Aunt Ethel's Pot Pies

For more than 30 years, Aunt Ethel ran a thriving catering company in New York City, quietly building a following for her pot pies among local clients. She never imagined mass production until her niece, Sasha Millstein, approached her with a question many small business owners eventually face: how does one retire without letting a beloved recipe disappear?

Sasha had no immediate answer at the time, but the seed was planted. Five years later, while traveling through Vietnam, she found herself thinking about that conversation again. She realized the real opportunity was not to replace her aunt's catering business but to take what made those pies special and bring them to a broader audience.

The result is a frozen food brand built on Aunt Ethel's original recipe, adapted for a national market. Each pie features organic chicken, fresh vegetables, and a golden buttery croissant-style crust, and reheats in five minutes in the microwave. The company launched in Brooklyn and attracted media attention quickly, including a New York Times feature in 2022 praising the brand for avoiding the soggy bottom and preservative-heavy fillings common to supermarket pot pies.

Aunt Ethel's Pot Pies is a female-founded frozen food company based in Brooklyn, New York. The brand ships nationwide and has expanded into QVC, bringing its version of the classic American comfort food far beyond the original catering clientele.