About Us

We would like to mention that our products are a great source of protein, Potassium, and Iron. IN THE VALLEY VEGAN products has no cholesterol, antibiotics, and no hormones. IN THE VALLEY VEGAN entrées should be a great fit for those who are looking for that healthier choice for themselves and their family. The first of many to come to market as our Plant-Base side dishes will follow soon after.
A’ la carte Brand was founded as a chili restaurant called Chili L.A. in the year of 1995 in the back of a carwash in Inglewood, CA. Founder, Norm Jones had a vision and a passion for cooking good food. While at the carwash one day, Norman observed the amount of traffic that passed through daily and thought about the type of business that could be a successful partnership at such a location. After speaking with the owner, Norm was able to build out space in the back of the carwash and sell the chili that had become famous amongst his family and friends. With his perfected chili recipe and his vision, he launched Chili L.A. His first year in the restaurant was challenging as he was also working fulltime as an engineer and trying to run the restaurant.
Norm decided to leave the engineering job and focus on the restaurant. Personal challenges in his family life and unusual rainy conditions for LA caused the carwash and chili business to struggle and close over the next few months. After reopening the chili restaurant became a success and Norm utilized his engineering experience and decided to scale his products and go into manufacturing. He took over a USDA manufacturing plant that he had been subletting and his perseverance paid off when he was asked to do a tasting for Ralph’s market. Partnering with Ralph’s to place his prepackaged bowls of chili was a milestone in Norm’s success for the Chili L.A. brand. From there he partnered with Bristol Farms to also place his prepackaged bowls of chili. His next partnership was with Dodgers Stadium to provide 2 oz portions of chili for chilidogs. Looking to expand the restaurant opportunities, Norm partnered with Chevron and opened his second Chili L.A. restaurant in Playa Vista, CA.
Realizing chili was a seasonal product Norm looked to expand the business by helping others bring their beloved family recipes to market. He does this today with the help of his team of testers, nutritionist, packaging plants, marketing, and respected relationships within the industry.
Throughout the years Norm has researched the market and found there was a demand for healthy and delicious entrées and side dishes. He also found there’s a large population of consumers who, are not only looking for healthy and delicious choices, but they are also Vegans. Along with that, in today’s fast-paced world families never seem to have time to cook a nutritional meal. Norm decided to take some of his favorite entrées and side dishes and launch a new vegan line that’s called IN THE VALLEY VEGAN.
The ideal of coming up with a vegan line is after his vegan friends invited him out to lunch in Koreatown, it was told before going be prepared to wait in a long line. After waiting in that long line and having the Plat-Based food that was offered, Norm said if people will wait in line for this, I know I can create much, much better than what he just ate. His line would be 100% Plant-Based, no animal by-products and made with Beyond Meat. After coming up with what he thought was an amazing vegan line he reached out to Beyond Meat to see if he could secure a licensing deal to use their name for branding purposes. Covid 19 hit the US and the world in March of 2020, it goes without saying everyone was locked- down. As everyone knew this was going to be a very challenging time, what would we all do doing this time?
Norm decided to spend his Covid lock-down time in the kitchen creating his new Vegan line, IN THE VALLEY VEGAN. During this time, he was able to test his new ideal by doing pop-ups in Sherman Oaks CA and it was a hit. Norm started sending out samples to the Beyond Meat team weekly for their feed back on concept of product, quality, flavor profile and disclaimers made on the packaging to name a few.

From the first recipe to the last samples sent out to the Beyond Meant team around the country, to the last signature on the licensing agreement, after the whole process of creating different food line that he didn’t know much about, Norm did secure a licensing deal with Beyond Meat and is proud, pleased, and excited to have come up with some high-quality, great tasting entrées. Vegan life is all new to Norm, as it is too many others that have turned to a Plant-Base life. Some people do it for health reasons, some because it makes them feel better and some do it for the planet and the animals.

Norm admits, that many people algo the way has tried to persuade him to come up with a healthier chili product, at the time for people who were vegetarians. But it was after meeting he’s how, good friends Charlie and Sherri Johnson of Woodland Hills CA, the Johnson’s have been vegan for about 7-10 year. They told Norm that being vegan is not something you do every now and then, but you need to make it a lifestyle.

They said you will need to cut out meats, eggs, milk, butter, and anything with animal By-Products in it. The couple told him that being vegan, they said, is caring about the planet as well as no cruelty to animals, they said. The food that you will now lean to eat can’t have any animal by-products no eggs, daily, milk, or butter. Norm took their advice and ran with it and completed his IN THE VALLEY VEGAN line without using any animal by-products. IN THE VALLEY VEGAN line ingredients are a great source of potassium, protein, and Iron our vegan line has lower sodium, and no cholesterol.