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Every time my daughter comes home, there is one thing she almost always asks me:
It’s my classic Chinese-style chicken soup.
Chicken. Shiitake mushrooms. A few simple, nourishing ingredients. And time for everything to cook together into a deeply aromatic broth.
It isn't fancy.
But to my daughter, it tastes like home.
She doesn't ask me how much protein is in it.
She doesn't ask about collagen, amino acids or the latest wellness trend.
She wants Mom's soup.
And after more than 25 years of VitaClay, I've realized that many of our customers have their own version of this story.
Because people don't simply buy a VitaClay.
They introduce it to the people they love.
A daughter gives one to Mom.
A customer buys one for aging parents.
A mother cooks with VitaClay for years and eventually another VitaClay appears in her grown child's kitchen.
Someone loves the first cooker so much that a second one joins it on the counter.
And now we're watching teenagers learn to make dinner with VitaClay, too.
Maybe what we're passing from one generation to the next isn't really a cooker at all.
Maybe it's something much more important:
Think about your strongest childhood food memories.
They're probably not nutrition labels.
They're experiences.
The smell of soup coming from the kitchen.
Rice steaming.
Congee on a cold morning.
A pot of stew.
Grandma's broth.
The dish Mom made when you weren't feeling well.
Food quietly becomes memory before we even realize it's happening.
Then children grow up.
We leave home.
We start careers.
We travel.
We marry.
We have families and kitchens of our own.
And eventually, many of us find ourselves wanting not just the food we grew up with...
but the feeling that came with it.
Something warm.
Something homemade.
Something familiar.
Something that says:
You're home.
For my daughter, it's my chicken and shiitake mushroom soup.
Shiitake mushrooms have long been part of Chinese and other East Asian cuisines, and their deep savory flavor makes a simple chicken broth wonderfully aromatic.
But when I make this soup for my daughter, I'm not standing in the kitchen thinking about nutritional compounds.
I'm thinking:
My daughter is home. I'm going to make her the soup she loves.
That's nourishment in another sense of the word.
And I think we sometimes lose that when we turn food into nothing but numbers.
Protein matters.
Ingredients matter.
Nutrition matters.
But food can also carry memory, culture and love.
Someday, I hope my daughter doesn't only remember my chicken soup.
I hope she knows how to make her own version.
Because passing down nourishment isn't only about feeding our children today.
— Michelle Liu, Founder of VitaClay
Get Michelle's Chinese Chicken & Shiitake Mushroom Soup Recipe
One of our favorite longtime VitaClay customer stories started with a familiar problem:
What do you give parents who don't really want more things?
The customer's mother wasn't someone who wanted more kitchen appliances.
But they took a chance and gave the parents a VitaClay.
Then something unexpected happened.
“My Mom calls me three times a week to tell me what she cooked, how much money she saved and how easy it is to use.”
And then came a line that captures this entire story:
“She loves this. I knew she would because I love it.”
That's VitaClay Generations in one sentence.
I knew she would love it because I love it.
When something genuinely becomes part of our lives, we naturally want the people we care about to experience it too.
But passing down nourishment isn't just about passing down Mom's recipes—or giving someone a VitaClay.
It's also about giving the next generation something incredibly valuable:
We've recently seen this with Abby and her teenage son in our VitaClay community.
Instead of Mom making dinner while everyone waited, her son stepped into the process and made dinner himself using VitaClay.
This isn't a testimonial.
And that's precisely why we love it.
It's simply a real-life moment:
A mom. A teenage son. And dinner getting made.
He doesn't need to become a chef.
He doesn't need complicated culinary techniques.
He needs to understand that real ingredients can go into a pot and become a real meal.
Perhaps one of the greatest food traditions we can pass to our children is:
Think about where that teenager will be in a few years.
College.
A first apartment.
A first job.
Maybe another city.
Eventually, perhaps a family of his own.
Today's teenagers are growing up surrounded by extraordinary convenience.
Food delivery can arrive with a few taps.
Prepared meals can be heated in minutes.
Snacks come individually packaged.
There's nothing inherently wrong with convenience.
But knowing how to make rice, oatmeal, soup, chicken, vegetables or a simple one-pot dinner remains one of life's most useful forms of independence.
That's why watching Abby's son cook means more to us than another beautifully styled food photograph.
We're watching something begin.
The next generation is learning to cook.
My daughter comes home and asks for the soup she remembers.
Abby's son is beginning to make dinner himself.
They're two stages of the same story.
First, children experience the food we make for them.
Then they remember it.
Then, little by little, they learn to make food themselves.
And perhaps someday they'll prepare those foods—or create completely new traditions—for someone they love.
That's what VitaClay Generations means to me.
Wellness today can feel remarkably complicated.
Collagen powders.
Protein powders.
Supplements.
Superfoods.
Apps.
Wearables.
Protocols.
Our mothers and grandmothers often practiced something much simpler.
They saved bones.
They made broth.
They cooked soup.
They simmered beans.
They made rice and grains.
They used herbs and mushrooms.
They transformed yesterday's ingredients into tomorrow's meal.
They didn't call it meal prep.
They called it:
And much of it happened in one pot.
Another pattern we've seen over the years is customers buying another VitaClay after discovering how much they use the first.
Vegan mom and writer Eve Lynn Kessner shared her experience discovering VitaClay while juggling motherhood and the daily challenge of getting a nourishing dinner on the table.
She bought one.
Then:
“A week later I bought a second!”
She described using two cookers to help prepare different components of the family's meals. Read her original VitaClay story
That tells us something.
An appliance can be exciting when you first open the box.
The real question is:
And perhaps an even stronger question:
It's not that modern families stopped wanting homemade food.
Our lives changed.
Careers.
Businesses.
Children.
School.
Meetings.
Travel.
Commuting.
Emails.
Phones that never seem to stop.
Previous generations may have spent hours tending a pot.
Most modern families can't.
So the food industry solved the problem by making prepared food increasingly convenient.
Open.
Pour.
Heat.
Shake.
Eat.
But when I started VitaClay, I wondered whether there might be another answer.
That question changed my life.
I came to food from an unusual direction.
I was an engineer.
But over the years, I developed a deep passion for nutrition, traditional food and the connection between what we eat and how we nourish ourselves and our families.
Clay cooking fascinated me.
Across cultures and generations, people have cooked food in clay vessels.
But traditional clay-pot cooking didn't always fit naturally into the life of a modern working family.
I kept thinking:
Why should we have to choose between tradition and technology?
Could we put real ingredients into natural clay...
program the cooker...
walk away...
and come home to real food?
That idea became VitaClay.
I left my engineering career and set out with a mission to:
More than 25 years later, the technology has evolved.
But that mission hasn't.
Make real nourishment easier.
— Michelle Liu, Founder of VitaClay
Some longtime VitaClay families started with our earlier clay cookers.
Today, the next generation may discover the VitaClay Nourishing Pot.
The capacity has grown.
The technology has evolved.
The programs have expanded for everyday foods such as:
Bone broth and stocks
Soups and stews
Rice and whole grains
Beans
Oatmeal and porridge
Yogurt
Steaming
One-pot meals
Gentle low-temperature cooking
But beneath all those functions is an idea that hasn't changed:
Discover the VitaClay Nourishing Pot →
Long before stainless steel, coated cookware and electric appliances, people around the world cooked in vessels made from earth.
Clay cooking is part of many culinary traditions.
VitaClay's approach isn't about pretending we still live hundreds of years ago.
It's about asking:
Then we use modern technology to make that tradition practical.
The Nourishing Pot combines a natural, unglazed clay cooking vessel with programmable convenience.
Ancient clay. Modern convenience. Real nourishment.
There's another part of this generational story that touches me deeply.
At first:
Mom feeds us.
Then life changes.
Our parents grow older.
And suddenly we're the ones asking:
Is Mom eating well?
Is Dad cooking for himself?
Would making soup be easier if they didn't have to watch the stove?
Could I give them something that makes everyday cooking a little easier?
The direction of nourishment begins to reverse.
A VitaClay given to a parent may therefore mean much more than:
Here's another kitchen appliance.
Sometimes what we're really saying is:
Nutrition matters.
Ingredients matter.
Protein matters.
Vegetables matter.
But after spending so many years thinking about food, I've come to believe that nourishment is bigger than nutrients.
It's the smell of something cooking when your children come home.
It's the soup Mom makes because she knows you're coming.
It's Grandma's recipe nobody ever wrote down.
It's a teenage boy realizing he can make dinner himself.
It's an adult daughter wondering whether Mom has eaten.
It's everyone finally sitting down around a table.
Those things don't appear on a Nutrition Facts panel.
But they're part of nourishment too.
Our kitchen counters have limited space.
We don't need appliances that look exciting for two weeks and then disappear into a cabinet.
The real measure is simpler:
Does it help turn ingredients into breakfast?
Dinner?
Broth?
Soup?
Something warm for the family?
Something a teenager can learn to make?
Something Mom can manage more easily?
If technology does that, then perhaps technology has accomplished something worthwhile.
It has helped bring us back to real food.
After more than 25 years, we want to start collecting these stories.
Has VitaClay traveled through your family?
Maybe your mother introduced you to VitaClay.
Maybe you bought one for your daughter.
Maybe your daughter bought one for you.
Maybe you sent one to your parents.
Maybe your teenager now cooks in yours.
Maybe you bought a second—or third—VitaClay.
Or perhaps you've been cooking with yours for 10, 15 or even 20+ years.
Who introduced you to VitaClay?
How long has VitaClay been part of your family?
Who cooks with it now?
And most importantly:
Maybe it’s a recipe your mom taught you, a dish your grandmother always made, or something you’re now cooking for the next generation.
If you have an old VitaClay photo—or a photo of two generations cooking together—we’d especially love to see it.
Share Your VitaClay Generations Story →
VitaClay has been bringing traditional clay cooking into modern kitchens for more than 25 years, combining natural clay cooking vessels with programmable electric convenience.
Based on customer stories we've collected over the years, many people introduce VitaClay to parents or children after making it part of their own everyday cooking. The common thread is less about owning an appliance and more about making homemade food easier.
Programmable cooking can make everyday meal preparation approachable for teenagers who are ready to learn kitchen skills. Appropriate supervision should depend on the teenager's age, maturity and cooking experience.
The Nourishing Pot is designed for bone broth, soups, stews, rice, whole grains, beans, oatmeal, yogurt, steaming and one-pot meals, along with customizable low-temperature cooking.
Some customers use multiple VitaClay cookers to prepare different foods at the same time—for example, grains in one while another dish cooks in the second.
One of VitaClay's defining characteristics is its natural, unglazed clay cooking vessel combined with programmable electric cooking. The Nourishing Pot also offers dedicated programs for a broad range of everyday foods.
Every time my daughter comes home, I know there's a good chance I'll hear:
And I'll make it.
Not because it's trendy.
Not because anyone called it a superfood.
Because she loves it.
Because I love making it for her.
And because someday, I hope she makes her own version for someone she loves.
Recipes.
Traditions.
Mom's soup.
Grandma's way of cooking.
A teenager learning to make his own dinner.
A daughter buying VitaClay for Mom.
A parent giving one to a grown child.
And the belief that:
Maybe that's what we've really been building for more than 25 years.
Not simply clay cookers.
But a way to help one generation pass nourishment to the next.
Cook • Nourish • Gather • Thrive
Ancient Clay. Modern Convenience. Real Nourishment.
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