Now in her second year in business, Ilona Kossoff and her team with 18 Chestnuts create quality soups to help people feel good in their bodies.

Kossoff and her husband formerly had a career in commercial real estate in Tampa, FL. When her father was diagnosed with cancer, Kossoff began to look at life from a different perspective.

“Real estate was draining my energy and creativity, and nothing was feeding my soul,” Kossoff said. “I took yoga teacher training courses and met some incredible people who were genuinely sharing their stories and stepping into their passion. I was so inspired by them, and felt a renewed source of energy.”

Soups are Kossoff’s favorite food, and she had been making them for herself and her family for more than 30 years. She realized the food choices most easily accessible don’t serve people well and can leave people feeling worse than before they eat them, and she didn’t want to be a part of that. She studied for a year at Cornell to learn how plant-based eating affects the body. 

“I created 18 Chestnuts with the sole purpose of creating quality healthy food,” Kossoff said. “The second pillar is environmental. People generally consume about a credit card worth of plastic every year, and I don’t want to contribute to that either. We package our soups in glass, and compost and recycle anything that’s possible.”

Living in Western North Carolina for several years, the region’s entrepreneurial support organizations have been instrumental in providing support and space for launching 18 Chestnuts, according to Kossoff. She said she was fortunate to find Blue Ridge Food Ventures and their commercial kitchen space, and the two women coaches she was paired with through Hatch Innovation Hub are fearless, knowledgeable in business, and have encouraged her to look at her business from different perspectives.

“They helped me to find my voice,” Kossoff said. “I feel purposeful, and this is an amazing feeling that I’ve never felt before. I’m just making soup, but I’m okay with just making soup as long as I can be really great at just making soup.”

Kossoff said the ingredients used in her soups are sourced as locally as possible, are made with 40% less sodium than many other brands, and are all vegan. Her soups, including flavors like Mountain Mushroom and Red Pepper Pomodoro, can be used in recipes like casseroles or pasta dishes and add more nutrition to meals. “I did this when my kids were little to sneak in veggies, and they loved it,” she said.

Setting up shop at the UNCA Farmers Market was an incredible learning curve for  Kossoff. She said it was a business incubator of sorts and gave her an opportunity to connect with like-minded people and to test different products and flavors.

More recently, Kossoff said she had the opportunity to work with Venture Asheville’s Elevate program, which has turned into an incredible journey. She said surrounding herself with other hard-working people scaling their business has been truly inspiring, and that it’s supportive to see others navigating the challenging steps and finding their way. “I’m learning what that journey is like, and learning that I’m not alone,” she said.

Now, Kossoff has four full-time and three part-time employees, as well as staff in other locations like Charlotte and Wilmington where 18 Chestnuts has a presence. She said she is also working with distributors, planning to attend food shows, and trying new soup recipes while growing the retail arm of her business. While she wants to expand, her focus is on North Carolina.

“I want to show up with the community and support the people who work and buy local,” Kossoff said. “I recognize this area as my home, and we want to be here.”