Our Annie

	Annie Christopher, co-owner Annie’s Naturals

“The greatest culinary inspirations come not
from cooking, but from living.”
--Annie Christopher

Peek inside Annie’s test kitchen—the place from which her Goddess Dressing and Shiitake & Sesame Vinaigrette took flight—and you might expect to see a space devoted entirely to cooking. But there’s more here than meets the eye. Amid the Garland Range, food mixers, and racks upon racks of ingredients in this light, open working studio are large canvases, cakes of watercolor, a potting wheel and a sprawling culinary and travel library. In this creative space, the palette influences the palate.

Annie lives an artistically driven life that fuels her culinary creations. She has a degree in the culinary arts, but is also a painter, sculptor, and a potter, and is very active in these and other creative communities. “Art is a form of meditation for me” says Annie.  “It gives me the opportunity to relax my mind so different and new ideas have a chance to percolate and surface. I wouldn’t otherwise have these ideas if I were just endlessly working in the test kitchen.”

Annie’s uncanny palate and creative verve, inform her work and ability to develop unique flavors that, over the years, have become pantry staples in American kitchens. Since launching the company in 1984, Annie has created many “firsts,” which have been widely emulated, including such classics as Goddess Dressing, and Low Fat Raspberry, Shiitake & Sesame, and Roasted Red Pepper vinaigrettes. With new additions to her expansive product line, like Woodstock, Organic Roasted Garlic, and Artichoke Parmesan dressings, Annie is widely regarded by the natural foods industry as an innovator and trendsetter—a natural foods pioneer who helped bring to consumers’ consciousness an appreciation for natural and organic foods.

To know Annie is also to understand the great impact travel has on her life and work. Ever the culinary adventurer, Annie’s quest for fresh, pure ingredients and unique and authentic flavors has informed just about every dressing and condiment she has created. “I’ve seen many parts of the world and each place has its own unique tastes, smells, you name it. I love wandering around farmer’s markets, ethnic markets and grocery stores, and those experiences—the food, the people, the cultures—strongly influence the way I cook and shape what I create in the test kitchen,” says Annie. “When creating new products, these journeys help me think of flavor profiles that will appeal to most people, but which haven’t been put together yet.”

Wandering around Annie’s farmhouse and test kitchen, with their sprawling gardens of perennials, culinary herbs, and other botanicals, it’s easy to see how this verdant place nestled in the Green Mountains of Vermont inspires Annie’s work. “Creating in this landscape nourishes the mind and soul,” says Annie. “And I can’t imagine a better place to create wholesome, pure foods that nourish our bodies, too.”

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