In 1933, at the height of the Great Depression, a 16-year-old Katherine Hill was looking for a job to save money for her education.
Katherine’s job search led her through the doors of Marzetti’s Restaurant in Columbus, Ohio, a local establishment well-known for serving good food and bringing people together. The Marzetti family offered her a job as a temporary dishwasher for $10 per week, which Katherine enthusiastically accepted – unaware that this would be the beginning of a decades-long journey.
The Marzetti family saw something special in Katherine. When her initial role as a dishwasher ended, they asked her to stay at their restaurant and work in the kitchen. Katherine helped wherever she was needed, learning as she went.
Through trial, observation, and persistence, Katherine developed a natural ability in the kitchen. She didn’t rely on formal recipes. Instead, she trusted her senses and her instincts to guide her.
The restaurant quickly grew in popularity. While the food Marzetti’s served was great, their homemade salad dressings were the talk of the town.
Katherine was given a test: create a creamy coleslaw dressing for the restaurant’s dining room.
She passed with flying colors.
Customers loved Katherine’s coleslaw dressing so much that they began asking for bottles to take home. Similar requests poured in for Marzetti’s other homemade salad dressings, and soon enough, the upstairs of the restaurant was transformed into a full-scale dressing factory to keep up with growing demand.
Katherine had discovered her passion for creating high-quality, flavorful recipes to share with others. She continued to create dressings, sauces, breads, and more at The Marzetti Company over the next several decades – beginning in the Marzetti’s Restaurant kitchen, then at the family’s first commercial production facility, and finally at the Marzetti R&D facility as a Senior Food Technologist.
After nearly 70 years of loyalty to the Marzetti family, Katherine retired. Though she passed away in 2006, her legacy of quality and innovation lives on in every recipe she helped create and every meal made better by our products.
Her journey is a reminder that passion, curiosity, and courage can shape something truly lasting. Katherine Hill is proof that sometimes, the most important ingredient isn’t written in the recipe at all.
