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A New York City entrepreneur is on a mission to change how Americans think about what’s sitting in their refrigerators — and what shouldn’t be sitting in their pantries.
“I take pride that Besto is perishable,” said Kaureen Randhawa, founder of the nut-free pesto brand that launched in the summer of 2024.
“It does go bad,” Randhawa, 27, told Digital. “It needs to be refrigerated because it is a fresh-ingredient product. … It’s cool for food to go bad. Food is fresh. It should be going bad. It shouldn’t be lasting me during three hurricanes in my pantry.”
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Randhawa’s journey to becoming the Besto boss started in childhood out of necessity.
Diagnosed with a severe nut allergy as an infant while living in Florida, she grew up navigating foods many take for granted.
Kaureen Randhawa said she’s had a severe nut allergy since she was a baby — so her mother would make her a nut-free pesto. (Kaureen Randhawa)
“That’s an allergy I never outgrew,” she said, sharing that pesto — traditionally made with pine nuts — was always off-limits unless her mother made it from scratch.
That homemade workaround would later become the foundation for her business.
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“My mom is an amazing cook,” Randhawa said. “She would make for me a nut-free pesto.”
Years later, while attending the University of Florida, Randhawa began experimenting with that recipe.
Randhawa has been experimenting with the recipe since she was at the University of Florida. (Kaureen Randhawa)
“I got really into my health and wellness at college,” she said, recalling how she modified the traditional recipe by adding apple cider vinegar and swapping in spinach.
The result, she said, was “this green, better-for-you sauce that tastes just like pesto.”
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After graduating and moving to New York for a corporate job at Estée Lauder, Randhawa continued making her pesto for everyday use at home and work — until her friend’s husband, who is involved in the “food scene down in Miami,” called her. He had just tried a jar she left in their fridge during a visit.
His message to her was, “I think you’re onto something,” she recalled.
Randhawa founded Besto in 2024, initially selling the nut-free pesto at parks during her lunch break. (Molly Zacher/The Wind Creative)
From there, Besto was born in her 506-square-foot apartment.
Randhawa began fulfilling orders herself, sourcing ingredients from local stores and handing off jars in Manhattan parks during her lunch break.
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Today, Besto ships nationwide and is stocked in about 60 stores across 17 states, appealing not just to allergy-conscious consumers but also to health-focused shoppers.
The pesto is mostly sold at health stores. (Besto)
Randhawa said she believes the brand’s rapid growth reflects a broader shift in how Americans approach food — one increasingly driven by transparency and ingredient awareness.
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“Now when a consumer picks up such a simple product like ketchup or mayo, or if it’s pesto, we now read the labels because we see all the junk that’s in it,” she said.
That mindset aligns with a growing movement toward cleaner, less processed foods — and a rejection of ultra-long shelf life as a selling point, she said, noting the “tons of shelf-stable pestos” at the grocery store.
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“But those pestos aren’t pestos I ever wanted to buy,” she said.
“They don’t taste fresh.”
Randhawa is proud of the fact that the nut-free pesto brand she created has a shelf life. (Molly Zacher/The Wind Creative; Roots Marketing Agency)
While Besto began as a solution for people with nut allergies like hers, Randhawa said it’s “just a good-tasting pesto.”
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“If something tastes good, anyone would want to eat it,” she said.
