AMY'S KITCHEN INC.

AMY'S KITCHEN INC. is a frozen-food company for people who want vegetarian meals, soups, bowls, burritos, and pizzas without building dinner from scratch. By our assessment, its real strength is that it made shelf-stable convenience food feel more like a home-cooked vegetarian meal than a bland tray dinner. That matters because its products have a clear identity: simple ingredients, meatless recipes, and a tone that sits somewhere between health-food aisles and comfort food. The downside is the same thing that gives it shape, since frozen entrées are still frozen entrées, with the usual trade-off in texture and freshness. In practice you microwave or heat, eat, and move on, which is exactly the point for many shoppers. AMY'S KITCHEN INC. sits above generic freezer meals and below restaurant-style cooking, and that middle ground is where it has built its name. People who want quick vegetarian food will find a lot to work with here; people expecting gourmet freshness should not. By our assessment, that is a solid place for it to be.