Move Over Paul Newman

Here’s an easy recipe for selling salad dressing. 1. Start with a delicious secret recipe that’s been perfected over generations. 2. Add a celebrity and a good cause—in this case, St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa and Bay Area charities, including La Russa’s Animal Rescue Foundation, the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame, and Children’s Hospital Oakland. 3. Stir.

These are the steps La Russa’s friends Bill and Catherine Dieterich of Alamo followed to launch their new At the Plate dressings. Bill’s grandmother, Nellie Wilson-Dieterich, a longtime Orinda resident, originally mixed her oil, red wine vinegar, and tomato sauce dressing in bourbon bottles before passing the recipe on.

A few years back, the Dieterichs started putting it in wine bottles and giving it to friends as Christmas presents. When friends said they’d like to buy more, the Dieterichs realized that their dressing could be Draeger’s worthy.

“We decided to try and do a Paul Newman, and make it for charity,” says Catherine. They gave some to La Russa, who agreed to put his name on the bottle.

“It’s great that it helps raise money for nonprofits, but the salad dressing speaks for itself—we use it at home all the time,” says La Russa.

At the Plate Original and Balsamic salad dressings sell for $5.99 per bottle at Draeger’s in Blackhawk, Diablo Foods in Lafayette, David M. Brian and Whole Foods in Walnut Creek, and www.at-the-plate.com.