ENGLEWOOD — Therapist-turned-entrepreneur Itiona Scott never dreamed she'd be selling her mother’s special salad dressing in major retail stores.
Essie Marie’s, named after her late mother, was recently placed in Whole Foods' new Englewood store. The Beverly native launched the company in early 2015, but what led her to go into business was a combination of two things.
“I used to bring the salad to work and family functions and people would always say ‘This is so good,’ and they kept demanding it,” Scott said about her mother’s homemade dressing.
Her mom died when Scott was 15, but Scott said she always felt like her mom was guiding her in spirit, which led her to start the company one day.
“It was a spiritual inspiration that got me doing dressings because I’m not a chef,” she said, even though growing up she would love to watch her mom cook from scratch.
“It was a passion to just watch her,” she said.
The last thing she remembered her mother telling her before she died was to "make something out of yourself,’” she said.
Because Scott’s mother died from a massive heart attack, even though she was seemingly healthy, her daughter said she decided to make the dressing with healthier ingredients that don't contain saturated fats or refined sugars. Scott's website said that was done "with the hope of protecting others from the disease that took my mother."
She has found through store demonstrations that a lot of people, especially children who don’t typically eat salads, love it when some of her dressing is mixed into it. The Tuuti-Fruti and Basil Balsamic are the more popular ones out of her six flavors.
Scott said she encourages people to make healthier food choices.
“Most of the time when we get salads we put the dressing on it, but then it’s just as bad as any other fast-food meal,” she said. “A lot of time we count calories, but don’t count the chemicals.”
Although Scott grew up in Beverly, she attended elementary school in Englewood and later went to Kennedy-King College before transferring to Chicago State University.
She said she considers herself a part of the Englewood community and enjoys the opportunity to help educate residents when doing her food demonstrations.
Being back in Englewood after so many years feels great, she said.
“It’s so emotionally heartfelt,” Scott said, because she believes God has put her in this position to give hope to other children who may have lost a parent like she did.
“I’m looking to inspire,” she said.
Scott said Whole Foods told her that her salad dressing is a top seller in Englewood, but store officials declined to comment on specific sales figures, citing a company policy.
The dressings run about $6 a bottle, according to her website, www.essiemaries.com. Essie Marie’s can be found in Pete’s Produce stores at 1411 W. 87th St. and 1543 E. 87th St. as well as Whole Foods in Englewood, Hyde Park and the South Loop.
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