How Nora Gray spun its spicy pepperoncini and focaccia into a Miss Vickie's chip

First, a chip company came calling. Then came a year-long R&D process involving professional tasters and corporate NDAs.

Ivy Lerner-Frank

October 19, 2025- Read time: 4 min

Photography courtesy of PepsiCo Canada

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Nora Gray

Nora Gray’s co-founder and co-owner, chef Emma Cardarelli, takes every July off and invariably returns to an unwieldy inbox. Last year was no different, except for an email from Miss Vickie’s, the chip company that started in rural Ontario in 1987.

Nora Gray has a reputation for some of the city’s best pasta. There have been accolades since it opened in 2011, from both Canada’s 100 Best and enRoute. But Cardarelli couldn’t believe that Miss Vickie’s knew about her intimate, wood-panelled Italian restaurant in Griffintown.

“I don’t even know how they got my email,” she said. “They said they wanted to partner to do a chip. I thought it was a hilarious idea.”

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