Basil first
Grown on partner farms within two hundred miles, picked in the morning, crushed the same afternoon.
Christen’s Best started in a Plymouth, Michigan kitchen in 2019, grinding basil by hand for Sunday dinners. One jar at a time, it outgrew the kitchen — but not the way it’s made.
Sunday dinners Chapter 01
It started with a marble mortar and too much basil. Christen made pesto for her family the way her grandmother made it in Amalfi u2014 patiently, in small bowls, with nothing but the seven ingredients that belonged there. The neighbors started asking for jars. The jars became a waitlist. The waitlist became a business.
We still cook the way she cooks at home. That’s the only non-negotiable.
The farm Chapter 02
Our basil comes from a partner farm in Washtenaw County u2014 picked at dawn, in our kitchen by lunch, in jars by evening. We buy the whole row, not the leaf, because the stems carry flavor too.
In winter, we pause. Frozen basil is not the same basil.
The method Chapter 03
We grate our Parmigiano-Reggiano the morning it goes in. Pre-shredded cheese is a shortcut, and you can taste it. We toast our pine nuts on a sheet pan the day of u2014 not the week of. And we finish every jar with a peppery Sicilian Nocellara olive oil that would be the best oil in most other people’s pantries.
The result is a jar that tastes like something someone made, because someone did.
Grown on partner farms within two hundred miles, picked in the morning, crushed the same afternoon.
No xanthan, no citric acid, no potassium sorbate. A jar of Christen's Best reads like the recipe in my grandmother's notebook.
Heat bruises basil and greys pesto. Our whole line rides refrigerated from press to pantry — the way fresh food should.
A note from Christen
Thank you for reading this far. Every jar that leaves our kitchen is sent off the way my grandmother used to send off bowls from hers u2014 with an expectation that it’ll land on a table where people actually sit down and eat together. That’s the only ask. Everything else, we’ll take care of.
Christen Romano Founder & pesto maker
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