Ron's Home Style Foods began in the spring of 1985 when Ron Woodall founded Ronwood Products, Inc., dba Texas Kitchen Salads. Prior to this, Mr. Woodall developed the highly successful "Ron's Krispy Fried Chicken" chain which was sold in 1983.

Ron's Krispy Fried Chicken was well known for its high-quality fried chicken and delicious side orders. These side orders included potato salads, cole slaw, and BBQ beans. All three salads were produced at the store level because commercial salads were poor in appearance and lacked fresh taste.

After selling Ron's Krispy Fried Chicken, Mr. Woodall began searching for another food service opportunity. The more he considered the opportunities, the more the fresh salad issue surfaced. Mr. Woodall felt that if he has this concern over the quality of freshness and appearance of commercial salads, other food service operators must be experiencing the same problems. After surveying the market for prepared salads and talking with many fellow food service operators, he came to the following conclusions.

1. Most operators agreed that commercial salads did not look or taste like homemade. Many operators did not buy commercial salads because they were not up to the quality standards they wanted in serving their customers. However, the majority of these operators said they would be interested in buying the prepared salads if they could find a commercial salad that met their quality standards. The operators in this study realized that by purchasing commercially prepared salads their employees could spend more time on sanitation and serving their customers.
2. Nearly all commercial salads sold in the vast Houston market were made in California, Chicago, Maryland and a few were made in Dallas. Most salads in the Houston area were made in California. This ment that salads were several days old when they reached the distributors in Houston and several more days older when they reached the customer.

With this information in mind, Mr. Woodall set out to develop a good management team. The first person brought in was a Vice President and General Manager. This person had to be someone with several years experience in the food service field and have a firm belief in high quality foods and service. The person that came to Mr. Woodall's mind was Phil Krezanosky. Phil had been associated with Mr. Woodall in the fried chicken business. He served in several managerial positions including Field Supervisor. Mr. Krezanosky's expertise prior to Ron's Home Style Foods included management of several fried chicken stores and approximately 100 employees.