About
Those of us who love to cook often also share a love of entertaining. Add to that an unwillingness to let guests leave empty-handed and a perpetually well-stocked pantry that always has something in it to send home with guests. My family always gets Za’atar, made from the recipe my Lebanese grandfather’s family brought with them when they emigrated to the US in the late-19th century. (The recipe has gone from my Grandpa to my Uncle Henry to me.) Friends get jars of fresh tomato sauce, pesto, or what my kids call “green sauce” that I make when there’s a bumper crop of parsley.
How It All Started
Intrigued by a recipe I found for Chili Crisp, I decided to try it out. While the flavor was fine, I knew it could be so much better if it just had a little more of this, a little more of that and something else I couldn’t put my finger on. After many iterations (and even more patience), I arrived at what I sell today. Spicy Catsup was another thing I always wanted, couldn’t find, and worked on obsessively until it hit the right flavor notes. One Thanksgiving these two “newbie” condiments were added to parting guest’s bags with Za’atar and it became the take-home trio after our feast. By December, the less-than-subtle replenishment requests began to roll in. And it was then that I decided to start a business.
Knowing I wanted to use organic ingredients wherever possible, I signed up for food prep and preservation classes. I searched and searched until I found a commercial kitchen that was friendly to start-ups. As a woman “of a certain age” and having worked for many decades, I had a wonderful network of people to advise me. And boy, did I lean on them. Starting any business is an adventure and an education. I love these products and hope you do, too.
Thank you for supporting ClaireMade.
Who Is Claire
I’m a native New Yorker who has lived in the Northeast, the Mid-West, and the West Coast, but, as often happens to us natives, I’ve ended up back in New York City. I’ve traveled all over the world and will eat, or at least try, almost anything.
A single mom, I have two daughters in their early 20s. One cooks, one doesn’t, but they both use ClaireMade products, recruit their friends as tasters and test audiences, and are 100% behind me.
I’ve worked for many brand-name companies in specialty marketing – wholesale, retail, and direct response. Through it all I’ve always grown herbs and vegetables, and reveled in cooking and hosting. Is there anything better than wonderful conversations and hearty laughs with great friends around a table full of lovingly made food?
Our Products
“Cooking” used to be defined as gathering ingredients and producing something from scratch. Now, assembling food, microwaving food, reheating food, putting together food from a kit – it all counts as cooking. We are so busy so much of the time, but we still need to eat. My goal in starting ClaireMade was to offer products that would allow anyone to add flavor to almost anything and create a meal or snack that would be satisfying and enjoyable.
With ClaireMade products on your shelf or in your fridge, a home-cooked meal with home-made flavor can be made with just two ingredients.
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Chili Crisp
$14.99 -
Spicy Catsup
$12.99 -
Za’atar Blend
$9.99 -
Taste Trifecta
$35.00 -
ClaireMade Apron
$29.00 -
Savory Sampler
$15.00
Our Promises
To Those Who Cook
Our products are staples that make your culinary creations come alive.
To Those Who Host
Our products help you create memorable, enviable and endlessly talked about meals for your gatherings.
To Those Who Eat
Our products make the best version of your meal just a spoonful away.
To Those Who Gift
Our products make gifting personal, dazzling, and thoughtfully tasty.
What People Are Saying
Notable Women
Perfect Picnic NYC
Wendy Weston, a single mother like me, lived in the Lower East Side, a part of New York City. The Essex Market was nearby, a food hall with the best breads, meats, veggies, candies, in the city. Wendy was training promising figure skaters when she recognized a niche, ready-to-go picnics, and realized that every vendor she needed to get started was two blocks away. She started Perfect Picnic from her apartment in 2011. Since then she has grown and grown and now has a retail store on Central Park West, across from Central Park and the park’s North Woods, a beautiful place for a picnic with streams and waterfalls and trails through the woods. Now picnickers can enjoy Perfect Picnics beyond Manhattan. They are available in the Hamptons and in Providence. I’ve watched Wendy meet every challenge, enjoy every moment, and raise a wonderful and lovely daughter.
White Buffalo Herbs
Carol Joyce is someone I’ve loved, admired, and respected for decades. A trained aromatherapist, Carol started White Buffalo Herbs after moving with her husband to a plot of land that they converted to an organic farm. Her products use her crops as ingredients. Feeling tense? A spritz of TRANQUIL-EZ Aromamist is the answer. I use it all the time because the scent of lavender and other herbs immediately relieves the tension. All her products work like this, from bug deterrent, to herbal teas, to pain relievers
Eden Weinberg Design
If good commercial design is defined as collaboration between the client and the designer, Eden Weinberg is the epitome of that. She designed the beautiful, intuitive, effective website you are in right now. My first words to her about the project were “clean and clear” and Eden fulfilled that goal beyond my wildest expectations adding ease, sophistication, and really effective design. She is knowledgeable about all things design, web, marketing, commerce, and so much more – remarkable in someone well under 30. She is also kind and caring and enthusiastic. She loves what she does and it shows. She even coerced her friends to pose as my models; her roomie and so many friends cook with ClaireMade products; and she is the user who came up with the idea to mix Chili Crisp in mac-and cheese. How often does someone go this all in? I was lucky to find her and will continue to keep her in my life professionally and personally. Everyone should be so lucky.