Emma Leigh & Co
At 15 she covered payroll at her family's seafood factory. Now she owns her own food factory, and the frozen vegan empanadas it makes reportedly out-earn her Selling Sunset real estate career.
When Emma Hernan was 15, she had already made enough money in the stock market to lend it to her parents to cover payroll at their seafood business. Two decades later she owns her own food factory, and the frozen vegan empanada brand it makes, Emma Leigh & Co, reportedly earns her more than her career selling luxury real estate on Netflix’s Selling Sunset.
The easy read on Emma Leigh & Co is a reality-TV star slapping her name on a box. Underneath that, Hernan owns the manufacturing, sells through grocery chains, and rents her own factory out to make products for other brands. The celebrity is the marketing. The factory is the business.
At a glance:
| Founded | 2020 |
| Founder | Emma Hernan |
| Headquarters | Boston area, Massachusetts |
| Product | Frozen plant-based empanadas, made with Beyond Meat |
| Sold through | emmaleighco.com, grocery retail (including Shaws/Albertsons), plus co-manufacturing for other brands |
| Founder net worth (est.) | Around $4 million across all ventures |
| Also known for | Real estate agent at the Oppenheim Group on Netflix’s Selling Sunset |
The Story
The 15-year-old who made payroll
Hernan grew up in a small town outside Boston, in a family whose business was food manufacturing. Her parents ran a seafood company, Yankee Trader Seafood, and her grandfather had founded a seafood manufacturing business before that. She started investing in the stock market as a teenager and did well enough that at 15 she lent her parents money to help cover payroll at the family business. She was learning two things at once that most founders never combine: how markets work, and how a food factory actually runs.
Model, investor, then reality TV
Before the empanadas, Hernan modeled, first with an agency in Boston and then in Los Angeles, working with brands like Puma, Guess, Gap, and Sports Illustrated. She kept investing on the side, moving from stocks into angel investing in startups. Then came the Oppenheim Group and a spot on Selling Sunset, which turned her into a name recognized by millions of Netflix viewers around the world.
The empanada bet
In 2020 she founded Emma Leigh & Co, a plant-based frozen food company built around vegan empanadas made with Beyond Meat. The skepticism started immediately. A reality-TV real estate agent selling frozen vegan empanadas sounded like a vanity project, and plenty of viewers said so. What that reaction missed was the one thing Hernan actually had that most first-time food founders do not: a lifetime inside food manufacturing.
The Strategy
Own the factory, not just the label
The real business under Emma Leigh & Co is that Hernan owns the manufacturing facility that makes the product. Most celebrity food brands are a name licensed onto someone else’s production line. Hernan built or bought her own, then turned it into a second revenue stream by co-manufacturing, making products for other companies who need a facility. That is the family food-manufacturing background paying off, and it is a far more durable asset than a famous face, because a factory that runs other people’s production keeps earning whether or not the empanadas are trending.
Beyond Meat as the credibility partner
Building the product on Beyond Meat gave an unknown brand instant standing in plant-based food. Instead of asking customers to trust a reality star’s mystery protein, the packaging led with an ingredient brand shoppers already recognized and trusted, which lowered the risk of trying it.
Grocery shelves and a premium DTC line
Emma Leigh & Co runs two channels at once. On its own site it sells premium multipacks direct to fans, and in grocery it reaches everyday shoppers, with its Beyond Meat empanadas stocked at chains including Shaws (part of Albertsons) for around $9.99 a box. The direct-to-consumer channel captures superfans at a high price, while retail reaches the volume a frozen-food brand needs to matter.
The Marketing
Selling Sunset as the marketing budget
Hernan never had to buy the awareness most food startups spend years and fortunes chasing. Selling Sunset put her in front of a massive global audience for free, and she used that platform to launch and promote the brand, the same move Bethenny Frankel made with reality TV and Skinnygirl. When your existing fame is the distribution channel, the earned media does the work a marketing team would otherwise be paid for.
The skepticism sold empanadas
The doubt that a Selling Sunset star could make a decent empanada became its own marketing engine. Outlets from Today to BuzzFeed and threads on Reddit all “tried them so you don’t have to,” and every skeptical review was still a review, still attention, still a link. A polarizing product that people argue about outsells a reasonable one nobody mentions.
The Numbers
Emma Leigh & Co is privately held and does not disclose revenue, so treat the figures as directional. Hernan’s net worth is estimated at around $4 million across her real estate, the food company, and Netflix, and multiple outlets have reported that the food brand generates more income than her real estate work. What is verifiable is the shape of the business: founded in 2020, now in national grocery distribution, built on an owned manufacturing facility that also earns by co-packing for others. Those are the markers of a real operating company, not a licensing deal with a celebrity’s name on it.
Controversies
The heritage criticism
Hernan has been criticized by some viewers for building an empanada business without Latin American heritage, a debate about cultural ownership that has followed the brand since it gained attention on the show. It is the kind of scrutiny a celebrity founder invites by attaching a personal name to a culturally specific product.
The reviews and the $99.99 question
The product itself splits people. Some reviewers found the empanadas small and bland, while others became genuine fans of the pastry and flavor. The brand also drew backlash for premium direct-to-consumer pricing, at one point selling 36 empanadas for $99.99, which critics pointed to as evidence the brand was leaning on celebrity rather than value. The grocery price of around $9.99 a box tells a more normal story.
What You Can Learn
Own the unglamorous part of the business. From the outside Emma Leigh & Co is a face on a freezer box. The durable asset is the factory Hernan owns and rents out to co-manufacture for other brands. Owning a scarce capability, manufacturing, distribution, a supply chain, is a moat a spokesperson can never copy, and it keeps earning when the hype cools.
Use the audience you already have as your marketing budget. Hernan turned Selling Sunset fame into free distribution the way Bethenny Frankel used reality TV for Skinnygirl. Before spending on ads, the question worth asking is what audience already knows your name and how you put a product in front of it.
A polarizing launch beats an ignored one. The skepticism that a reality star could make good empanadas got people to buy them and write about them. Attention, even doubtful attention, is the scarce resource. A product nobody argues about is usually a product nobody notices.
Borrow trust from a credible partner. Leading with Beyond Meat gave an unknown brand instant plant-based credibility and lowered the risk of the first purchase. When you are new and unproven, building on an ingredient or partner customers already trust does some of the selling for you. See product development.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Emma Leigh & Co?
Emma Leigh & Co is a plant-based frozen food company founded in 2020 by Emma Hernan, best known from Netflix’s Selling Sunset. Its signature products are vegan empanadas made with Beyond Meat, sold direct-to-consumer and through grocery retailers, and produced in a manufacturing facility Hernan owns.
Who owns Emma Leigh & Co?
Emma Hernan, the Selling Sunset real estate agent and angel investor, founded and owns Emma Leigh & Co. She grew up in a family food-manufacturing business and owns the facility that makes the products, which also co-manufactures for other brands.
Where can you buy Emma Leigh & Co empanadas?
On the brand’s own website and in grocery retailers, including Shaws and other Albertsons-owned chains, where the Beyond Meat empanadas sell for around $9.99 a box. The direct-to-consumer site also offers larger premium multipacks.
Is Emma Leigh & Co Emma Hernan’s biggest business?
It appears to be her flagship venture. Multiple outlets have reported that the food company generates more income than her real estate work, and it is the business she has said she wants to grow into a broader food company. She also earns from luxury real estate and from Selling Sunset.
Sources
- Women’s Health, “Emma Hernan Makes A Mean Vegan Empanada”. Her family background and lending her parents payroll money at 15.
- South China Morning Post, “How does Selling Sunset’s Emma Hernan make her millions?”. Teenage investing and the family seafood business.
- Market Realist, “Emma Hernan’s Net Worth”. Net worth estimate and the report that the food brand out-earns her real estate.
- Capital FM, “Selling Sunset Emma Hernan facts and businesses”. The owned manufacturing facility and co-packing for other businesses.
- TODAY, “Emma Hernan’s Vegan Empanadas From Selling Sunset: A Review”. The Beyond Meat product and public skepticism.
- Shaws, Emma-Leigh & Co. Beyond Meat Sausage Pizza Empanadas. Grocery retail distribution and pricing.
- The Tab, “The savage reviews of Emma Hernan’s empanadas”. The $99.99 pricing and the heritage criticism.