Jane Foodie was born out of founder Jane E. Carroll’s remarkable journey of reinvention. Carroll began her career far from the kitchen – as a floral designer in the Bronx – but quickly found success as an entrepreneur. In 2002, her creative “Boxed in Blooms” floral arrangements caught the attention of Oprah Winfrey, leading to features on Oprah’s Favorite Things and an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2005. This early acclaim made Carroll a nationally recognized name in design, with her work showcased in People and InStyle, and high-profile clients like Halle Berry and Sir Elton John.
Despite this success, the 2008 economic downturn devastated the events industry and shuttered Carroll’s thriving business. Around the same time, she survived a house fire and a serious heart attack at age 41. These hardships prompted a dramatic pivot. Carroll “turned hardship into opportunity” by slowing down and focusing on health. She opened a small coffeehouse called Jane’s on Main in Irvington, NY, which became a creative hub – hosting floral design classes and interior design services – and planted the seeds for her next chapter in food. By 2015, Carroll had fully immersed herself in the culinary world, launching Jane Bakes, a line of 100% all-natural cookies packaged sustainably and sold in specialty grocers and Whole Foods stores across the East Coast. Her foray into food continued as she opened Jane Café in Yonkers and even provided on-set catering (“craft services”) for Lionsgate Studios. It was during this period, cooking large batches of her Bronx-inspired recipes for film crews, that Carroll discovered the power of flash-freezing to preserve home-style meals. Seeing an opportunity to offer wholesome, convenient meals on a larger scale, she dedicated her new venture – Jane Foodie – to flash-frozen comfort foods that are “as nourishing as they are quick to prepare”. Jane Foodie officially launched in 2023 as a self-owned company based in Fishkill, New York , marking Carroll’s second act as a food entrepreneur.
Timeline
2002–2005: Jane Carroll’s floral designs gain national attention, featured on Oprah’s Favorite Things (2002) and leading to an Oprah Winfrey Show appearance in 2005. She earns a reputation as a top event designer, with features in major magazines and celebrity clientele.
2008: The financial crisis cripples Carroll’s event business, and she endures a personal health scare. In response, she shifts focus to a slower-paced venture, opening Jane’s on Main, a coffeehouse and creative studio.
2015: Carroll launches Jane Bakes, a natural cookie line with eco-friendly packaging. Jane Bakes products land on Whole Foods shelves across the East Coast , marking Carroll’s entry into retail food products.
2018–2019 (approx.): Carroll expands into hospitality, opening Jane Café in Yonkers and providing catering for Lionsgate’s film studio. These experiences inspire her to experiment with flash-freezing large batches of homemade recipes.
2023: Jane Foodie is founded in Fishkill, NY. Carroll positions the company to “redefine ready-to-eat foods” by offering flash-frozen, preservative-free meals. The company starts with direct-to-consumer online sales of its prepared foods.
June 2024: Jane Foodie’s Flash Frozen Guinness Beef Stew wins the Specialty Food Association’s sofi™ Award for Outstanding New Product of 2024 at the Summer Fancy Food Show. This award – a top honor in the gourmet food industry – recognizes the stew’s innovation and quality, which is made with filet mignon, vegetables, and Guinness stout.
Late 2024: Jane Foodie enters a retail partnership with online grocer FreshDirect. The deal brings the company’s signature soups (like Guinness Beef Stew, Italian Sausage & Orzo Soup, and French Onion Soup) to FreshDirect’s grocery delivery platform, expanding Jane Foodie’s reach in the New York region. Just in time for winter, FreshDirect shoppers can conveniently purchase Jane Foodie’s flash-frozen soups as comfort meals delivered to their door.
December 2024: Fox News features Jane Foodie in its annual Holiday Gift Guide for food and wine lovers. The guide highlights the Jane Foodie Signature Soup gift box as a top gift idea, inviting readers to “enjoy a warm bowl of soup” with the help of Jane Foodie’s prepared soups. This media mention signals growing mainstream recognition for the brand.
Early 2025: Jane Foodie continues to garner press and industry attention. The company is cited in food trend publications – for example, WholeFoods Magazine noted Jane Foodie’s “no-cook cooking” approach in a 2024 Fancy Food Show trends roundup, and Food Navigator USA highlighted how its frozen meals “embrace familiarity” while introducing global flavors. (These articles place Jane Foodie within broader trends of convenient yet authentic prepared foods.) Carroll also appeared on The Hollywood Second Act podcast to share her entrepreneurial journey, emphasizing resilience and reinvention.
Jane Foodie Foods
Jane Foodie offers a range of flash-frozen, ready-to-heat foods aimed at delivering home-cooked quality with convenience. The product lineup is diverse, catering to “every kind of foodie,” from hearty entrées to baked goods. Key product categories include:
Main Dishes and Entrees: Fully cooked comfort meals featuring quality proteins and global flavors. Examples include dishes like Beef Salsa Irish Empanadas and Lemon Herb Chicken, which arrive pre-cooked and only need reheating to serve.
Soups, Stews & Sauces: Signature soups and stews (such as the award-winning Guinness Beef Stew, French Onion Soup, and Chicken & Pasta Soup) as well as pasta sauces. These are slow-cooked from scratch and flash-frozen at peak flavor.
Side Dishes & Vegetables: Pre-seasoned sides like Italian herbed rice or maple roasted carrots, and vegetable soups, designed to complement homemade mains or stand alone as quick vegetarian meals.
Breads & Breakfast Pastries: Par-baked breads (e.g. mini loaf rolls, bagels) and pastries that can be finished in the oven for a “fresh-baked” experience at home. There are also breakfast items like muffins or quiches, flash-frozen to lock in freshness.
Desserts and Cookies: Homestyle desserts (such as fruit crisps or mini bundt cakes) and Jane’s own Jane Bakescookies, which are 100% natural. The cookies – a legacy of the 2015 Jane Bakes line – continue to be offered, reflecting Carroll’s commitment to all-natural ingredients.
Sauces & Dressings: Bottled sauces, gravies, and dressings, which can accompany the dishes or be used in customers’ own cooking.
All Jane Foodie products are made from scratch with high-quality, natural ingredients and contain no preservatives or artificial additives. The foods are fully cooked (or par-baked for breads) in Jane Foodie’s kitchen, then immediately flash-frozen to preserve taste and nutrients. Portions are typically single-serving or family-serving, packaged for easy storage and quick preparation. Customers can mix-and-match items – for example, pairing a protein they cook at home with Jane Foodie side dishes, or adding a frozen soup and bread roll to round out a meal. This flexibility appeals to busy parents, college students, and seniors alike, allowing anyone to enjoy a “from-scratch” meal with minimal effort.
Business Operations
Jane Foodie operates primarily as a direct-to-consumer food business. The company sells its meals online through its website, shipping orders to customers in insulated boxes to maintain freezing during transit. The logistics are tailored to preserve quality: the company ships Monday through Wednesday each week to avoid weekend transit delays, and offers free shipping for large orders over a certain amount . By handling sales directly, Jane Foodie controls the customer experience and ensures that products arrive in optimal condition.
At the heart of Jane Foodie’s operation is its flash-freezing technology. After cooking each dish from scratch, the kitchen rapidly freezes the food at –40°F using specialized freezers. This ultra-cold, quick freeze method – known as flash freezing – prevents large ice crystals from forming in the food, which is what often degrades texture and taste in conventional frozen foods. Thanks to flash freezing, the dishes retain their “just cooked” integrity; when reheated, they are meant to taste as fresh and juicy as the day they were made. Research has shown that flash-frozen foods can even retain nutrients better than foods frozen slowly or sometimes even more than fresh, since vitamins are locked in at their peak. Jane Foodie leverages this technique to differentiate itself from typical frozen dinner brands.
Preparing a Jane Foodie meal is designed to be extremely simple – essentially “heat-and-eat.” Because the items are shipped pre-cooked (only needing finishing), customers can have a hot meal ready in minutes by using an oven, microwave, air fryer, or even an Instant Pot. Unlike meal kit services that require chopping and cooking, Jane Foodie provides the convenience of ready meals without the preservatives found in canned or shelf-stable microwavable dinners. This business model caters to health-conscious consumers who want convenience and real home-style quality. By selling frozen products, the company also reduces spoilage and can ship inventory from a central location to wherever demand exists, rather than maintaining many local kitchens or stores.
Jane Foodie’s facility in Fishkill, NY serves as its production kitchen and fulfillment center. The team (currently a small staff of under 50 people ) handles recipe development, cooking, flash-freezing, and packaging in-house. Ingredients are sourced to emphasize quality (for example, using cuts of meat like filet mignon in stews and locally-sourced vegetables in soups ). The flash-frozen meals are packaged in portioned, reclosable pouches or containers, which help customers use what they need and keep the rest frozen – this approach aligns with the company’s focus on cutting food waste. In fact, Jane Foodie often highlights the environmental benefit: Americans throw away about 120 billion pounds of food yearly (nearly 40% of the food supply), so providing appropriately sized frozen portions can help minimize waste.
Sustainability is a notable aspect of Jane Foodie’s operations. All packaging materials are either recyclable or biodegradable, avoiding excess plastic where possible. To ship frozen goods, the company uses innovative wool-based insulation liners instead of traditional Styrofoam coolers. Wool insulation is compostable and reusable, aligning with the brand’s eco-friendly ethos while still keeping shipments cold. By using these methods, Jane Foodie aims to ensure that the convenience of prepared meals doesn’t come at the cost of environmental responsibility.
In addition to direct consumer sales, Jane Foodie has begun exploring distribution partnerships. The FreshDirect partnership in late 2024 introduced a wholesale/retail component to its model – supplying a selection of products to a third-party retailer. This kind of partnership helps the company reach new customers who might discover Jane Foodie while grocery shopping online, and it could pave the way for future deals with other retailers or meal delivery platforms. However, as of 2025 the bulk of operations remains centered on the company’s own platform and controlled supply chain.
Media Coverage, Partnerships, and Recognition
Though a young company, Jane Foodie has achieved notable recognition in the food industry and media.
Industry Awards: The company made a splash by winning a 2024 sofi™ Award from the Specialty Food Association. Jane Foodie’s Flash Frozen Guinness Beef Stew was named the Outstanding New Product of the Year (Food) at the Summer Fancy Food Show in New York. This is a prestigious award, as sofi Awards are a benchmark for excellence among gourmet and specialty foods. The win not only validated Jane Foodie’s product quality but also provided valuable publicity at an early stage.
Press Features: Jane Foodie has been featured in a variety of media outlets. In late 2024, Fox News included the brand’s Signature Soup Box in an online holiday gift guide for “food and wine lovers,” emphasizing the comfort and quality of its soups as an ideal gift. The quote from Fox News described the experience of enjoying a cozy night with a warm bowl of Jane Foodie soup, highlighting the product’s appeal during the holiday season. Industry publications have also taken note. WholeFoods Magazine mentioned Jane Foodie in a report on top trends from the Fancy Food Show, under the theme of “no-cook cooking” and timeless flavors. Similarly, Food Navigator USA discussed Jane Foodie in the context of how modern frozen meals are going “beyond TV dinners” by offering familiar comfort with global influences. These articles illustrate that Jane Foodie is being recognized as part of a larger movement toward higher-quality frozen meals. Additionally, the company was profiled by Refrigerated & Frozen Foods Magazine in October 2024, in an article titled “Jane Foodie Focuses on Flash-Frozen Comfort Foods,” which positioned the brand as an innovative player bringing nourishing, preservative-free options to the ready-to-eat market.
Retail Partnership: A major partnership milestone came in December 2024 with FreshDirect, a leading online grocer in the Northeast. Through this collaboration, Jane Foodie began offering several of its top soups on FreshDirect’s platform. For example, FreshDirect customers in New York City and surrounding areas can order Jane Foodie’s Guinness Beef Stew, Italian Sausage & Orzo Soup, and French Onion Soup for home delivery. This partnership not only expanded Jane Foodie’s customer base but also served as a proof of concept for integrating with grocery distribution channels. It demonstrates how the company can complement traditional grocery offerings by providing artisanal, chef-crafted frozen meals via modern delivery services. The FreshDirect launch was timed with the winter season, tapping into the demand for convenient comfort food during cold months.
Podcasts and Local Media: Jane E. Carroll’s personal story has attracted attention as well. She was a guest on The Hollywood Second Act Club podcast (episode 37) in 2024, where she discussed “what to do when life throws curveballs,” sharing her journey from losing one business to building another in a completely different field. Local media in New York’s Hudson Valley and Westchester County have covered Jane Foodie’s rise too – noting that a local resident is bringing a new twist to frozen meals and even showcasing her concept on national television. Such coverage has helped humanize the brand and highlight the resilience behind it.
Public Reception: In addition to formal media, Jane Foodie has been active on social media (Instagram, Facebook) to build a community of “foodies.” Early customer feedback often praises the taste and convenience of the meals, which can help generate word-of-mouth marketing. While specific sales figures or customer numbers aren’t public, the combination of an industry award and positive press suggests Jane Foodie has been well-received in its first couple of years. There have also been B2B engagements – for instance, Jane Foodie has participated in food trade shows (like the Fancy Food Show) and was mentioned in a WholeFoods Magazine piece about trade show highlights , indicating that it’s networking within the industry for further opportunities.
Going forward, the company’s media presence and partnerships are likely to grow as it scales. Jane Foodie may explore additional retail partnerships (regional grocers, meal delivery services) or even brick-and-mortar opportunities. Any significant developments (such as an investment from a Shark Tank deal or new product launches) would further shape its public narrative. For now, Jane Foodie has established a strong foundation of credibility through quality-focused recognition and strategic partnerships.
The Founder: Jane E. Carroll
Jane E. Carroll is the founder, president, and creative force behind Jane Foodie. As a serial entrepreneur, Carroll brings a unique background that blends artistic design with culinary innovation. Growing up in the Bronx, she learned to hustle and innovate early on – skills that served her well when she started a home-based flower business as a young single mother. Carroll’s first business grew rapidly, leading her to open a high-end event design studio and become a sought-after event florist. Her flair for design and branding caught national attention (most famously through Oprah’s endorsements in the early 2000s ), establishing her as a creative entrepreneur with a knack for spotting unmet needs in the market.
Carroll’s pivot into the food industry was driven by circumstance but also by passion. After the 2008 crisis wiped out her event business, she consciously chose to build a career that prioritized well-being, community, and her love of cooking. By operating Jane’s on Main (her cafe/flower shop hybrid), she gained hands-on experience in running a food establishment and interacting with customers daily. She also began developing recipes – particularly baked goods – which culminated in the launch of Jane Bakes cookies in 2015. That venture taught her about food product development, packaging, and retail distribution (with her cookies landing in Whole Foods Market, she learned how to work with grocery buyers and manage product supply). All these experiences set the stage for Jane Foodie.
In founding Jane Foodie, Carroll has taken on the role of “Head Foodie,” which in practice means she wears many hats. She is intimately involved in recipe creation, ensuring each dish meets her standards for flavor and nutrition. Many of the recipes are inspired by her family and heritage – for example, hearty stews and baked goods reminiscent of her Bronx upbringing. Carroll also oversees operations and branding: she has been the public face of the company at trade shows, in interviews, and on social media. Her story is a key part of the Jane Foodie brand identity, underscoring themes of resilience, authenticity, and home-style comfort. In interviews and podcast appearances, she often emphasizes turning adversity into fuel for creativity, which resonates with the company’s mission of comforting people through food.
As President, Carroll likely manages strategic decisions such as product line expansions, partnerships (like the FreshDirect deal), and any funding considerations. Given the company’s small size, she is probably involved in day-to-day decisions as well, from kitchen oversight to marketing strategy. Her decades of entrepreneurship provide experience in both creative development and business management. It’s notable that she has successfully navigated two very different industries – events/design and food manufacturing – which speaks to her adaptability.
Within the company, Carroll’s leadership style appears to focus on quality and innovation. She has invested in technology (flash freezers) and sustainable practices to differentiate Jane Foodie in a crowded market. She also maintains the personal touch of a family business – for instance, the company’s website and communications have a personable tone, and Carroll sometimes writes blog updates or appears in promotional videos herself. Outside of work, as noted on the Jane Foodie site, she enjoys time as a mother and grandmother (“Meemaw” to her grandchildren) and continues pursuing hobbies like interior design and gardening – interests that have blended into her professional life in various chapters.
