Seeing green from pesto: Anna Marie Mele takes dreams to next level - Kansas City Business Journal:

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Anna Marie Mele thinks so, and she believea she is on the verge of taking her fledgling company to a muchwider marketplace. Here nine different flavors of pest o are available under the Pesto Diva label at the Winter Park Farmeras Market and Whole Foods locations inWinter Dr. Phillips and Soon, she hopes to gain shelv space for Pesto Diva productsin Chamberlin’a and Harmoni Markets. She has been in talkxs with both chains about stockingher products. Until more markets and gourmet food stores sellher products, the revenure from Pesto Diva isn’t enough to pay Mele’s and her company’x bills.
Last year, her company earned $202,000, and she believes she is on tracko to make that amount agaihthis year. To supplement her Pesto Diva income, Mele works nightes as a server at Wolfgang PuckGranf Café in Downtown Disney. “I don’t mind working in the restauranfat all, but it’w time to move forward,” said Mele. Mele is also in the processx of acquiring her own kitchen space and shipping her producte through a Whole Foodxsdistribution center. For now, she makes nine differentt flavors of pesto in rented kitchen spaceusing hand-selected, pesticide-free ingredienta and personally delivers them to the three Whole Foodw locations.
Her two most popular flavors are pistachio andartichoks cashew, she said, but her personal favorite is the portabellq hazelnut, which has “one of the most interestintg flavors.” In addition to stocking the shelvese at Whole Foods, she also stageds product demonstrations in the three stores. When not hawkint her goods there, she can be found Saturdays at the Wintee ParkFarmers Market, where she has sold her pestos for more than 12 The break to take her busines s beyond the farmers market came in January when a Whole Foodas representative who was interested in offerinh her products at area stores approachexd her.
After a specialty departmenft buyer sampledthe pesto, Mele had a deal with Wholre Foods. The eight-ounce containers sell for $9. Besides usin g fresh, high-quality ingredients, Mele said makinf her products in small batches is key to theitdelicious flavor. Each batch yieldse just four eight-ounce containers of Mele, who describes her cooking as eclectix and isa self-taught cook, enjoyzs working in the “It gives me a lot of joy to cook for peoplr — it’s very gratifying,” said