Meet Anna Vocino – CEO and Founder of Eat Happy Kitchen

Earlier this month, I met Anna Vocino at Expo West. Anna is the CEO and Founder of Eat Happy Kitchen, one of the fastest‑growing women‑owned clean‑label food brands in the country.

As I approached the Eat Happy Kitchen booth, I made a beeline for the pasta sauces! I cook pasta for my family at least once a week, so I couldn’t resist. The arrabbiata sauce is so tasty!

Eat Happy Kitchen also makes seasonings: Taco Dust, Salt Dust, Ranch Dust, and BBQ Dust. I asked Anna which are the most popular spices and found out that both the BBQ and Taco seasonings are a big hit!

Anna is a three‑time bestselling cookbook author, voice actor, and podcaster who leveraged her entertainment career to self-fund Eat Happy Kitchen.

Recently I had the opportunity to interview Anna and find out what inspired her to create Eat Happy Kitchen!

How/why did you begin your business?

Anna: My business really started out of necessity. I was diagnosed with celiac disease in 2002, and overnight I had to completely change how I ate. At first, I was just trying to recreate the foods I loved in gluten-free versions, but a lot of that led me into eating things that weren’t actually that healthy.

Around 2012, after working with Vinnie Tortorich on Fitness Confidential, a podcast I co-host, I shifted into more of a low-carb, whole-food approach. That’s when I started writing cookbooks and really paying attention to how people actually cook at home.

The big turning point, though, was realizing that most people weren’t making things like sauce from scratch the way I was. They were buying jarred versions. I remember walking down the pasta sauce aisle and thinking, wait…what is actually in this stuff? It was shocking.

That’s when it clicked for me, there was a real need for clean, simple food that actually tastes good. That idea eventually evolved into Eat Happy Kitchen.

From there, things moved pretty quickly. A food manufacturer who had lost 80 pounds cooking from my cookbooks reached out and wanted to help bring my sauces to market. We did a small first run as a proof of concept. I honestly thought I’d be stuck with cases of sauce in my garage for years. Instead, it sold out. That was the moment I realized, “okay, this is actually something.”

What is one tip or piece of advice that you would give to other female entrepreneurs?

Anna: Shorten your learning curve however you can. Talk to other entrepreneurs. Ask questions. Learn from what they’ve already gone through, because mistakes in business can get expensive fast.

Also, I think it’s really important to let go of the idea of “passive income.” There’s nothing passive about building a business. It’s like your health, your relationships, your family… you have to actively show up for it.

In the beginning you need to learn how to do everything yourself. Understand every part of the business before you start outsourcing. Then, as you grow, you can hand things off strategically. But early on you really have to be all in.

There aren’t shortcuts, but the upside is that most things are less scary once you actually start doing them.

The clean-food and gluten-free landscape is evolving so fast. What is it about being part of this specific movement that feels most rewarding to you?

Anna: For me, the most rewarding part is seeing people with dietary restrictions finally feel like they have options, and that they’re not being dismissed.

For a long time, especially in the U.S., there’s been a tendency to mock or brush off food sensitivities. But for a lot of people this isn’t a preference; it’s a medical reality.

When I was first diagnosed with Celiac disease, there wasn’t even a shared language around gluten. I spent so much time explaining what I could and couldn’t eat, and even then it was confusing for people. Just going out to eat or going to a party took a lot of planning.

Now it’s different. There’s more awareness, better labeling, and more products out there. Kids growing up today with food restrictions have access to things I didn’t, and that’s huge.

I also just love the creative side of it. When someone asks, “Hey, I can’t eat this. What can I use instead?” I see that as a challenge. It pushes me to come up with something new. Being part of something that helps people feel included and excited about food again, that’s the best part.

If there was one thing you wish you knew before you began your business, what would that be?

Anna: That sales and marketing are the job. Everything else is secondary.

You can have an amazing product, but if you don’t know how to market it and sell it, it doesn’t matter. I think a lot of people fall into that “build it and they will come” mindset, and it just doesn’t work like that.

You have to get comfortable putting yourself out there, especially as a founder. Learn marketing. Learn social media. Understand your customer. People want to know who’s behind the brand.

At the end of the day, if no one knows you exist, you don’t really have a business.

And honestly, that’s been a huge part of Eat Happy Kitchen’s growth. What started as one sauce has turned into a much bigger brand, now in more than 1,300 stores nationwide, with new products coming out and more retail partners coming on. But all of that comes back to consistently showing up, connecting with customers, and doing the work of selling.

For more information on Eat Happy Kitchen, visit the website here. Also, check out their Facebook page and Instagram for the latest updates!

Disclosure: No monetary compensation was received for this post. All images are my own unless otherwise noted. As always, my opinions are 100% my own.