Jack Williams’ dream of seeing his great-grandmother’s picture in every grocery store across the country is one step closer to reality as the Lenexa entrepreneur’s jars of Grandma Morrelli’s pasta sauce — emblazoned with her photo — hit Kansas City shelves.
“I’m trying to honor her and family traditions,” he said, describing how the venture preserves his family’s culinary history.
The pasta sauce — developed more than 125 years ago by Williams’ ancestor Angeline, on the family farm in Cassville — can now be found at about 30 area grocery stores, including Balls Food Stores (various Hen House, Price Chopper, and Sun Fresh locations) and several Hy-Vee locations. Next, he’s hoping to get into area Cosentino’s stores.
“It’s a good story; it’s a good sauce,” Williams said. “The whole nine yards.”
Although his great-grandmother died when was 10 or 11, Williams said, he remembers her frequently making homemade pasta noodles. His great-grandparents immigrated from Italy to southern Missouri.
“She rolled it out on this great big pasta board,” he explained. “And she used this thing — my mother had one of them and all the women back then had one — this fold-out thing to hang clothes on in your house when you couldn’t hang them outside. She would cut the pasta and hang it there in her house.”
“She was a wonderful lady,” Williams added, noting his colorful great-grandmother also raised parakeets.
The classic sauce — passed down through six generations — features a zesty tomato taste with just a hint of sweetness, he noted.
“It’s got a bunch of the basic spices in it, but it’s not overpowering,” he continued. “It’s not too sweet, it’s not too spicy, it’s not too bold. It’s just a good, basic sauce because that’s what everybody loves. That’s what the average person loves.”
Eventually, he added, he would like to come out with a heartier, stronger sauce to add to the lineup.
With the sauce only on local shelves for about a month, Williams has been busy sampling and promoting it. He’ll be at the Hen House in Olathe Saturday morning and the Hen House in Fairway on Saturday afternoon; plus the Price Chopper in Roeland Park on Sunday morning and the Price Chopper in Shawnee on Sunday afternoon, providing samples.
Pickled aspirations
This isn’t the first time Williams has jarred one of his great-grandmother’s recipes. She’s also known for her dill pickles. 2010 started Great Gran’s Homestyle Pickles in 2010.
“They had a cellar in the bottom of the house — they built this house in the early 1900s — and that’s where she stored the pickles and all the canned goods,” he recalled. “I remember my brother and I and our cousins, we would go down there and it was scary.”
The pickles, however, were a hit. Before he sold the business to a relative in 2015, Great Gran’s pickles were sold in about 45 area stores.
“I personally have canned over 25,000 jars of pickles,” Williams added.
Although he’s not running the business anymore, Williams still has dreams that the pickles — like the pasta sauce — will be sold nationwide.
“I’m actually not in this for the money,” he said, “but because I want to leave something for my great grandchildren and my grandchildren.”
This story was originally published by Startland News, a fellow member of the KC Media Collective.
