Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Chuckie Hessong, Laughing Rooster Eats
At a glance: Growing up, Chuckie Hessong loved preparing food in her mother’s kitchen. It inspired her to become a family and consumer sciences teacher and extension agent while growing products of her own. Today, she manages a foodie website and blog that reaches across the nation and beyond.
More information: Ron Wilson, rwilson@ksu.edu, 785-532-7690
Photos: Ron Wilson | Chuckie Hessong
Website: Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development
April 10, 2024
By Ron Wilson, director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University
“Food Power!”
That sounds like a political slogan, but it might be an appropriate way to describe what happens when delicious food brings people together. Today we’ll meet a rural Kansas woman who is helping families and cooks prepare simple, delicious meals and enjoy the unifying power of food.
Chuckie Hessong is a food blogger and founder of Laughing Rooster Eats. Her father was an Army cook. Her mother taught her lots of things in the kitchen.
At right: Chuckie Hessong | Download this photo
“Growing up, our kitchen was a magical place, filled with love and warmth where I marveled at my momma's ability to create culinary wonders with her instinctive touch,” Hessong wrote. “Mom didn't care about having new kitchen stuff or a perfectly organized kitchen; she simply let her creativity flow.”
This inspired Hessong to study vocational family and consumer sciences education at Pittsburg State. She then taught family and consumer sciences in junior high and high school. Hessong later earned a master’s degree in community development from K-State.
When her kids were born, Hessong chose to stay home with them. The family was living in the country near Frontenac, north of Pittsburg. “We started raising meat chickens, pork, beef, and gardening. We even had a milk cow,” Hessong said. “When the cow freshens, you have extra milk, so we started making cheese.”
Hessong decided to sell her extra products at the Pittsburg farmer’s market. She also knew she wanted a business name that was fun.
“I like the fun part of life,” Hessong said. “I wanted something that was kind of jolly. A rooster is kind of a funny animal.”
Thus, her business name: Laughing Rooster Farm.
As the business grew, she wanted to promote the farmer’s market and the products that were available there. In 2010, she had on opportunity to go on the local television station, KOAM, to promote the market through her food preparation skills.
“I would ask the other growers, `What do you have a lot of right now?’ Then I would create and share a recipe using those products that were in season,” she said. This went so well that she became a regular on the station’s morning show for several years.
In 2014, she joined the K-State Research and Extension Wildcat District as a family and consumer sciences agent and later became a regional extension specialist in SNAP education. Meanwhile, she continued to share her love of cooking.
Hessong created a website called Laughing Rooster Eats. The site, which is continually updated, contains countless recipes to share -- complete with color photos. The recipes are categorized as appetizers and snacks, breakfasts, casseroles, desserts, main dishes, salads, side dishes, and slow cookers (that refers to the equipment, not to dummies like me.)
Hessong returned to KOAM television and now hosts a biweekly morning cooking show for the four-state area. One goal is to encourage people to cook successfully. “I want to simplify and streamline these recipes so that people can see that they can create delicious meals themselves,” Hessong said.
In September 2023, with help from her college student daughter, Hessong launched a blog with backstories to accompany her recipes. Her goal was to post 100 recipes by Christmas. She accomplished that. Now her blog has followers across the country and the world.
“Food is magical,” Hessong said. “It brings people together.” It can unite families, friends, and strangers.
One year Hessong traveled to Italy. “We visited a cheesemaking plant,” she said. “The man did not speak a word of English and I certainly did not speak a word of Italian, but we totally communicated with each other over food.”
It’s wonderful to find this successful foodie in a rural community such as Frontenac, population 3,382 people. Now, that’s rural.
For more information, see www.laughingroostereats.com.
Food Power. Not only can food fuel our bodies, it has the power to bring people together at a kitchen table or in a community. We commend Chuckie Hessong of Laughing Rooster Eats for making a difference by sharing her love of cooking with others.
That can be powerful.
Audio and text files of Kansas Profiles are available at http://www.kansasprofile.com. For more information about the Huck Boyd Institute, interested persons can visit http://www.huckboydinstitute.org.
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K‑State Research and Extension is a short name for the Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service, a program designed to generate and distribute useful knowledge for the well‑being of Kansans. Supported by county, state, federal and private funds, the program has county extension offices, experiment fields, area extension offices and regional research centers statewide. Its headquarters is on the K‑State campus in Manhattan. For more information, visit www.ksre.ksu.edu. K-State Research and Extension is an equal opportunity provider and employer.