Services: Co-Manufacturing, Private Label & Foodservice

Overview

A West Coast co-manufacturer with a culinary soul.

Ladle & Leaf is a co-manufacturer with 25+ years of operating history, producing custom soups, sauces, and prepared foods for retail private label, foodservice, healthcare, and education.

Based in Oakland, California, we are well positioned to serve West Coast customers with shorter lead times than national co-manufacturers. Customers bring a recipe, a concept, or a challenge, and our culinary and operations teams scale it to production. We also offer a catalog of 150+ in-house soup recipes, proven through daily service across 8 Bay Area locations, for private label customers seeking a faster path to launch.

The Ladle & Leaf production team gathered on the plant floor in Oakland

Service 01

Co-Manufacturing

Your recipe, our kitchen. Bring a proven recipe, and we handle the rest: scale-up, bulk ingredient sourcing, production, packaging, and distribution.

✓Recipe matching & scale-up: we match your recipe on our bench and scale up to production levels, from a home kitchen or test batch to full volume
✓Custom soups, sauces & prepared foods to your exact spec
✓Bulk ingredient sourcing: we draw on our network of industrial suppliers, local produce, and long-term ingredient partners to make your recipe taste great while keeping costs in line
✓Regulatory: we can lead the USDA recipe approval process
✓Production: your recipe is produced in increasing batch sizes to ensure quality is maintained at scale
✓Packaging: choose from a variety of packaging options and leverage our vendor relationships
✓Distribution: tell us where your product needs to go and we'll get it there
✓Allergen-controlled production for complex free-from formulations, with documented segregation and cleaning protocols
✓Grow without capital risk: no plant, no equipment, no headcount

Discuss a co-man project →

A production kettle of minestrone at full batch volume

Service 02

Private Label

Launch from our catalog. Choose from 150+ recipes proven through daily service in our restaurants: a faster path for recipe development, with customized packaging under your label.

✓150+ ready recipes spanning bisques, chowders, chilis, mac & cheese, and sauces
✓Customizable: these recipes are for you. Adjust seasoning, ingredients, portion sizes, and packaging to fit your needs
✓Packaging: choose from a variety of packaging options and leverage our vendor relationships
✓Speed to market without the long R&D runway of building from scratch

Soup being filled into a retail cup on the packaging line

Service 03

Foodservice

Restaurant-quality soups, sauces, mac & cheese, and curries in bulk formats, consistent batch after batch. There are two ways to put Ladle & Leaf on your menu: order soups already in distribution in your region, or pick a catalog soup we'll produce and spin up new distribution for.

✓Bulk formats sized for foodservice operations and central kitchens
✓Operational efficiency: heat-and-serve quality without scratch labor
✓Consistency at scale backed by documented food-safety controls
✓Menus that travel across restaurant, college, and healthcare settings

A sealed bulk bag of sauce passing through the inline metal detector

In market now

Soups already in distribution

Many of our catalog soups are shipping today through distributors across the West Coast. If speed matters, start here. Reach out and we'll point you to the distributor in your area.

✓Available now: stocked and ready to order
✓No minimums: order through your distributor
✓Proven sellers from our 150+ catalog

Find a distributor →

Spin up distribution

Soups ready for distribution

Want a catalog soup we don't yet ship in your region? We'll produce it and work with a distributor to get it stocked where you need it. Same proven recipes, new distribution lane.

✓Same 150+ catalog: pick what fits your menu
✓We coordinate distribution in your region
✓Fairly low minimums to make it work

Request a soup →

See industries we serve →

Not sure which fits?

Match the service to your stage

📖

You have a recipe you love

Go with co-manufacturing. We'll scale your proven formula to production while you keep full ownership of the brand and IP.

🏷️

You have a brand, no recipe

Go with private label. Launch quickly from our proven catalog, customized to feel like yours.

👨‍🍳

You run a kitchen

Go with foodservice. Order soups already in distribution, or pick a catalog soup we'll spin up distribution for.

Let's build something

Bring us a recipe, a concept, or a challenge.

Tell us about your product and volume. Our culinary and operations teams will map the fastest, lowest-risk path to meet your needs.

Request a Quote → Review capabilities

Bring a recipe. Bring a concept. Bring a challenge.