (FOR DOGS): Ground turkey, quinoa and carrots

For more information:

Story produced by John Goodwin. Editor: Joseph Frandino.

Recipe Index “Sunday Morning” 2024 “Food Edition”.
Delicious menu suggestions from top chefs, cookbook authors, food writers, restaurateurs and the editors of Food & Wine magazine.