Hollywood star Paul Newman’s salad dressing company, Newman’s Own, began as a lighthearted effort among friends and neighbors. While Newman was best known as a movie star featured in movies like “Cool Hand Luke,” “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” and “The Sting,” he has since been recognized worldwide for his contributions to the food industry. During the holidays in 1980, Newman phoned a buddy, Newman’s Own co-founder and author A.E. Hotchner, to help him fill empty wine bottles with salad dressing he had made. The idea was to distribute the culinary creation to neighbors as a gift. One of those neighbors just happened to be Martha Stewart.
In a 2025 episode of “The Martha Stewart Podcast” featuring actor Glen Powell, Stewart recounts the experience, recalling suggesting that Newman add ingredients to the recipe to perfect it. While Newman and his friends took a more comedic, light approach to the salad dressing operation, Stewart brought a seriousness to the development of the recipe and hoped to help the men create a vinaigrette that tasted homemade and real. Stewart encouraged Newman to use real olive oil in the recipe and referenced her own vinaigrette recipes to help shape the overall tasting profile. No wonder Newman’s Own ranks as our top pick of store-bought Italian salad dressing brands.
When a salad dressing turns into a movement
The end result of Newman’s salad dressing experiments was a hit. Stewart included Newman’s salad dressing in a blind taste-testing lineup, and the actor’s recipe won all the accolades from participants. The success of this wholesome project laid the foundations for Newman’s Own, a brand that prides itself in sending all of its profits straight to charities that help kids around the world. Since then, Newman’s words — “Let’s give it all away” — have been the brand’s motto.
Newman once admitted the ludicrousness of using his face on the label placed on the salad dressing bottles. However, the entrepreneur decided to press his foot down on the gas and use the proceeds to help others. In its first year of operations, Newman’s Own brought in $920,000. To this day, Newman’s Own remains one of the more delicious store-bought salad dressings found on market shelves. Since its inception in the 1980s, the brand has expanded into food, beverages, snacks, and pet food verticals. An estimated over 600 million dollars have been distributed to charitable causes as a result. This is certainly a lasting joke with impact.
