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1. Matisse and Jack's, San Francisco
By California law, Sarika Singh outsources all of her food manufacturing, but she came up with her recipes and runs her business from home. She has pioneered a line of bake-at-home snacks and now finds herself in our winner's circle in the Yummiest category. She calls her business the Betty Crocker for a new generation -- healthful, delicious, creative and fun. All-natural ingredients, such as organic oats, rich cocoa powder, flaxseeds, cranberries, chocolate chips and other goodies, allow her to combine the freshness of homemade with the lifestyle of being home-based. Very yummy indeed.
2. Massage and Merlot, Boulder, Colo.
A glass of wine and a massage? Are you kidding? This business is yummy on so many levels. Kelly McElroy has created a collaborative marketing venture combining her two businesses, a massage therapy clinic and a wine consultancy. After getting a great reaction to her chair massages and eyeing the appealing affluent market as a perfect target, she surmised that people who have more disposable income are often also interested in wine. Thus the in-home concept of wine tastings mixed with massages.
3. Reese's Chicken Pot Pies, Detroit
Chicken pot pies are a comfort food, especially when they're homemade. Several years ago, Liesa Reese was caught in a house fire that left her in a coma for close to a month. Fortunately, she recovered. Once back at home, she had this enormous craving for a chicken pot pie, so Reese's brother went out and bought her one from the grocery store. It was terrible. She decided to make her own. From that yummy moment of inspiration she was destined to make our Top Ten list. Reese's secret recipe -- a light, flaky crust filled with juicy, chunky chicken breast, steamed potatoes, carrots, peas, broccoli and cheese, along with her special secret gravy, all baked together to perfection -- is now for sale.
4. Café Elisa, San Diego
Ed and Elisa Lupin offer coffee roasted on demand and made to order from their home-based business in San Diego. They use coffee beans from their family coffee plantation in Boquete, Panama, to make coffee voted best in the world at the 2006 conference of the Specialty Coffee Association of America. "Pour yourself a cup of paradise" sounds irresistibly yummy to us. While neighboring Panamanian properties are being converted from coffee plantations to vacation resorts, Café Elisa continues to harvest the traditional catuai coffee plants, providing employment for the native people, the Guaymí.
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5. Haute Choklet, West Middlesex, Pa.
"Pretzels with Attitude" says it all for this yummy home-based enterprise. Haute Choklet has been in business for the past eight years under the name Ethan, Kendrick and Brennan's Mom. This year it decided to officially offer its pretzels to the rest of the world, responding to demand for the company's delicious combination of sweet chocolate and salty pretzels. Laurie Moroco works with her customers to create one-of-a-kind designs so special occasions are just that, special. All pretzels are hand-dipped.
6. The Dippy Chick, Kingston, N.H.
Kamikaze Wasabi, It's Okay Bayou and Battlestar Garlic-Tica are just three of the dip-mix blends you'll find at this home-based business. Christine Hanisco started The Dippy Chick as a way to help pay the bills while staying home with her two young sons. When she began, she planned to sell her products at farmers markets only a few weekends a year. But since she was featured in Family Circle magazine, appeared on ABC News as an entrepreneurial mom and spent time working nonstop in her fully licensed kitchen, Dippy Chick products can be found in more than 30 stores nationwide.
7. Ciao Laura, Nashville, Tenn.
Italian cooking combined with an Italian vacation makes this a delectable business. Laura Faust's Ciao Laura provides travelers with an opportunity to learn to cook authentic Italian cuisine through its culinary vacation packages. Classes range from one-day cooking and pastry classes to multiday combination cooking and sightseeing excursions. Examples include visits to wineries, local food producers and fresh markets, and local restaurants and historical landmarks such as the Leaning Tower of Pisa or Pompeii. Accommodations range from bed-and-breakfast facilities and 15th-century villas to five-star hotels, and they span many regions from Venice to Tuscany to the Amalfi Coast.
8. Kailen's Candy Catering, Chapel Oaks, Md.
Making yummy snacks available through customized vending machines, Kailyn Cage operates as an innovative vending business that allows customers to choose what snacks are the yummiest to them. The company provides its customers with snacks, beverages and a "new item of the month" in order to introduce new varieties of snacks. Cage uses market survey results to determine which products to place in specific vending markets.
9. Above The Clouds, Weston, Mass.
Welcome to food heaven. A private chef used to be only for the rich and famous. Now Silvia and Dan Moss are bringing this luxury to the broad marketplace. With more than 30 years of cooking experience in restaurants and as private chefs, the Mosses both have culinary degrees and Silvia Moss has her dietitian credentials. Choose these chefs for a one-time event or for weekly meals. They'll drive from their house to yours.
10. On Thyme Gourmet, Bridger, Mont.
Gourmet herb products, including sea salt from New Zealand, from a business in Montana? You just gotta love the home-based entrepreneur. On Thyme Gourmet sells fresh, chopped herbs by the jar, fresh herbs and garlic in olive oil or sesame oil, and herb butter. Bonnie Martinell has also added fresh-herbed natural kosher sea salt in eight varieties to her line of products. She searched the world over for organic kosher sea salt and found it only in New Zealand. All of Martinell's products are designed to take the guesswork out of cooking with herbs.
Published Nov. 5, 2007
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