Humble Beginnings

As a child, our founder Julie was surrounded by a family full of female gourmets.

By the time Julie was ten, she was spending every Friday with her grandmother, Rocci Valentine, and every Sunday with her other grandmother, Marguerite Percy, cooking and listening to their stories—some too incredible to be true. That time in the kitchen amounted to an informal master class in both cooking by heart from Grandma Rocci and cooking by precision from Nana Marguerite. Where Nana Marguerite had a formal and well-measured...

Her time in the kitchen gave her not only a love for food but also an ear for storytelling and a sense of adventure nurtured by trips around the world with Nana Marguerite.

After arriving at college, Julie’s room soon became an informal canteen for her dorm mates as they marveled at the creative concoctions she was able to make with a simple hot pot and a packet of noodles. Julie took an internship in London during her junior year and spent the summer afterward backpacking around Europe. It was there that she met her first love, Portuguese ceramic pottery.

Starting a ceramic business was surprisingly easy for Julie.

Following in the footsteps of the Pampered Chef, Julie started holding house parties where she would showcase the latest finds and share stories from her adventures in Portugal. Soon Julie had recruited a close-knit team of moms to help her run her business. After the first couple of months, Julie’s early success started to wane. With the leaves quickly turning colors, her customers were no longer looking for pieces for...

On the day of the event, Julie sold out of her recipe kits in minutes. From that moment on, the more kits she made, the more she sold.

Julie dedicated the rest of the holiday season to preparing and packaging recipe kits inside her various ceramic pieces. By the end of the season, she had sold over five hundred kits in two months. After a chaotic holiday season, Julie was ready to relax a bit before holding her next party, but not long after the decorations had come down, Julie’s phone started ringing. Julie was surprised to hear from dozens of new customers who had been the recipients of the gifts Julie had sold just a few weeks ago, all asking for the same thing: “where can we get more of those spice mixes?” or “where can I get more of that cake mix?” Over the next two years, Julie began selling more and more spice blends, baking mixes, and herbal vinegars, and less of the ceramics she had started her business importing.

At every turn, Julie made decisions not just about what was best for the company but what was best for her customers. This customer-centric approach has carried Jullie and her team of food enthusiasts from the farmer's markets and pop-up shops they started at into the bright lights of Hollywood productions. All the time, she stayed truly humble, asking only what was fair, and helping the people she served in whatever capacity she could. Whether it’s giving cooking advice from their own kitchen or handing out free samples to loyal fans, the Terra Americana team stands in service to the people, place, and food of which they serve.