Learn all about our company!: A brief history
Amy Interviews her grandmothers: Clarice Saltiel / Eleanor Goodman

Amy's Kitchen is a family business… with every member of the family taking part. The company was started in 1987, when Amy was born. Her mom and dad, Rachel and Andy Berliner, carefully nurtured the company as well as the child, paying constant attention to every aspect of its day to day activities and providing the vision that has made Amy's so successful.

Andy, who was born in Chicago and attended Purdue University, was formerly a large shareholder and President of Magic Mountain Herb Tea company, the first herbal tea widely distributed in supermarkets. Rachel was raised in a family who were eating and growing organic food in the 50's, long before doing so was popular. Besides a life long orientation towards natural foods, Rachel also has an arts background, and serves as the company's art director, overseeing all packaging design.

Andy and Rachel work as a team, discussing and dealing with every imaginable problem that a fast growing business faces. What they enjoy most, however, is the creation and development of new products… providing ideas and working closely with Amy's chefs and product developers. They taste new products again and again until satisfied that the highest standards of taste and quality are being met. Rachel, who has a keen and sensitive palate, is the company's official "taster."

Andy provides overall leadership and helps formulate marketing and sales strategy. Locating Andy at Amy's can be a challenge. Often he can be found in the kitchen doing what he loves the most: visiting with and working with the people who are carefully preparing the food. Both Andy and Rachel like to keep in touch with the needs and interests of the company's more than 1,600 employees and with Amy's customers. Rachel reads every letter written by customers.

Amy herself, now a Freshman at Stanford University, is also very much a part of the business and is often present at decision-making discussions. During the summer she likes to go to the plant and work on the burrito and packaging lines.

Amy's favorite foods as a toddler were the Vegetable Pot Pie and Macaroni & Cheese. Her favorite now is, of course, Amy's Pizza, which she serves to her friends at pool parties and "sleepovers." Her dog, Stormy, is an important part of Amy's life, and like the rest of the family, Stormy eats only vegetarian food, with pizza being her favorite too.”

The Early Days: The Broccoli Pot Pie is developed as Rachel, holding Amy, and her mother Eleanor look on.

Amy's grandmothers have also played an important part in the building of Amy's Kitchen. Her grandmother Clarice (Andy's mother), hailing from Chicago where Andy was born, helped grow the business there by talking to stores and urging them to stock Amy's products when the company was just starting. She bought and leased to the company one of the first pieces of equipment that allowed Amy's to start cooking. Most important is that, being an excellent cook herself, she instilled in Andy an appreciation for good cooking that has helped inspire his choice of products for Amy's Kitchen. Clarice and her husband, Milt, had an innate facility with numbers, which was passed on to their son…a vital trait in any aspiring entrepreneur.

Rachel's mother, Eleanor Goodman, has worn many "hats" in her career with Amy's Kitchen, including product development, purchasing, telemarketing and even a brief and hilarious stint doing bookkeeping. She helped finance one of the first packaging machines that Amy's used.

Eleanor currently is chief copywriter, which includes writing stories on the company's boxes and web site copy. She also reads consumer letters, supervises their replies and serves on the Board of Directors.

Rachel's brother, Joel Humphries, works in the Business Development Department, working very closely with Andy and the Sales Department. His main focus is developing the Amy's business in universities, school districts and airlines.

Andy's older brother Bill, who owns and runs Petaluma's landmark restaurant Old Chicago Pizza helped Andy develop recipes for Amy's Pizzas and locate sources for ingredients.

And of course, besides the immediate family, Amy's extended family also includes all the wonderful people who work for the company, and especially you, our customers, without whom there would be no Amy's Kitchen.