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Our History

Building a successful food company takes smart strategies and a lot of hard work. Here’s the story of how three partners with varied backgrounds who’ve known each other since kindergarten, created Cookwell & Company, an Austin-based food company.

The principals at Cookwell & Company actually started the company on a dare. Could friends who’d known each other their entire lives start a company based on a mutual love – food – and still maintain their friendship? Well, they did. The backgrounds of the owners are as diverse as their skills, but those diverse skills have proven to be a major reason why they are a perfect match.


Will Petty, co-owner and President of Cookwell & Company is passionate about food. He graduated from Texas Tech University in 1994 with a B.A. in Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Management, but found that what he really enjoyed was cooking food and creating flavors to share with others, rather than the restaurant path. Will honed his food skills working for a food distributor, as well as for a manufacturer. He is the official company chef and in charge of product development at Cookwell.

Cookwell & Company co-owner and Vice President Kyle Green is the all-important guy behind the scenes, handling the company’s finances. Kyle graduated from Concordia University with multiple degrees and a significant focus on accounting. After college Kyle was a partner of Prism Hospitality where he was COO and head of procurement. Now he brings those skills to Cookwell’s bottom line, although he enjoys being a taste tester as much as being the bookkeeper.

Co-founder Brion Cimino left Cookwell in 2012 to pursue other dreams but Will & Kyle remain dedicated to exploring the world in search of new ways to make your life more delicious. It’s easy to see why Cookwell & Company is certainly not “just another food company”.

Together the long-time, food loving friends comprise Cookwell & Company, located in the heart of Austin, Texas. These guys wear boots to work and boast three grills and a smoker at their office. The company motto is “The day that work is no longer fun, is the day we’ll shut ‘er down. Life is too short to not have fun at work.”