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9 episodes with Gardein
2 episodes with Gardein
2 episodes with Gardein
2 episodes with Gardein
Three-time founder, Yves Potvin, discusses the current state of Plant-based Innovation sector and how to grow a food business to be acquired. Having sold gardein to Conagra and Yves Veggie Cuisine to Hain Celestial, Yves is now championing Konscious Foods with a plan to be acquired. Learn from this ultra-successful pioneer on The Plant-based Business Hour with Elysabeth Alfano. Subscribe! For plant-based media/branding consulting and public speaking, reach out at elysabeth@elysabethalfano.com. For more information, visit ElysabethAlfano.com. For more information, visit ElysabethAlfano.com. Connect with Elysabeth on Linked in here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elysabeth-alfano-8b370b7/ For more PBH, visit ElysabethAlfano.com/Plantbased-Business-Hour.
Three-time founder, Yves Potvin, discusses the current state of Plant-based Innovation sector and how to grow a food business to be acquired. Having sold gardein to Conagra and Yves Veggie Cuisine to Hain Celestial, Yves is now championing Konscious Foods with a plan to be acquired. Learn from this ultra-successful pioneer on The Plant-based Business Hour with Elysabeth Alfano. Subscribe! For plant-based media/branding consulting and public speaking, reach out at elysabeth@elysabethalfano.com. For more information, visit ElysabethAlfano.com. For more information, visit ElysabethAlfano.com. Connect with Elysabeth on Linked in here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elysabeth-alfano-8b370b7/ For more PBH, visit ElysabethAlfano.com/Plantbased-Business-Hour.
Nearly all startups fail. Often even founders with a successful exit under their belts have stories of entrepreneurial strikeouts prior to or after their home run. But every once in while there's a founder who seems to have the Midas touch who just keeps winning. No, I'm not talking here about Elon Musk. Rather, I'm talking about Yves Potvin. The classically trained chef pioneered the plant-based meat movement, founding Yves Veggie Cuisine in the 1980s, which was acquired for $35 million by natural foods giant Hain Celestial. One successful exit is rare, but Yves went on to then found Gardein, which brought alt-meat to even higher heights and was eventually acquired by Pinnacle Foods for $175 million. Rather than resting on his laurels and retiring into the Alt-Meat Hall of Fame (which if it existed he'd certainly be in it!), today Yves is betting that entrepreneurial lightning will strike a third time. He's just launched a new brand called Konscious Foods which aims to bring fish-free seafood to the masses, starting with sushi and other Japanese delights. Rather than relying on extruded plant protein isolates—the core of Gardein's products, along with most other alt-meats—Konscious is using whole vegetables like tomatoes, carrots, eggplant, and konjac as its core seafood replacers. But Konscious' frozen sushi, poke bowls, and onigiri don't taste like vegetable rolls. Rather, since Konscious acquired the IP of the defunct alt-seafood company Ocean Hugger Foods, the vegetables are prepared in such a way as to give the feel and taste of products like tuna, crab, and so on. Already they're in Sprouts and Whole Foods (see their frozen sections), and you can even get sushi made at the Whole Foods sushi counter with their fish-free fish product. In this interview, Yves and I talk about his life, success, struggles along the way, and lessons he's learned during his multi-decade career seeking to replace animals in the food system with healthier, more humane, and more sustainable options. Discussed in this episode You can see Konscious' products here. Konscious Foods recently raised $26 million in venture capital. Konscious Foods acquired Ocean Hugger Foods' intellectual property. Yves previously founded both Yves Veggie Cuisine (acquired by Hain Celestial) and Gardein (acquired by Pinnacle, and now owned by ConAgra). Yves worked on Gardein with Tal Ronen, who later founded Crossroads Kitchen. Paul saw Quorn's vegan chicken sold at KFC UK at price parity with conventional chicken. Yves recommends reading Shoe Dog, Steve Jobs, and books by Brian Tracy. More about Yves Potvin Yves Potvin has dedicated his culinary career to creating healthy, tasty, convenient foods that can now be found in institutions across North America. In 2017, Yves bought Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts in Vancouver, and he is excited about training the next generation of chefs while infusing nutrition studies, sustainable practices and new technologies into the curriculum. Trained as a classical French chef, Yves successfully built two health-focused food companies. His first, Yves Veggie Cuisine, grew to become the largest refrigerated meat-alternative producer in North America. It was sold to the Hain Celestial Group in 2001. Yves then founded Garden Protein International in 2003 to create a meatless product line called Gardein, which redefined the plant protein category and became a game changer in this fast-growing segment. Gardein received many awards including Better Homes & Gardens' Best New Product Award 2014, Canadian Grand Prix Award (four years in a row), and the National Restaurant Association's 2014 Food and Beverage Innovation Award. Yves is now the founder and president of Konscious Foods, offering consumers with conscious and convenient plant-based seafood. Yves has been recognized for his career achievements, receiving the BC Food Processors Innovation Award in 2014, Mercy for Animals Innovative Business Award 2014, BC Export Award 2014 for Sustainability, and Canada's Top 40 under 40 Award from Financial Post magazine. Yves served on the UBC Faculty of Land and Food Systems Advisory Board from 2007-2018, and on the BC Ministry of Agriculture Board of Advisors.
In this episode of the Titans of Foodservice podcast, host Nick Portillo speaks with Thaddeus Thorne about his career and the success he has achieved in the foodservice industry. Thaddeus talks about the importance of being attuned to what is going on in the world and how that awareness can give you the ability to identify products at the right time as a salesperson. Thaddeus also shares how he has implemented ideas and introduced new products into the foodservice market throughout his career.QUOTES“As leadership, when you bring in high-performing individuals they have to have the latitude to make decisions and feel that belief that they're going to get the job done. If you micromanage them or you don't give me them the tools to be successful and feel supported, they might end up leaving.” - Nick Portillo [39:24]“Finding a mentor, whether it is in your organization or outside of it, and putting yourself out there is key. Do the job you want as opposed to the job you are in.” - Thaddeus Thorne [53:04]TIMESTAMPS[00:27] Intro[02:00] Thaddeus' background[10:20] Food service sales at Gardein[14:40] Identifying great products at the right time[24:48] Pioneering for your brand[36:59] Profiling your team[46:25] Introducing innovation into the market [50:44] Advice from Thaddeus[53:32] What Thaddeus wants to be remembered forRESOURCESPortillo SalesCONTACTNick: nick.portillo@portillosales.comThaddeus: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thaddeus-thorne/
This week on the show, we're talking about Gardein Ultimate Plant Based Buffalo Wings and discovering live that we did a terrible job reading ingredients when we were snack shopping.Episode notes:News: Vegan Butterbeer Now at Universal Orlando Resort and Universal Studios HollywoodThe nonprofit that moved the needle on vegan butterbeer is The Protego Foundation.The non-vegan ingredient to look out for in buffalo sauce is butter. It helps the sauce stick to the wings, but you can use vegan butter for the same results.Becky dipped her wings in Simple Truth Plant Based RanchThe "Kamala Harris" we referenced was last week's letter writer. The Vice President isn't giving us recipe tips. Though we'd welcome them if you wanted to share some, Vice President Harris!The first snack that wronged us was Neapolitan Oreos. They are not vegan! They contain honey powder.Good & Gather Korean-Style BBQ Trail Mix ALSO contains honey! The snack we ended up actually eating was Good & Gather Cashew, Almond, and Cranberry Trail Mix.The letter this week was in response to our Beyond Jerky episode.Thank you so much for listening. We record these episodes for you, and we'd love to hear from you. Got a favorite vegan treat that you think we should cover on the podcast? Send your suggestions to talkintofupod@gmail.com! Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week on the show, we talk about Gardein Ultimate Plant-Based Chick'n Filets and trying Dandies brand new maple mini marshmallows!Show notes:This is a picture of the trick Becky was trying to do when she fell while rollerskating.This week's podcast recommendation is Behind the Bastards.News item: Dunkin' and Beyond Meat hit with lawsuit by Philadelphia company over vegan sausage sandwich sloganThe vegan chicken that the Gardein patty reminded Becky of was VFC.The TV show we talked about is called Outer Range and is on Prime Video.The new air fryer we got is a KitchenAid combo oven. It's fine. Thank you so much for listening. We record these episodes for you, and we'd love to hear from you. Got a favorite vegan treat that you think we should cover on the podcast? Send your suggestions to talkintofupod@gmail.com! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
This week on the show, we'll talk about Purple Carrot frozen meals and vegan pho at VietVana and try the new vegan spreads from Growee Foods! Show notes:Grindhouse is the place where Dave and his friends had dinner and drinks. They have vegan burgers, but only their gluten-free bun is vegan.We teasedHere's the VegNews April Fool's headline that fooled Dave.The noodle place we ate at for Becky's birthday was VietVana at Ponce City Market.The bowls we were comparing the sodium in the Purple Carrot ones to were from Sweet Earth Foods.We usually air fry our Gardein meatballs at 400° F for 10 minutes.The spreads we ate were from Growee Foods.Xylitol is toxic to dogs, and it's a common ingredient in sugar free gum.Thank you so much for listening. We record these episodes for you, and we'd love to hear from you. Got a favorite vegan treat that you think we should cover on the podcast? Send your suggestions to talkintofupod@gmail.com! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Show note at keith snow.com Unless you're living under a rock you've been exposed to the non-stop drumbeat of the fake meat town criers. Fake meat is being touted in every single media outlet on earth; social media, online newspapers, magazines, podcasts like this one, websites, trade shows-heck I'm sure they are flying banners on the fourth of July somewhere pimping Impossible burgers, probably around LA or Long Island! Industry sales of fake meats have zoomed past 1 billion in 2020 and they are growing fast. They are expected to reach over $10 billion in annual sales in the not-to-distant future. Who is buying this stuff? It's not all vegans, I'm sure some unsuspecting meat eaters have picked up some of the “trust-the-science” burgers in the meat section of the supermarket. In my opinion, the taste is rather insipid and I remember spitting out a sample of one while doing a tasting in a restaurant I was running recently. Yuk, they tasted disgusting. These fake meat pimps have sausage, chicken nuggets, chicken patty, burgers, “soysage” crumble, fake shrimp, tuna, etc. Popular brands include: Beyond Meat Beyond Meat & Sausage Impossible Burger Tofurky Field Roast Quorn-nuggets Gardein fishless filet and on and on…… Investors in the space include Bill Gates-backed Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Temasek, Horizons Ventures, CPP Investment Board, Louis Dreyfus Co., Bunge Ventures, Kellogg, ADM Capital, Danone, Kraft Heinz, Mars, Tyson, SOSV, Viking Global, Thiel Capital, Generation Investment Management, Mayfield Fund, and Techstars. One of the major sectors of the growing fake meat gold rush are companies specializing in fermentation. Fermentation companies focused on alternative proteins have raised more than $837 million in venture capital funding, starting with the first GFI-tracked investment in 2013. Eighty-five percent of this funding was raised in 2019 and in the first seven months of 2020 alone. The $274 million raised in 2019 is nearly five times the capital raised in 2018. Source-Good Food Institute These fake meat Barrons want to eliminate animal agriculture in all its forms from industrial feedlots (good riddance!) to backyard chickens to hogs and even all types of fishing. The global elite is not satisfied to reach a few billion in sales and buy a yacht and retire on a private island, no, they want to decimate all forms of protein that interfere with their fake meat revolution. In short, they cannot be trusted. Remember, competition is a sin! These “marketers” use all kinds of “data” to promote their healthy alternatives to meat, they are rife with statistics about how amazing these products are for the environment, how much they taste like real meat and other unsubstantiated claims that sound really nice. In my opinion, any product that has so much “science” and so many ultra-processed ingredients cannot be called food. The following quote came from the founder of Whole Foods Market-John Mackey, “If you look at the ingredients, they are super highly processed foods,” Mackey told CNBC, “I don't think eating highly processed foods is healthy. I think people thrive on eating whole foods.” The debate over the health of fake meats is raging and anyone who speaks out is quickly demonized by the creators of such food. Just shut up and do not learn how this stuff is produced. The components to make fake meat; soy, corn, peas, etc. are planted into degraded soils that are heavily sprayed with herbicides like glyphosate and others so this crap is NOT good for humans. Studies show 0.1 ppb (parts per billion) of glyphosate can kill precious gut bacteria in humans leading to all sorts of auto-immune diseases and conditions such as SIBO (small intestinal bacteria overgrowth) and SIFO (small intestinal fungal overgrowth) which are present in the vast majority of us Americans, hmmm I wonder why? “that the Impossible Burger tested positive for glyphosate. The levels of glyphosate detected in the Impossible Burger by Health Research Institute Laboratories were 11 X higher than the Beyond Meat Burger. The total result (glyphosate and it's break down AMPA) was 11.3 ppb. Moms Across America also tested the Beyond Meat Burger and the results were 1 ppb. “We are shocked to find that the Impossible Burger can have up to 11X higher levels of glyphosate residues than the Beyond Meat Burger according to these samples tested. This new product is being marketed as a solution for “healthy” eating, when in fact 11 ppb of glyphosate herbicide consumption can be highly dangerous. Only 0.1 ppb of glyphosate has been shown to destroy gut bacteria, which is where the stronghold of the immune system lies. I am gravely concerned that consumers are being misled to believe the Impossible Burger is healthy.” credit-Indian Health Journal The Problem with Monocropping The legumes and grains that make up both conventional livestock feed and most meat alternatives are farmed in industrial monocultures, large areas of just one species that are simple to maintain and harvest. While monocultures take less labor than biodiverse farms, they are environmentally intensive to maintain, with a heavy reliance on chemical fertilizers and pesticides. In recent decades, food scientists have developed more sophisticated, lab-based ways of changing the textures and flavors of foods. Unlike earlier plant-based foods, the latest generation of meat alternatives are ultra-processed, meaning that they are made almost entirely from isolated ingredients like protein concentrates, purified oils and extracted flavorings containing no whole-food ingredients. When these ingredients are put through high-tech, proprietary processing, food companies can produce imitations that come much closer to the tastes and textures of animal meat. foodprint.org Of course, they never mention that these “foods” are made with mono-cropped industrial agriculture products like soy, corn, peas, etc. Comparing a chemical agriculture system to a CAFO's (confined animal farm operations) may sound positive but it's really not much better. If you have traveled along I-80 through Nebraska you will pass a few enormous CAFO's where cows are trapped in dirt lots that are destined for burgers. These feedlots are abysmal and the smell is nothing short of disgusting. Animals wade through rivers of manure and are crammed together in highly stressful situations that lead to sickness. Neve fear, the antibiotics are just fed to them daily to keep them from getting too sick before slaughter. So why do vegans not want to eat meat? There are many reasons people turn to plant-based foods and stop eating meat. Some do it for ethical reasons that are motivated by animal abuse, the widespread use of antibiotic-laced feeds, frightening slaughterhouse practices, removing calves from their mothers within days of birth, and so on. Environmental reasons also top the list of why people stop eating meat. I believe the answer to this is Regenerative Agriculture as I opined in another episode. Animal agriculture is a destructive practice for the environment in all its forms. Confinement operations cause air pollution, water pollution, and require so much acreage to grow food that is turned into silage. Many doctors believe eating animal protein causes sickness and disease and therefore they advocate for plant-based options. This is very controversial and I do not believe this for one minute, especially as more and more research come to light showing that strictly plant-based diets are not for everyone. Why do people turn to over-processed fake meat? What is a better solution? When people go plant-based they usually try to replace foods they once loved like burgers, cheese, milk, etc. This often leads to people becoming junk-food vegans. Stores are filled with alternatives to meat, dairy, fish, etc. Most are not healthy. Instead, the approach I recommend is to fashion a diet from whole foods like potatoes, vegetables, grains, nuts, seeds, fruit which is much healthier than junk food vegan products. However, I still firmly believe that most people will do better without excessive grains or sugar-laden vegetables or fruits. I could (likely will) do a whole sho just on this topic. Resources For This Episode: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/chipotle-is-ignoring-beyond-and-impossible-s-fake-meat-in-favor-of-creating-its-own-and-experts-say-it-s-a-brilliant-move/ar-AASvqP5 https://foodprint.org/reports/the-foodprint-of-fake-meat/#section_4 https://navdanyainternational.org/fake-food-fake-meat-big-foods-desperate-attempt-to-further-the-industrialisation-of-food/ https://gfi.org/press/1-5-billion-invested-in-alternative-proteins-in-2020-including-a-record-435-million-in-the-next-pillar-fermentation/ Support this show by visiting Keith Snow.com/support
Russell Barnett is the Managing Director and Chief Marketing Officer of My/Mochi Ice Cream—you know, that delicious little ball of ice cream enrobed with Japanese mochi dough. My/Mochi has been making pastries since 1910 and brought the international sensation called mochi ice cream to the United States in 1993. In 2021, NielsenIQ's Bases group named My/Mochi a winner in its Top Breakthrough Innovation awards.Russell is perhaps the world's expert in scaling small food and beverage brands to create large categories. He was the head of marketing for Mike's Hard Lemonade way back in 1997, where he took the brand from inception to $150 million in just 5 years. Prior to My/Mochi, Russell held various roles at companies like Popchips, Garden Protein International, Inc. (Gardein), KeVita and more.In this conversation, Jim and Russell discuss how to bring fun to work, fostering bravery in your team, and why simplicity for the consumer is key when introducing new products. They also discuss building a reputation on trust—and why your reputation is your most important asset. For all of this and more, tune in.CMOs often hold one of the most innovative and challenging roles in business today. Those who excel can operate at the highest level to drive growth and create value for their organizations. To learn more how Deloitte helps bolster the value CMOs deliver, visit www.cmo.deloitte.com.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This week on the show we try Sweet Earth Mindful Chick'n and snack on Gardein Ultimate Plant Based Jerky!Show notes:Here's the link on YouTube for the Pure Moods CD commercial from the 90s, as promised.This is the VegNews story about Starburst Vegan Gummies.The risotto we made with the Sweet Earth Chick'n used this Instant Pot risotto recipe and just subbed the chicken for the beans. Thank you so much for listening. We record these episodes for you, and we'd love to hear from you. Got a favorite vegan treat that you think we should cover on the podcast? Send your suggestions to talkintofupod@gmail.com!
Hair. It can drive us crazy, cause us to spend a lot of money, and make us feel beautiful. We know that there is so much more to any woman besides her hair, but that doesn't stop us from spending the time, money, and effort to get it just right. Join us as we do a deep dive today into healthy hair, healthy eating, and healthy living. Maria Roach is the Executive Producer of Documentary & Investigation for Black News Channel. She's a natural beauty enthusiast who is also a wife, mom, breast cancer survivor, and sun-drenched Floridian. Show Highlights: How black women have been physically harmed by hair products in their efforts to conform to societal norms and expectations Why Maria has been digging into Ayurvedic practices for healthy hair, scalp, and skin How to figure out what products work best for you Maria's #1 beauty and haircare secret: Go to Target (Listen in to hear why!) The importance of moisturizer and proper hydration for healthy hair, along with proper nutrition, rest, and exercise How a plant-based diet can help in many ways, along with vitamin supplements How Maria took the steps to go to a 75% plant-based diet, using Impossible Foods meat substitutes, Gardein products, and Purple Carrot meal delivery How the dietary shifts have helped Maria feel better and function better on a daily basis Maria's current endeavors, like her Instagram page, blog, and her work at Black News Channel How the pandemic has brought a disconnect in the black community that has been difficult to navigate Why Maria looks forward to having more loving and open conversations in her community about health and wellness Maria's advice to women about going natural with their hair: “Do your research. Know what's comfortable for you. You can transition using braids or locks. Your natural journey starts where you want it to start, but it can be fun if you have a community around you.” Resources: Connect with Maria for tips, videos, and encouragement: https://www.instagram.com/marialouisalives/?hl=en (Instagram). Join the Black At It Vibe Tribe on https://www.facebook.com/groups/429959682172694 (Facebook)
If you're searching for the best turkey alternative that you can serve as a vegan main dish for your holiday meal, we've tested 5 vegan turkey roasts. By Anna Keeve at TheBeet.com. The Beet is a plant-based platform offering information on food, health, news, reviews, expert advice . They cover everything from vegan restaurants to the latest food products that make it even easier to eat plant-based, to which whole foods to eat daily to get the right amount of protein, iron and other essential nutrients. Original post: https://thebeet.com/the-best-vegan-thanksgiving-roasts-your-ultimate-taste-test/ Follow Plant Based Briefing on social media: Twitter: @PlantBasedBrief YouTube: YouTube.com/PlantBasedBriefing Facebook: Facebook.com/PlantBasedBriefing LinkedIn: Plant Based Briefing Podcast Instagram: @PlantBasedBriefing #vegan #plantbased #veganpodcast #plantbasedpodcast #plantbasedbriefing #thebeet #plantbasedturkey #thanksgivingroast #tofurky #gardein #fieldroast #veganturkey #alternativeturkey
Hello to all my plant-based patrons! We're kickin' it with another episode showcasing everything current in the glorious vegan world. I have quite the tales to tell from Babybel releasing vegan cheese to your favorite frozen breakfast disc Eggo pairing with Gardein to make chick'n and waffles. There is also a lot of news regarding Michelin Star chefs making a push with more plant-based menus and how they are using more sustainability methods to lure in customers that are on the more upper-class scale. Be prepared for an epic discussion near the end of this broadcast as it is one of the more hard-hitting rants I have done. Tons of fun, information and unfiltered musings ahead so, what are you waiting for? TUNE IN NOW!!
This week, we review buffalo-ranch potato nuggets, spicy McClure's Pickles, and Gardein Ultimate Plant Based Chick'n Nuggets. Episode notes:The Dunkin' Beyond Breakfast Sandwich is discontinued in a lot of places, but it's still available in some states, listed here.The Drew Barrymore film with the convertible that we referenced many times in our Erewhon Market episode isn't Boys on the Side. It's Mad Love. Thank you, Jeff, for writing in and solving this mystery!Here's Dianne's recipe for buffalo ranch potato nuggets. Run, don't walk!The sauce that Dave says Becky puts on everything is chili crisp. The vegan ranch I used was Simple Truth brand. Affordable and tasty!Old Navy is the company making vegan sandals from sugarcane. The article lists lots of other brands embracing vegan leather, too!Thank you so much for listening. We record these episodes for you, and we'd love to hear from you. Got a favorite vegan treat that you think we should cover on the podcast? Send your suggestions to talkintofupod@gmail.com!
Today is Thursday, July 29, and we're looking at Beyond Meat vs. Gardein. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This week, sustainability expert, brand specialist, and educator, Juli Schulz shares how branding, purpose, and storytelling can be powerful catalysts for change. We also learn how she stays optimistic while also staying informed on complicated environmental issues. Juli's nearly two decades of marketing experience have aligned with her passion for sustainability while working with leading natural and sustainable brands such as Gardein plant-based foods, Rainbow Light, and Toyota. She has served on boards for environmental nonprofits such as 5 Gyres, mentors with Vice President Al Gore's Climate Reality, and acts as a mentor/instructor for sustainable design courses at Otis College of Art & Design in Los Angeles focused on plastic pollution solutions and circular design! While continuing to work with mission-driven brands and NGOs, she has also joined a global team of award-winning filmmakers at Backroads Pictures, where she serves as the Head of Marketing & Sustainability. Juli generously welcomes you to connect with her wherever you find her (links below), including her newly launched ECO BRANDS talks on Clubhouse (Wednesdays at noon PT). Or by joining her on the yearly Peace Retreat SUP Yoga Adventure to the Sea of Cortez, Mexico.Connect with Juli: LinkedIn, IG @ecojuli_, Twitter @JuliS, website, EcoSUP , EcoBrands every Friday at noon PT on Clubhouse, Backroads Pictures FilmsLinks from the Episode:Project Drawdown Climate Reality ProjectSea Trees Carbon Offsetting5 Gyres2040 FilmAlison Teal ReMark App on Google PlayKhary's Instagram (rap artist who made Eeland's favorite hoodie)Eeland's Favorite Hoodie. Also, you should follow Eeland.Ecoist.World Eco-Friendly MarketplaceRainforest Action Network's "Banking on Climate Change: Fossil Fuel Finance Report 2020"Upstream Solutions Blueland Cleaning Products Bite Toothpaste
Thank you, Ellie Laks, founder of The Gentle Barn, for joining me today on the Born To Talk Radio Show Podcast. Ellie Laks. Ellie has always loved animals, she would head into the woods daily to be with them. She shared her story about rescuing a baby bird that had fallen from a tall tree... The post Ellie Laks appeared first on Born To Talk.
Hi there! If you've been enjoying the show, we hope you'll take a moment to give us a rating and a review. It really helps us out.This week on the show, we'll talk about tofu noodles and Gardein Porkless Thai Curry.Show notes for you:To make the DIY Fizzy Lifting Drink kit, I bagged up a can of seltzer with a few flavors of Jolly Ranchers and a pretty paper straw. The kids will use the candy to flavor their sodas. The 3 main types of pastry are: brisée, sucrée, and sablée."The big elbows" that Dave likes are pipe rigate and sedani rigati.The plural of lasagna is lasagne.Peet's Coffee debuted an all-vegan breakfast sandwich.The tofu noodles we ate are called bean curd noodles. They are different from shirataki noodles and from bean thread noodles.The vegan fish and chips with mushy peas at Disney is available at the British pub inside EPCOT World Showcase.We did, in fact, review Gardein's Chick'n Fried Rice Skillet Meal. Dave forgot! I know they're called skillet meals, but I have the best success making these in my Dutch oven on the stovetop.Thank you so much for listening.. We record these episodes for you, and we'd love to hear from you.Got a favorite vegan treat that you think we should cover on the podcast? Send your suggestions to talkintofupod@gmail.com!
Get it? Because it's our holiday episode!This week on the show, we'll talk about our family's vegan holiday food traditions and review three kinds of Gardein canned soups.Things we mentioned in this week's episode:We adopted a turkey named Queen Jackie!These are the chocolate muffins Becky made.Here's the Veg News article about Tofurky sales spiking.The recipes for Chex Mix and Muddy Buddies that Dave uses. Just use vegan versions of any dairy ingredients.We also talked about this year's Thanksgiving lineup:my mandarin orange cranberry saucea Gardein Holiday Roast, cooked in the air fryer (same temp, half the time!)My Quiet Kitchen's vegan corn puddingDianne Wenz's green bean casserolemy mashed potatoes with miso gravya homemade cherry crumble using canned cherry pie filling and homemade crumble toppingThis is the Thanksgiving menu we eat during normal years:JL Fields's Instant Pot roast. I use all potatoes instead of potatoes and carrots, because I like mashed potatoes as a side dish.a double batch of my mandarin orange cranberry sauce, because Dave's dad is obsessed, and he deserves as much cranberry sauce as he wantsmy blender miso gravya big ol' kale salad (skipping the warm dressing, so I don't have to use the stove)a Marie Callender fruit pie for dessert
We are back with our final Frozen Quaran-tendies of 2020. Mariah Sharp joins us to talk Tyson, Applegate, and Gardein frozen nuggets. Eric also shares a new ghost story. WEAR A MASK! BE A TENDER FRIEND! SUBSCRIBE. SHARE. TAP 5 STARS. INSTAGRAM: @tenderfriendspod TWITTER: @tenderfriends facebook.com/tenderfriends Email: friends.tender@gmail.com @ihateericwilson @michaelwalkerrr Tell us where we should go next and don't forget to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Spotify!
Russell Barnett is a master marketer of category-creating food and beverage items. Mike's Hard Lemonade – inception to $150m. Gardein - $30m to $90m before purchase by Pinnacle Foods. Kevita –sold to Pepsi. PopChips – created the entire “popped” category. Now he is the CMO at My/Mo Mochi Ice Cream and recently named to Forbes' CMO Next List of Game-Changing Marketing Leaders. Russell shares how to be “thumb stopping”, the importance of conflict, why weird is good, why he values bravery over risk and why he rejects the concept of a challenger brand. No one in the world is better at creative partnerships and we also get after how Russell makes those happen.
Russell Barnett is currently the Managing Director and CMO | My/Mo Mochi Ice Cream. As a creative marketing executive with deep experience in category-creating food and beverage items. He specializes in providing vision, direction and leadership to entrepreneurial spirited brands.After a stint in the advertising business, Barnett was asked to open the US Operation and run marketing for an unknown alcohol beverage, mike’s hard lemonade. During his tenure he took the brand from inception to +$150M in just 5 years.Barnett then headed marketing for Gardein, where the brand grew from ~$30M to a run rate of ~$90M annually before being purchased by Pinnacle Foods PF (NYSE). Additionally, Mr. Barnett held CMO tenure at KeVita which was recently sold to PepsiCo PEP (NYSE). Other career highlights include launching the popular snack brand popchips in the US, Canada and the UK while creating the “popped chip” category.He was also just named one of Forbes’ CMO Next 2019: 50 Game-Changing Marketing Leaders and one of Adweek’s 2019 LA Brand Stars.
On Tuesdays, we eat TACOS. On October 4th, it's National Taco Day. And it's Hispanic Heritage Month. But do you really need an excuse to munch on a taco? For Carlos & Kristen Corral, being a tacotarian is a way of life. And they hope to make us all tacotarians. The Las Vegas couple started their plant-based Mexican eatery Tacotarian with their partners Dan & Regina Simmons after a delicious trip to Mexico City. They realized that it wasn't the meat that made the food so "MexiSexy" (yeah, we made up that word). It was the bold Latin flavors that came across just as well, and in some cases, even better with vegetables. Chefs Lorraine Moss and Louiie Victa learn about how the small business is trying to save the world one taco at a time, why the whole team has decided to go meatless, and how two married couples work so well together. For "Show & Tell" - Kristen & Carlos stay on brand with their delightful choice. Podcast Mentions: Pujol, Garagiste, Esther's Kitchen, Crafthaus, Main St. Provisions, Gardein, Beyond Meat, Good Planet, Market on South, Gelatology, NSPCA Find out more at https://2-sharp-chefs--a-microphone.pinecast.co This podcast is powered by Pinecast.
Glenn van Zutphen and award-winning author Neil Humphreys speak to Adam Penney, Chef of Three Buns about their sustainable menu of plant-based dishes, and their partnership with Asia food pioneers, Green Monday, which offer meat alternatives from OmniMeat, Beyond Meat, Gardein and Alpha Foods. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Today I am chatting with Chef Jennifer Markell. Jennifer is the creative mind behind the website and blog veganitreal.com and founder, owner and operator of Vegan It Real Personal Chef Services located in the Tampa Bay area. Since 2017 Jennifer has been standing at the forefront of the plant-based movement with a mission to “veganize” the planet, one meal at a time. As a certified holistic nutritionist and a certified plant-based chef, Jennifer embraces Hippocrates’ concept that “food is thy medicine and medicine is thy food.” She is driven by her passion to bring delicious and nutritious meals to hear clients’ tables along with the knowledge that real, whole food is good for the environment, the animal and your health! Key points addressed were Jennifer’s education and certification regarding nutrition and plant based whole foods within the arenas of vegan diets, cooking, and healthWe also discussed Jennifer’s collaborative efforts via her services as well as her prediction as to where she thinks the plant based and vegan food scenes are headed in the next 5 years This series features conversations I conducted with individuals who have dedicated their work and lives to Vegan research, businesses, art, and society. This podcast series is hosted by Patricia Kathleen and Wilde Agency Media. TRANSCRIPTION*Please note, this is an automated transcription please excuse any typos or errors [00:00:00] In this episode, I speak with chef, blogger, founder, owner and operator of Vegan, it real personal chef services Jennifer Markell. Key points addressed were Jennifer's education and certification regarding nutrition and plant based Whole Foods within the arenas of Vegan diets, cooking and health. We also discussed Jennifer's collaborative efforts via her services, as well as her prediction as to where she thinks the plant based in Vegan food scenes, are headed in the next five years. Stay tuned for my fascinating talk with Jennifer Markell. [00:00:41] My name is Patricia Kathleen, and this series features interviews and conversations I conduct with experts from food and fashion to tech and agriculture, from medicine and science to health and humanitarian arenas. The dialog captured here is part of our ongoing effort to host transparent and honest rhetoric. For those of you who, like myself, find great value in hearing the expertize and opinions of individuals who have dedicated their work and lives to their ideals. If you're enjoying these podcasts, be sure to check out our subsequent series that dove deep into specific areas such as founders and entrepreneurs. Fasting and roundtable topics they can be found on our Web site. Patricia Kathleen Acom, where you can also join our newsletter. You can also subscribe to all of our series on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Pod Bean and YouTube. Thanks for listening. Now let's start the conversation. [00:01:38] Hi, everyone, and welcome back. I'm your host, Patricia. And today I'm excited to be sitting down with Jennifer Markell. Jennifer is a chef, blogger, founder, owner and operator of Vegan Real Personal Chef Services. You can find out more on her Web site about herself, her services and everything we talk about today on her Web site. W w w dot Vegan it real dot com. That is BGA and i t r e l dot com. Welcome, Jennifer. [00:02:05] Hi. So happy. I'm so happy to be here. It's so great to be here. [00:02:09] Absolutely. I'm excited to climb through everything with you. I really love your web. I like the services that you offer. And I know our audience is really going to benefit from everything that we talk about today. For those of you listening, that might be news on this podcast. I will proffer a quick bio on Jennifer. But before we get to that, a roadmap for the line of inquiry, the trajectory that will that line of inquiry will go. We'll first look at Jennifer's academic and culinary nutritional background and training, and then we'll turn towards unpacking her personal Vegan story if it hasn't already been mentioned in the aforementioned. And then we'll unpack Vegan it real Web site, the services, info, education, collaboration, all of the kind of efforts that Jennifer has involved with that. Then we'll turn our efforts towards answering rapid fire questions. For those of you that are returning, these are questions that you have submitted to our Web site, w w w dot, Patricia, Kathleen, dot com and reached out. We always encourage our audience to ask questions based on any profession that we might run into if any of our series and we will get those up on air. And under that we will get to about seven to 10 rapid fire questions that some of you have for Vegan chefs and people in the Vegan food industry who wrap the entire podcast up with them. Thoughts that Jennifer has for things that may be on the horizon in the Vegan food scene and services and collaborative work in culinary enterprises and all that good stuff. [00:03:27] So, as promised, a quick bio on Jennifer. Chef Jennifer Markell is the creative mind behind the website and blog, Vegan it real and founder, owner and operator of Vegan it real personal chef services located in the Tampa Bay Area since 2017. Jennifer has been standing at the forefront of the plant based movement with a mission to organize the planet. One meal at a time. [00:03:51] As a certified holistic nutritionist and a certified plant based chef, Jennifer embraces Epocrates concept that food is a medicine and medicine is the food. She is driven by her passion to bring delicious and nutritious meals to her clients tables, along with the knowledge that real whole food is good for the environment, the animal and your health. So, Jennifer, I love, you know, a lot of your focus. I've looked through all a lot of your information across your social media accounts, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, on your Web site, of course. And you you really do hit that points hard. And so I'm really happy that it's in your bio, this kind of food, as they medicine, let it be as such. And before we climb into your Web site and some of the ethos and the philosophy behind it, I was hoping you could draw out a little bit further your academic and culinary and nutritional training that you've had that led you to launching Vegan. [00:04:44] Oh, sure. Sure. So it's really, you know, one of those stories where I had spent almost most of my adult life until almost middle age in the corporate world. [00:04:58] And after a horrible, you know, layoff in 2013, that was when I had an opportunity to reevaluate things and submerge myself into learning what it was. [00:05:12] That was going to be my next step in life, my next career. And I wasn't going settle. So what I did was I started doing my own research on food. I learned a lot about organic food. And it was solely just self driven research podcast and TED talks and working actually part time for an organic farmer. So just moving myself closer to the food food systems, food producers. And then in two thousand and eighteen, early 2018, when my mother became ill, very, quite ill. [00:05:55] I was really to the tipping point of deciding, you know, do I want to go back into the corporate world or really just take that leap of faith into my education and my knowledge and learning about food for medicine. So I enrolled in what I could at the time, what I was able to do for my work life balance. I was, you know, a mom of a mom of four kids, two of my own, two stepchildren. You know, I run a home and I had other part time work that I was doing so I couldn't just go and roll into, you know, the call the local college and become a full time student. And I couldn't go to culinary. Well, that was pretty much out of the question for me. So what I decided to do was investigate some holistic nutrition opportunities. There's a few out there and I enrolled in a six month training program that was fully online, a one on one coaching program through American fitness professionals and associates a f, p, a and graduated at top of the class for it with my holistic nutrition certification. So I really understood I had that piece, that credential to really tie food to the body. And I understood how food was both making a sick and healthy at the same time. But that wasn't enough for me. I knew that it worked well, but I really still only knew how to cook, you know, the vegetables that I was used to. And I really didn't know how to take advantage of all the great products out there. [00:07:36] So then I decided to get a little bit of culinary credential and again, did a lot of investigative research, talked to a lot of chefs out there. [00:07:46] What did they do? And again, knowing called actual culinary school was out of the question. I enrolled in Ruby R.O. you. It's so funny. Everybody thinks it's are you b y? But it's not. It's a French word. R o u x b e. And it was a Ruby International online culinary program and they had what was a very focused plant based culinary professional program. [00:08:11] And it's a six month self-paced program where you have access to actual chefs through an interactive program online. So I was able to take that six month program, graduate within four months and really have a really great understanding of not only how food is for your body, good for your body, but also how to actually make it taste good and try to work to convert some of those folks who think that tofu and kale are bad and disgusting. [00:08:46] So I really then I felt like, wow, I have a really good grasp on that knowledge. So, you know, it was important for me, even just when I was a blogger, but definitely when I was going into a culinary profession to have some kind of credential, I just didn't want I wanted to have that education. However, I could get it something that I could say, yes, I took the time to do that. And then just to kind of add on to that and we'll talk about the business in a minute. This year I went and received my certification as a food safety manager. [00:09:21] So funny enough, in January of this year, I learned all about cross contamination and food safety. And now, you know, I could technically go in and, you know, open a restaurant and be part of that food safety and security part of it, because I've been certified there, too. So education was really important to me and I couldn't go mainstream. So I kind of piecemealed my education. And to this day, I just just get involved in lots of different research and my own driven research and try to keep a very diverse and inclusive set of resources that I go to that are also unbiased. That's one thing I learned in my training. Follow the source of the funding. [00:10:07] Thanks. You know, I hope that answers your question. [00:10:10] I'm curious, given that you have this NFPA mixed with Ruby, you know, so from from a layperson's term, NFPA sounds kind of like the holistic dietary, you know, nutrient side of it. And the ruby sounds like it was teaching as flavor you flavors technique, how to bring in some of, you know, those aspects to your cooking. And in that sense, I'm curious which one leads Flagship to your recipe development? Do you first think about nutrition or do you first think about flavor? [00:10:41] OK. That's a great question and here's why. And here's why I developed Vegan it real and there's a story behind that. So I like to keep veganism real. So I, I started off really becoming focused on the nutrition and plant based piece of it. [00:10:59] But then I realized the way to people and the way to maybe transform people's lifestyles is to keep the food real. So I then started focusing on the flavor side of things and the Shefi side of me kind of came out and I, I wanted to play with the new products out there and I wanted to see if I could fool my friends or my family with, you know, the latest plant based sausage. And so that's where I kind of got away from that Whole Foods plant based. [00:11:34] No oil, salt, sugar menz. Ality, but still with that said. I try to really I don't submerge myself in, like, the deep fry and, you know, oil frying and things like that. So I'm very conscious. And I was so thankful for that training. But it's it's a great question because initially I thought I would go into that coaching about food for health. But then once I got into the kitchen and started playing with food, I couldn't get out. [00:12:05] Yeah, it sounds like it sounds like a great love for flavor and the culinary arts. You know, that's those dimensions. Is it the French, the triangle of of spices or flavors that affect you? I can't remember. I was talking. It's not my forte, but I was speaking and chef one time when they were talking about the simplicity of patissier and things like that and really getting into the French flavors and the classical techniques that are developed around those very simple moments and deaths. It's an absolute art, you know. No doubt. No doubt about that. I want to kind of unpack Vegan it real for a minute now before we start getting into, like, the key components that someone will hit when they hit your side, some of the services you offer and the collaboration and things like that that I'm actually quite moved by. I want to first know personally how you define the terms plant based. You've gotten into the Whole Foods and how, you know, keeping it real was more an introductory and a conversion from people who were eating meat. But how do you personally define plant base as opposed to injecting position or next to defining Vegan? [00:13:11] Absolutely. And it is confusing. And that's why I use. I usually say I'm a plant based vegan because veganism is really a movement. [00:13:24] Veganism in itself is a movement. So when in vegans, you know, true vegans who are passionate about the animals and driven towards that activism will definitely call you to the mat on how you define yourself, you know? But so veganism itself is a movement. However, when you are when you eat a vegan diet, you will allow for those processed foods. So you might go get the annys mac and cheese and you might go get the Gardein bagged, frozen, you know, check on Nugget's, you know, the fake chicken nuggets and the plant based processed foods to incorporate into your daily life as a supplement when you are living a Whole Foods plant based lifestyle, those processed foods are very, very, very limited. If if you incorporate them at all. And it's funny because one of the things I learned in my research and doing my through my education and tea calling Campbell is a hero who who's book who whose books I have read, sometimes more than once. And in reading those types of resources and folks material, I didn't realize that you can still incorporate fish and meat and cheese into a plant based diet. Right. Plant based diet is really 90 percent of what you are consuming is whole. It's, you know, so whole grains. It's it's not your process greens. It's not your process. We test your whole wheat, your, your whole Raices, all of those foods and your fruits and vegetables. But it allows for a very small portion of animal based products. Veganism does not allow for any portion of animal based products. I mean, and so that's why as far as when I define myself, some people will relate more to the plant based side of things for the health. And some people relate more so to the veganism for the movement. And interestingly enough, I started to be plant based and Vegan for the health. And now I am holistically for everything, the animals, the health and the planet, because I have just learned so much. It's kind of you kind of have to embrace all three. [00:16:00] Yeah. I feel like that's kind of the narrative that's really common along a lot of people's lines. You know, the gateway into what led to plant based vegan lifestyle. It starts to curing itself. You know, I, I just haven't spoken to a vegan who's been Vegan for five years that still trying to score, you know, the Gardein chicken stuff as much anymore. It starts to be right off. If they came at it from the environment, again, that has something to do with age and education. But I think that it's an interesting tie in. So given your personal Vegan. [00:16:37] I mean, you've you went along this whole path you had. Did you have a health improvement when you came Vegan? [00:16:43] Well, funny enough, I will say I'm novice, so I have only been completely Vegan for three years. It was three years. June 24th, I believe, was our anniversary. June 24th was my anniversary. And then my husband and my stepdaughter, me and her, her. Their anniversary is, quote, a goal. They say July 1st. So two thousand seventeen. So three years. I'm I'm I'm very, you know, very early in my veganism compared to some folks who I have come into contact with who have never eaten meat or have never eaten a plant based product or, you know, plant or I'm sorry. Animal based product before. So, you know, I have so much to learn and I never, ever want somebody things that I have it all figured out because I am not the expert. But I did notice changes and we noticed changes a lot, especially initially, because you think you're going to lose weight and you don't. Some people don't. And we gained weight. And then, you know, and then we felt, you know, bloated all the time. And so you start to question yourself in the commitment. Same thing with any other, you know, change or trying to make. And we did. And, you know, my husband had suffered for, gosh, since almost since the time I had met him in 2012 with what was called chronic to Carea, which is chronic hives. And you don't know why and you can't figure out why. Surely after I would say within six months to a year of going Vegan, his hives disappeared completely. And this is by no means and this is just my personal story. I have TMJ and I've had diagnosed and received cortisone shots for pre arthritis conditions, you know, pain and things like that. Wow, what a difference. I now I hardly ever have pain where I used to have pain. I'm not not saying that I don't get older and we don't have pains, but I just saw an overwhelming sense of. Feeling young. Just feeling better. [00:19:02] I don't know how to describe in a lot of vegans, it's hard to describe. You just feel. And I. I almost think that there's a connection between the animal consumption and, you know, your your mind and where your head that because you just feel a little lighter. No pun intended. But over the course of three years, for instance, I do not. I eat as much as I want today without having to worry about a calorie. I don't. I try to just eat a little bit of everything that the Earth has given us. You know, every day I don't stress about what I'm going to, you know, if I'm going get on the scale and it's going to say five pounds heavier or not. Because I just know that's gonna all, you know, just just shake on it. And I have seen over the course of the first two years, my husband and I equally lost between 15 and 20 pounds. And people would look at us and they said, well, you didn't need to lose 15 or 20 pounds. But clearly we did because it it just you know, now we are at optimum weights, you know? I mean, I weigh less now than I did in high school as. And he's the same way. And we are you know, he's fifty one and I'm hearing that a hitch. [00:20:19] Yeah. And there's, I mean there's future payoffs as well. [00:20:23] I think, you know, the immediate health turnaround. I've never spoken with anybody who was under the age of 30 that didn't go from eating some kind of animal byproduct or animal based diet to Vegan that didn't have an alleviation from everything from occasional pains. Athletes that just have less inflammation to, you know, turnaround's of chronic issues, you know, with autoimmune and diabetes and all sorts of things that I'm certainly not the first to chronicle these. You know, there's them what the health and conspiracy and all of these stories that kind of implement that health aspect and people that dedicated their lives to it. But it is a common theme. And when you don't speak with anybody who doesn't have a story like that, it just becomes like, wow. And then there's the future. You know, there's there's less of Alzheimer's with, you know, with. Yeah, Vegan Dice's. There's correlation studies being done. There's just some of the things that come to get all of us in our older age seem to be at least a lesser extent, which is kind of a nice aspect in addition to saving the planet for our future generations, as well as being kind to other sentient beings. [00:21:32] Oh, absolutely. And you hit the nail on the head. I had mentioned, you know, my mom was was very ill and she suffered from Crohn's disease for many, many, many years, many undiagnosed years as well prior to that. And along with some of her other conditions that I visibly expert, you know, saw and experienced firsthand in what she went through, I chose that, you know, to make a lifestyle change. I you know, I chose that. I didn't want to experience those things because a lot of Alzheimer's runs in my mother's side of the family. She had several sisters that were diagnosed with it as well. And you know it. [00:22:15] You start to think, gosh, do I want to start taking pills to try to avoid these things that I could genetically, you know, inherit? Or do I want to change those and try to repair those broken DNA as cells to actually repair them and not just put a Band-Aid on them with the actual food that we were meant to eat. So you made a great point it all. [00:22:41] It all began and continues to this day because I don't want to have to rely on, you know, a medicine cabinet when when I'm much older. [00:22:51] You right? Yeah, absolutely. It's it's a great fear of mine to discover how many of my colleagues were on, you know, Daily Pharmaceuticals at the age of 40 was daunting for me. [00:23:02] I am not sure I could keep up with the time getting up on the same time every day. [00:23:08] I'm wondering, unpacking your Web site was interesting for me. I want to know about some of the impetus that when you went to launch it because it's different then. You know, I can't get enough of Vegan food Web sites anyway. I'm a kind of suer of sorts. But yours has a very unique and different tone to it. And I'm thinking that had something to do with some of the reason, the impetus behind the inspiration. Can you kind of speak to what inspired you to launch it? [00:23:35] Sure. Well, it's been it's been a long time in the making. And I was actually fortunate enough to have a great web designer that helped me push it over the edge there and get it launched, because I'll tell you, if it was up to me, I would I would have never pulled the trigger because it was never good enough. But thank you. Thank you. Because it's gone through a few different transformations. I initially, as mentioned when I started looking at a new career in food, was going to look at the consulting and the coaching and the the blogging and being able to get my voice out there and my message heard and try to just bring more awareness to veganism and the really real ness of it. [00:24:25] And so it started off as more of like, hey, I'm gonna sit here and I'm going to blog about food and I'm going to coach people. [00:24:33] And then again, once I got submerged into the food, I was getting asked a lot of questions about my recipes. And I would post a picture. And, you know, obviously people want to know what's in it. And. And so I just said, you know, I got to start documenting it. And so I do have a good amount of recipes out there. [00:24:56] I'd love to have more recipes out there. I focus on my blog. I was also doing some big in travel with my husband a little bit, whereas when I say Vegan travel, we would pick a destination that had a big Vegan footprint so I could go taste all the food. I mean, I'm a foodie. That's we were driven by food at some point. So there's some on there about my art Vegan travel that's kind of been nipped in the bud right now. [00:25:24] But then up until just recent. So I was really focused on the informing, you know, let's inform people. Let's share my experience. Let's share the products that work for me. Share the food tips that work for me. And then once I started seeing that my recipes were making a difference and that I was going to pursue the actual culinary piece of it. That's when I have been transforming. And it's still going through a transformation if you go out there into the personal chef services. So I wanted to make. I wanted to keep Vegan it real the brand altogether because I love my brand and I wanted to also incorporate that services piece into the Web site where my locals could go out and take advantage of the services that I do offer from a personal chef's perspective. So it's gone through quite a few transformations, and I'm pretty certain that when my web designer receives an email from me, she shakes her head and, you know, it's it against the wall or something. But yeah, she I'm to the point where I can go in and just not break it. [00:26:35] But it's definitely going through transformations and I do get a lot of feedback on it. I'm not big into advertising, you know, right now. [00:26:45] I like I like people to just go get the information and keep it raw and real and transparent. I'm not necessarily out at my site to make money. I just want people to really profit off the information that I bring. [00:26:59] And that's what it seems like. It really feels like it's even curated the recipes that you have. [00:27:04] Yeah, photos are beautiful and the stuff that you're making. And I fancy myself, you know, in a fairly tidy, Vegan, self-taught chef. And they're beautiful. You know, I was looking at some of the reinventions, even the cheesy, like sausage and tartar torte, Vegan casserole and just different things like that. You know, I really it was inspirational. [00:27:28] The Tater Tots casserole. [00:27:29] Yay, not tartar casserole. I have children. These are the types of things that I'm thinking. I could make that a little bit more fun, particularly when they have friends over that. You're trying to kind of woo into this whole like, no, we're not a weird household. This is this is a great way of eating. I'm curious, you have a collaboration. You kind of tapped touched on it. It's this seems like the future of you know, it's the fact that you're constantly evolving the site and things like that that's, I think, evolve or die. Right. And the collaboration aspect of it is really the area that I feel a lot of chefs in general, Vegan chefs, you know, they go and they might eat at someone's establishment or get some information or get on someone's Instagram feed. But you never hear about this collaborative moment, like, let's work together, let's apply my lens to yours. Where do you see that heading in your future? [00:28:20] Well, I'm fortunate because I have a ton of an area that's very new to the Vegan world where I live in the Tampa Bay area. I would say it's fairly new compared to, say, like Portland or, you know, something that has a much bigger Vegan footprint. So Vegan Vegan restaurants are popping up all over. And which means that the Vegan footprint, the plant base, cost conscious eater footprint is growing every day. So I recently plugged into, you know, all the restaurants because we we like to convert more vegans. We're never going to. [00:28:59] For everybody, so we I think and this is just this is I think a lot of the business owners around here would say the same thing. We promote each other's business. We don't compete for their business, the business, the client business. So I may go to my local Vegan Deli and, you know, take a picture and promote, promote, promote on my pages. And they're certainly gonna scratch my back, too. They're gonna promote my food, even though, you know, I'm cooking for other people. And it might feel like I'm taking away from their business. They know I'm not going to make a dent necessarily, you know, because I'm doing my own thing. I'm not trying to do their thing. So I think that there's a big collaboration just in general in the Vegan community where I live. [00:29:47] And then, you know, I have been fortunate to be approached, to be part of some of, you know, opening of Vegan restaurants and whatnot, to be able to even have the opportunity to, you know, lay the groundwork for some of the places around here, even as just a subject matter expert, whatever the case may be, whatever the role may be, has been really great. And there are a lot of Vegan small business owners outside the restaurant that are product owners around here as well that I'm hoping, you know, we've already made connections, but I'm hoping that we can make much deeper connections. Right now. Social media is everywhere. It's everything. Live. Live collaboration's kind of hard right now because of Hovig, you know, so you just think outside the box. And I just think that as far as in just a step back to apologize. But with branding as well, we have a lot. We were having the veg fests around here. We have several per year. I don't know how that's gonna go, but just the brand collaboration in the community seems very cohesive and noncompetitive. And I maybe that's naive of me to think, but it just. And in the future, I'm sure it will become more competitive. But I think the collaboration's I like to take part in are those who bring transparency to their company, their brand, their their food, their product. And just making sure that their their future forward thinking model is, you know, all about sustainability and still aligns with my fundamental beliefs. Yeah, absolutely. [00:31:44] And I think so, too. And kind of to that end, I want to move into one of our rapid fire questions is kind of in that arena. [00:31:50] And we have a lot of people right in asking where do you, as you know, in your food and culinary expertize, do you have a hit on? Do you have a feel for where Vegan food or plant based food in the industry is headed? If you could toss a prediction out for the next five years, what do you see growing in track or any trends? [00:32:10] Well, the financial predictions are in the billions. And I, I personally every say here's a great indicator that when you when you go to your store, go to the Vegan section and I'm talking in your produce section and I'm talking over the course of, say, three months, six months. Anybody can do this. Look at the brand expansion in those categories. That's that's a great way to see how that trend is going. The trend is going up. I talked to everybody in it. Let me put it this way. The people that I talked to in the industry, I've yet to meet somebody who says, gosh, I wish I would have picked printing or I wish I would have gone in to accounting. I mean. [00:33:04] Pretty much it's not only is it going to be in, it is consistently a profitable business. I saw my business launch immediately at the beginning of this year and covered hit and I was going through my launch during Koven and I saw great demand. So I just foresee. The Vegan movement is no longer going to be a movement. It's going to become a lifestyle for more people than not, especially when we're going through times like like now with Cobh. It it's a it's a great example. And, you know, again, I'm not a medical professional, but sadly, through a lot of these cases that that I've been reading and researching and the underlying conditions, so many are preventable. And so that saddens me. I mean, I get so sad because I know that if folks would just do their own research and be open minded and, you know, bite the bullet and make hard lifestyle changes, you know, it might take three years like me, but you will you will feel the benefits of it. But yeah. So I think I when when Burger King is offering impossible burgers and KFC is offering getting ready to be on offer beyond meat nuggets. I think the trend is definitely going in the right direction. [00:34:27] Yeah, absolutely. And that's funny you say that it leads address into the direct next question with Rapid Fire, which is what do you think about the main offenders in the meat industry and the propagators of kind of everything that's been wrong with, you know, not just the animal rights issues, but also the environmental impact that these places like Burger King and KFC and McDonalds, if it ever joins, which it doesn't really need to, because they have like 40 percent soy products and half of their meat products anyway, they've partly joined. But what do you think about the different kind of soy you think? What do you think about? Do you do you welcome the change? Because any change towards, you know, this sustainable, healthy vegan lifestyle is good? Or do you think that it's tragic that they're kind of benefiting yet once again? Or was it just destined to be do you have, like, a takeaway on that? [00:35:25] I do it's a hard question because, you know, I think the easy answer for vegans or is, you know. Well, if we can Kimber anybody, it's it's a step in the right direction. And I don't necessarily have that belief because I'm not into GMO, like I'm not into genetically modified ingredients, which is why I tried to personally stem my my processed foods. And I'm definitely one of those folks who's who tries to live more on the organic side of of the lifestyle. If, if and when possible. So, you know, holistically, I don't like, you know, the large scale models because it is propagating the same systems more or less, you know. So sometimes it can be within the system, the processes that need to be fixed. For instance, here's an example is we mentioned C.M.A soy. So, you know, subsidizing for soy. Our governments subsidize for, you know, GMO tons of, you know, soy. So why are we supplementing those folks when we could. Across the board, change diets by supplementing and subsidizing organic farmers? You know, why are we right. Supplement. It's almost like we're we're focused on the wrong things. And of course, this is just me looking in. But I think that. It's it is they are profiting off of Vegan for sure. And I mean, that's that's a great case in point, because, you know what? If it goes back to your last question, if the trend wasn't growing, they wouldn't want to have a footprint in the market. So I think that we definitely need laws change within the system itself. And this this goes I mean, I could talk all day about our food system that goes into the school systems and our hospitals and, oh, my gosh, don't get me started. So, yeah, I am definitely I keep a very conscious mind, especially with the brands I work with and for about that exact thing. So no where I'm glad burgling has the impossible burger for people. I don't eat it. Right. James, your question. [00:37:56] Yeah, I think it kind of does. [00:37:57] And I it's it's quite similar to my own narrative, which is, you know, I interviewed Ingrid Newkirk, founder of PETA, not too long ago. And I believe while I didn't ask her that exact question, she would say, you know, when support like any anything to get away from the abuse and suffering of animals and and to promote a healthier future. But that being said, I don't think she's running out to try one anytime soon. Right. You, myself as well. My final question for today is get a lot of people who want to know your personal take away. So your elevator pitch, your top three. You know, if you were sitting down with someone who was open, not angry, which there is a huge difference, but I heard you were Vegan and you were writing up to the 20th floor in an elevator and said, what are like the top three reasons as to why do you have kind of things that you find yourself prattling off as to kind of give people as this gateway moment? [00:38:53] Yeah, only if they ask. And I say that because I have already learned that you can't sell things to people who aren't listening or who aren't open to that. So once they ask and I don't have elevator speech and I probably should because I just ride alone all the time. But what I do is I will just tell them my personal story and I tell them about basically I'll just, you know, plants. There's no food out there today that you cannot basically enjoy that wasn't made from plants. And I say that because I've tried it. So, for instance, if I wanted to become vegan 20 years ago, it's not the Vegan as veganism it is today. So I would say that before you poo poo the whole idea, let me cook you a meal and then we can talk about whether it was vegan and whether it was cruelty free and whether it save the planet or not. [00:40:00] Nice. That's a good pitch. You don't need an elevator pitch. That's it. I don't know. [00:40:05] I don't. I can't. Do I? You know, you're supposed to have that. That three 30 second pitch. I'm a rambler. [00:40:14] No, you don't need one. You're fine. And you're willing to have someone to dinner, you know, and to put in the legwork so you don't need an elevator pitch just right. Well, Jennifer, thank you so much for speaking with me today. I appreciate your time. I know you're busy and I really appreciate your candor and all of your information. [00:40:30] Well, this was a great collaboration. This is where it's at. So I appreciate. I appreciate your time as well. This is great. Thank you so much. [00:40:39] You bet. For everyone listening, we've been speaking with Jennifer Markell. She's a chef, blogger, founder, owner and operator of Vegan at Real Personal Shefford Services. You can find out more on her Web site. W w w dot Vegan at real dot com. Thank you for giving us your time today. [00:40:56] And until we speak again next time, remember to stay safe, eat responsibly and well and always bet on yourself. Slainte.
On this episode of Vegans Uncensored, Mary & Hannah discuss shopping in the meat section for vegan options, new exciting Gardein products, vegan & cruelty free toothpaste, deodorant & body wash, & much more! Support us on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/vegansuncensored Find us on Instagram https://instagram.com/vegansuncensored Mary on Instagram https://instagram.com/vegansfrommars Hannah on Instagram https://instagram.com/hail_hannahbakk666 Mentions: Schmidt's https://schmidts.com Tom's of Maine https://www.tomsofmaine.com Derma-e https://dermae.com 100% Pure https://www.100percentpure.com Tree Hut https://www.treehutshea.com Marvis https://www.marvis.com CocoBella https://www.cocobellacreamery.com Gardien https://www.gardein.com Amy's https://www.amys.com Beyond Meat https://www.beyondmeat.com Follow Your Heart https://followyourheart.com Uncut https://btbfoods.com Veggie Grill https://www.veggiegrill.com Chipotle http://chipotle.com Dunkin' Donuts https://www.dunkindonuts.com Besties Vegan Paradise https://www.instagram.com/bestiesveganparadise Guacamaya Oasis https://www.instagram.com/guacamayaoasis Border Vegan LA https://www.instagram.com/borderveganla/ Border x Bell https://www.instagram.com/borderxbell Goods App https://www.goodsuniteus.com Native (vegan options*) https://www.nativecos.com/ Special shout out to our first Patreon patron Robert T!
Welcome back, y'all! This week on the show, we talk homemade sushi and Dave's search for the perfect coffee creamer and try Gardein's Stea'k & E'ggs Breakfast Bowl.Here are handy links to the things we talked about in this episode:air fryer sushi and sushi burrito recipesmy YouTube channelthat beefless stew recipethe Biscoff banana pudding recipeAnd here's the list of Dave's favorite coffee creamers that we discuss:Trader Joe's brandfull fat Oatly -- This isn't a creamer, but it works great as one. It's basically vegan whole milk!Oatly Barista EditionCalifia Farms Barista Blend -- He specifies that he strongly prefers the Barista Blend to their other oat creamer.Nut Pods -- We get into great detail about this in the episode, if you want Dave's and my very specific thoughts about Nut Pods in both tea and coffee.Thank you so much for listening! We record these episodes for you, and we'd love to hear from you. Got a favorite vegan treat that you think we should cover on the podcast? Send your suggestions to talkintofupod@gmail.com!
Hey, y'all! This week on the show, we revisit our sausage sandwiches and talk tater tot Nicoise. We'll also try the vegan menu from Southern Belle and Gardein Asian Style Chick'n Fried Rice.Interested in the grit bowls we're talking about? Here's the original that started our obsession: https://www.glueandglitter.com/grits-bowl-with-avocado-and-baked-tofu-strips/Here's my friend Beth's site (who hosts the Twitter Vegan Supper Club): http://simplywithout.com/Got a favorite vegan treat that you think we should cover on the podcast? Send your suggestions to talkintofupod@gmail.com!
The big game between Kansas City and San Francisco is this weekend, and Jenni and Lisa are getting you and your pets ready for it with football-themed Animal Tales. Plus, easy ways to add plant-based options to your football party including wings, nachos and ice cream! Also, an update on everyone's favorite panda, Bei Bei; and special friends drop by from Crumbs & Whiskers Cat & Kitten Cafe.
Follow Kaela on Instagram: https://instagram.com/mckenna__fitness Listen to her story on The Big Fat Life Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/episode/53QXP1P7qPcgszKXRasBTo?si=pZkAIjMVTB2YXaT3YyVgUQ The What I Live for Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2Yo5APGogMCUOqDiYPRlFz?si=gqIAHZeeTRy4EmVC4lGi0g and The Joey Losing Weight Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6vzErkhG5deCFkQVcxHe9G?si=LeE1hHmTQeKSZWjfAcu6oA Kaela's planet based go to's “in her words
These days, it’s commonplace to see vegan restaurants in cities across America. Just a few years ago, however, few options existed and the ones that did weren’t very good, according to T.K. Pillan, the chairman and co-founder of fast-casual restaurant chain Veggie Grill. A former tech entrepreneur, Pillan sold his web development company in 2004 and set out to create a destination for delicious vegan food with wide consumer appeal. He and co-founder Kevin Boylan opened the first Veggie Grill location in Irvine, California in 2006 and the store was an instant hit. Thirteen years later, Veggie Grill now has 37 locations and is planning to operate 50 stores by 2020. Pillan is also a partner with Powerplant Ventures, which invests in disruptive plant-centric concepts. In an interview included in this episode, Pillan spoke about his transition from tech to food, how the first Veggie Grill got off the ground and why the company has taken a patient approach to expansion. He also explained why it’s critical for co-founders to be aligned on vision and values, what means to be “a good investor” and discussed the evolution of plant-based food brands. Show notes: 2:44: Interview: T.K. Pillan, Co-Founder, Veggie Grill/PowerPlant Ventures -- NOSH editor Carol Ortenberg spoke with Pillan about his background in business, how he became passionate about food as medicine and the “light bulbs” that led to the creation of Veggie Grill. He also discussed the common theme in all of his businesses, why it’s critical for co-founders to have a clear understanding of roles and complementary skill sets, resolving challenges at Veggie Grill’s second location and why he describes growth plans as “a double-edged sword.” Later, he explained why hiring a CEO was key to managing expansion, why he believes “alignment is 1% and execution is 99%” and how Veggie Grill evaluates brand partnerships. Pillan also spoke about his work with PowerPlant Ventures, opportunities to innovate in plant-based food and his thoughts about Burger King’s plant-based Impossible Whopper. Brands in this episode: Beyond Meat, Follow Your Heart, Daiya, Gardein, REBBL, Ripple, Beanfields, Health Warrior, Impossible Foods
Lisa Birnbach and Lisa Taddeo talk about desire in the American female psyche (sex), and her new book Three Women . They also discuss the 5 things that make their lives better.Lisa Birnbach’s 5 Things: 1. Public Art in particular Alex Katz 2. Eye Drops 3. Humility of being rejected for a position 4. Cooking 5 Friendships.Lisa Taddeo’s 5 Things: 1. The little rubber animals that are like 25 cents each 2. Space heater under her desk. 3. The family dog. 4. Chick’n Sliders, by Gardein. 5. The quilt that one of her oldest and best friends, Jan, made for her after her parents passed away.
Jess and Kristin try out the Gardein Italian Style Skillet Meal
Fabian sits down with Chris Kerr, the Chief Investment Officer at New Crop Capital, who has nearly 30 years of leadership experience with startups and venture capital investing. He has spent the last decade focused on impact investing with a concentration on the plant based foods sector. We recorded this episode the day after Beyond Meat hit the stock market. The brand is a poster child of Chris Kerr's investment portfolio, and it also is an industry daring darling. And what went well beyond the wildest expectations with stock trading at nearly triples from the original IPO price the day after, this episode is filled with enthusiasm and learnings that go well beyond one brand. An episode any entrepreneur should digest as we discuss the importance of naming, how you can build a company around a brand and how a startup needs to test, test, test, and then test again. You can learn more about Chris via the New Crop Capital site. ____Full Transcript: F Geyrhalter: Welcome to Hitting the Mark. Today, we go beyond meat. Yes, that was a brand hint. And not only do we go beyond beef, but also butter, cheese, chicken, ice cream, sea food, and yogurt. Today, we're diving into the future of food, for the development of replacements to animal protein products. I first read about Chris Kerr in the Good Business issue of Bloomberg Business Week way back in December, 2018, which dedicated four entire pages to his story. Which is quite an accomplishment. As sometimes is the case, good things take time. But today, he is on my show, and I couldn't be any more honored to have him here. Chris is the chief investment officer at New Crop Capital, and has nearly 30 years of leadership experience with startups and venture capital investing. He has spent the last decade focused on impact investing with a concentration on the plant based foods sector. As CIO, Chris manages the portfolio strategy and serves as a strategic advisor to most portfolio companies. Chris also serves as co-CEO and chair of Good Catch, managing member of TRELLIS NEW ENDEAVORS, director of Purple Carrot and Next Foods, and observes Miyoko's Kitchen. Additionally, Chris is a director at Unovis Partners, Sirabella's, Wicked Healthy, Math Garden, Pitcairn Financial Group, and Monarch Corporation. How does he do it all? I do not know. And how does he find time to talk branding with us here is less mystery than it is a testament to his dedication to the cause and to fellow entrepreneurs. With that being said, welcome, Chris. C Kerr: Thank you very much for having me. I'm looking forward to a lively conversation. F Geyrhalter: It's a pleasure. You say lively conversation because you and I chatted before, and I know you only got two hours of sleep. So first off, congratulations, what a day. We're recording this show on May 3rd, 2019, which happens to be the day after Beyond Meat went IPO. And what must have gone well beyond the wildest expectations with stock trading at nearly triples from the original IPO price. This also marks a first for a company making meat-like products from plants. So that's a pretty big thing, to hit the stock market. Chris, Beyond Meat is a poster child of your investment portfolio, and it also is an industry daring darling, I would say. What does this day mean to you? What does it mean to the industry as a whole? C Kerr: Well, my wife and I talked about this yesterday. My other business partner, Chad Sarna, who's a chef in this space, I would put this down as the single greatest day in the entire time I've been working in this space. I got into this area, and I'm an animal guy. I love animals, enough suffering in the world. I figured, let's try to take some of my abilities and work on putting them towards solutions to solving what we consider to be a crisis. When we started this effort, it was really around 2005. In 2007, I went to work for the Humane Society of the United States, trying to bring solutions to solve some of the things that they were working on. At the time, Beyond Meat was a little company called J Green Foods, the business plan was a very typical first business plan for a company, which if you're smart, a lot of founders will throw those away as quickly as possible. The company really evolved, from really this startup mode. But it was as time went, Silicon Valley was just starting to pay attention to this particular space. What we didn't know at the time was where this would go. So back in 2007, 2008, when I started this, really, it was very hard to get anybody to pay attention to what we were doing. The markets had collapsed, nobody really wanted to take any venture capital investments, let alone vegan food. Good lord, nobody thought that there was anything to do there. So to have this culminate from that, which was really kind of grabbing at straws, hoping something could evolve into a disruptive technology, to an IPO that then just outperformed everyone's expectations. And I've got to tell you, that was only one of three amazing things that happened yesterday. I can't talk too much about the other three. But I can just tell you that the world has completely shifted from the days of J Green Foods to what is now Beyond Meat's IPO and the fact that virtually, every major strategic food conglomerate out there is sitting up and paying really big attention to this space. I have to say, I'm delighted that I happened to have stuck it out this long. So it was really a [crosstalk 00:05:12] day. F Geyrhalter: And you played quite an integral part of this whole thing. Not only Beyond Meat, but of the entire, I guess we can call it now, of the movement. That really, like you said, just happened in the last couple of years, where it really started seeing an impact. So congratulations, it's really big stuff. C Kerr: Well thank you. Like I said, time, luck, circumstance, sometimes just being in the right place for long enough, something's going to hit you. What's the saying? Even a broken clock is right two times a day. So, [crosstalk 00:05:46]. F Geyrhalter: Very modest of you. So just the other week, I think it was last week actually, I listened to our local NPR station, here in Los Angeles, KCRW, and I caught Beyond Meat founder Ethan Brown taking us through a behind the scenes tour of the factory. It was really, really fascinating. I'm a big fan of the product and so are a lot of people all over the world. I think by now, their plant based burger patties are being sold in the meat section, which by itself, is such a huge accomplishment, in about 30,000 stores. It's in Burger King, it's in Carl's Jr, Del Taco, and I even spotted it at Dodger's Stadium here, in LA. So the startup was founded in 2009, that's when you were involved with them. The patties started hitting stores really in 2016, and I mean it's 2019 now. So this is now actually going to market has not been too long of a distance to IPO. I mean, that's pretty crazy. The brand also has some even higher profile investors than yourself. There's Bill Gates, Leonardo DiCaprio, and former McDonald's CEO Don Thompson. When I heard about this, this basically underlines what you just said, right? The world is changing. Just recently, they secured the CFO's of Coca-Cola and Twitter to be on the board of directors. So with Beyond Meat, when did the team start to actively invest either time or money into brand strategy? Or into defining the voice, or actually the design. Do you feel it was a conscious decision from day one? Or was it something that kind of happened over time? C Kerr: It happened over time. But a lot of these companies don't get it right right out of the gate. Like I said, the company was started as J Green Foods. It became Savage River Foods, which was the name of a river that ran through Ethan Brown's home property in Maryland. It had to evolve. So branding was really interesting, and positioning is really important, too. F Geyrhalter: Right. C Kerr: I'm not an expert in any of this, by the way. Usually, this type of thing happens way above my pay grade. In this case is no exception. What we look at in our investment portfolios, we focus on what I refer to as the food pact. You may have heard me talk about this in the past. But we make decisions on food based on the efficiency of four key levers, it's taste, awareness, convenience, and price. We looked at, even if you look at kind of the evolution of Beyond Meat, they came to market with a chicken. It was a pretty good chicken, it was gluten free. But arguably, it wasn't the best on the market. Gardein was out there, it was a great product, but it had wheat gluten in it. So Beyond Meat said, "Let's try something a little bit different with pea protein." Which really kind of changed the focus towards pea protein, that was the early adopter of it. So their positioning really tied to that brand, their branding tied to that positioning. Who were they going to and why? So when you look at your customer, first of all, I've just got to focus on this. Taste is the most important thing by far. F Geyrhalter: Right. C Kerr: We always start with chefs. So in every case, chefs have to play a role in that. So when we start, when New Crop looks at a company, we always say, "Look, if we can get the taste right, the other things will slowly start to fall in place." If you miss taste, the rest is irrelevant. So when you look at Beyond Meat, they didn't start off really with chefs in there. We put a chef in there, a guy named David Anderson, who's arguably one of the best plant based chefs on the planet. He really helped them kind of refine some of their products in the mid range there. About five, six years in, he started helping with that. The Beyond burger, it came later, right? That was really just ... I'll say this about food companies, there's no such thing as an overnight success with food. Most companies don't get it right right out of the gate. If you look at, a good example is Silk soy milk, which everybody now knows. But that's a 40 year old company, and it was 20 years in before it invented White Waves Silk. F Geyrhalter: Wow. C Kerr: So a lot of these companies take a lot of time. What looks like overnight successes was, in fact, a lot of trial and error ahead of that. I don't think Beyond Meat's really much of an exception to that. They had some good products early on, but not enough to be groundbreaking. It wasn't until the Beyond burger came out that it really hit that inflection point. That just takes time sometimes. What they really did do is they really changed who the consumer was of this product. So if you look at the branding, the branding was not tied towards your early adopter vegans. Early adopter vegans, they're very principled, they're very loud, they love to talk about their findings, they have enormous price elasticity. They're very forgiving around taste. As you move out of that very small niche, which like I said is really critical when launching these companies. But as you move outside of them, your branding has to reflect what that consumer wants. Beyond Meat really followed that path in a really good way, where they understood the early adopters. They absolutely never violated the principles of those early adopters, that's really critical, because they will turn on you if you do. So you respect the early adopter's principles, because they do a lot of work for you. And you build that in as the baseline to how you build from there on out. I think that Beyond Meat just did an exceptional job of that. They never violated those principles. They were questioned about them. I think if you bring on Tyson as an investor, or put on an ex McDonald's CEO in the mix, some of those people will question that. But Ethan was spot on in saying, "Look, if we really want to help the cause, whether health is your driver, environment, sustainability, animal protection, welfare, you name it, everybody gets served by this if it can hit the mass market. So we really shifted that focus to addressing kind of the meat reducers, the flexitarians. And that Beyond burger is a bullseye. Sorry for the pun, but it's a bullseye.If you look at that inflection point, I think going forward in history, you're going to see everybody's game just got stepped up quite a bit. Consumers are, by far, one of the biggest beneficiaries of that. F Geyrhalter: Absolutely. I mean, I looked at how the company is currently using key opinion leaders, or influencers, and they are not at all the typically associated with the industry type influencers, right? As you mentioned, the company knew very quickly that in order to go mainstream America, they need to get mainstream America athletes and diverse people, like guys flipping a burger in the backyard, right? C Kerr: Right. F Geyrhalter: That's the kind of people that they want to get. Forming that narrative must have been such a huge, important part of changing customer behavior. So yeah, I mean, well done. I also think about the packaging design, right? Which is so crucial to any big box retail company brand. Beyond Meat did something that I believe, I do not know, but I believe, it must have played a big role in its success outside of having a great product with an equally convincing story is that it creating packaging that actually looked like typical burger patty packaging. It was shrink wrap, it was see through. And that was a far fetch from the typical green cardboard boxes associated with vegan products. C Kerr: Sure. F Geyrhalter: Which in itself, are already pretty off-putting. Were you part of that time already? Did you witness that part of their story? Where they said, "Let's just package it like meat, let's try to get into the meat section of the market." Was that already part of that? C Kerr: Well I think early on, they're not actually the first one to try to get into the meat section. Gardein did it early on, Kite Hill did it with their cheese in the dairy isle. The problem is, the early adopters don't walk into that. So those who are the most, I will say, the loudest, don't actually walk into those sections, right? That's your kind of vegan early adopters. So it didn't do great. When Beyond Meat came out, two important things happened. One was that the market had kind of shifted towards being a lot more open towards these types of products. But the other part is that this product was good enough to actually reside there. So once you hit that threshold of, you can actually stand next to a burger and it be darn close to parity on taste and price, then the convenience kind of falls into place and the awareness kicks in. I think Beyond Meat really had to hit that sweet spot there. Gardein was in the deli section of Whole Foods probably in 2008, yeah, 2008, 2009. It did okay, but not great. Kite Hill, their non-dairy cheese was buried in a very complex high-end cheese isle that was very hard to find. So when the vegans went looking for it, that wasn't an area that they went to. When Beyond Meat came along, like I said, there was enough awareness about the product that it was happening. Plenty of marketing dollars went into that, but the market advising was really critical and letting consumers know where to look mattered, it certainly mattered. So I think, Whole Foods, by the way, has just been really critical in helping shape the merchandising so the early adopters can transition into the mainstream. So what they will do is, they'll put you in what we might call the penalty box, which is where all the vegan food goes. But they'll also put you in the deli, they'll also put you in the prepared foods isle. In the case of Beyond Meat, they actually opened a burger stand right in the middle of Whole Foods in Boulder, Colorado, that served just the Beyond burger. And that was a guy named Derek Sarno, who's one of our partners, he's a chef who is the executive global chef for Whole Foods, that was his concept. It worked. It allowed people to try out the product, to demo it, to understand what it tastes like, how do you prepare it? Is it different than real meat? Most of these products ... We have a company called Good Catch, Good Catch makes tuna fish. There's two questions that are asked, right out of the gate. What does it taste like? And how do I use it? Price isn't asked, nutrient value isn't asked. People are curious about it, but those are the first two things they want to know. So when it comes to positioning and merchandising, you solve those two first things. And sometimes, you need someone to demonstrate it to you. That's, quite frankly, where Whole Foods has just been outstanding in helping not just Beyond Meat, but all sorts of products, helped to do that. F Geyrhalter: It seems like it's the good old Costco trick, right? You show them how it's made right there, then people get to taste it. C Kerr: Yeah, merchandising's expensive. We vegans walk by tons of tasting stands, because we just assume that we can't eat it. F Geyrhalter: Yeah. C Kerr: Let me tell a story about Just Mayo. Just Mayo was doing demos in stores, and people would walk up and they'd say, "Well what are you serving?" And they would say, "This is vegan mayo." And the answer was, "I'm not vegan, no thank you." As though only vegans could eat this mayonnaise. Of course, Fritos are vegan, and we don't ask whether or not they're vegan, anybody can eat a Frito. So I think that merchandising is really critical in getting consumers to understand where they fit in the equation. If it's somebody who's lactose intolerant, yeah, you're going to want to try the newest nondairy milk. If it's somebody who's got allergens to soy, yeah, you might want to try a meat that isn't made out of ... meat analog that's not made out of wheat. That type of stuff is quite relevant, and I think those demos are really important. F Geyrhalter: Right, no, absolutely. I think, Chris, one of the most insightful things I learned when I read the Bloomberg Business article about you was that you have nine cats. I think some of them are starting to want to participate in this story, too. They said, "I don't only want to be in Bloomberg, I want to be here, too." C Kerr: Yeah, actually the cat that was in Bloomberg is the one that trying to get out the door, so yeah. F Geyrhalter: I think it's because of the name that you have given the cat. It's Claire de Lune or something like that? It's a very French name. C Kerr: Yeah, she normally sits on my desk here. F Geyrhalter: It's her business day has started. It's like, "Hey, it's 9:00am, what's going on?" Excellent. C Kerr: Sorry. F Geyrhalter: No, no, no, that's great. Hey so looking back at the success of Beyond Meat, and there's no better day than today, on May 3rd, to talk about this. We already touched on a couple of these. But when did you think, when did you know that this is going to turn from a startup into a brand? When did you feel that ... Not when you tasted it, or when you said, "This is going to be insanely good, people are going to love this." But from a marketing perspective, when did you feel like, okay, something right now just shifted, and this is going to be a brand? C Kerr: Quite frankly, when they settled on the name Beyond Meat. That was when the real marketing push came, and it had to do with how they were positioning it to the consumer base that went well outside of our vegan world. That shift really kind of said to the early adopters, thank you for your service, you've been phenomenal, let's take it to the next level. That happened actually pretty early on. The company started, when we started working on it in 2008, 2009. It was probably around 2012 that that name was adopted and then put into play. Prior to that, they were really focusing on food service and the name Savage River wasn't something that they were doing much with. I think by the time they came up with Beyond Meat they thought, okay, now we have something to rally around. That's pretty critical. F Geyrhalter: Absolutely. And that name was created by an agency with help? Or was that internally crafted? C Kerr: I believe it was internally crated. Beyond Eggs was out at the time, they were just getting started. So Hampton Creek had come up with the idea of using something along the lines of Beyond. Beyond Meat at the same time. Hampton Creek moved over, well they created Hampton Creek, and then Just. Beyond Meat was, I guess a good fit for them. F Geyrhalter: That's extremely refreshing to hear that a name was kind of that propeller into that next phase of the company. And where you felt like now it's a brand. But vegan is, as a whole, as a brand, changed tremendously. From not to tasty to incredibly cool. In fact, it also turned quite important given climate change, right? Which is one of the big reasons you're in this business. And yes, it also morphed into a very tasty food option. But most of the brands in your portfolio are also extremely design focused, I realized. The dairy free butter brand Fora, which I can't wait to get my hands on. But also your other investment firm, Unovis Partners, it seems like branding and design is always top of mind for you in many of your brands. What does branding mean to you? Either personally or to your industry as a whole? I mean obviously, with Beyond Meat we get a pretty good sense of what it can do. C Kerr: Yeah, honestly, it's absolutely critical. You think about it, it's communication, right? At the end of the day, you want to very quickly communicate to a consumer what it is you do. If you can get that in a brand, I think plenty of people overthink or they try to be creative with brands, and it just can kind of flop. A really good brand matters, because it really is that flash point around decision making. Again, you go back to the food pact. Awareness is critical. I use this example, if you are in a desert dying of thirst, crawling along the sand, and there's a body of water over a hill, if you don't know it's there, you're still going to die of thirst. Awareness is really around what is it that a brand or a company's trying to convey to you? So you need to know where it is, what to look for, then be able to make a rather quick decision around why you might want to buy it. So clearly, there's an industry around that. That's no surprise there. I think when you have an innovative product that's new to the sector, that's novel, disruptive, and consumers don't quite know what to do with it, you better get that brand right. You can't be too cheeky. Too many plays on words, that kind of stuff. You don't want to confuse the consumer in the process. So I think Beyond Meat really hit a good stride there. There's a couple other ones that did a good job. They didn't have a lot of professional help, but Daiya is another company that people kind of knew what it was right out of the gate. It was dairy but not quite dairy. Silk, perfect example, Silk soy milk. A grand slam, people pretty much knew, it's soy milk. You think about that when it comes to identity. For the consumer, there's not a lot of confusion for the consumer. Ultimately, I think that, when it comes time to make kind of very quick decisions, impulse decisions, the difference between a good brand and a bad brand is going to be the difference between a sale or a pass. The ones that are successful, they know how to really run with it. F Geyrhalter: So at what time in that startup journey with your portfolio companies is what time do you advise those companies to actually invest in branding? C Kerr: Day one, day one. Good Catch is a great example. We knew that we could get a formula ... We didn't know what we were going to do in seafood, we just knew that we were going to get into the seafood space. We had started the company from scratch, we worked with a branding agency. The brand is what we built the company around. So coming up with the name Good Catch really set in motion exactly what that company was going to do and why. With that, we can fill in the blanks pretty much in any direction we want. Now if we had come up with something that was cheeky or confusing, a rebrand is incredibly expensive. F Geyrhalter: Yep. C Kerr: Nobody wants to go through that. So to spend an extra 25 to $50,000 on an early brand saves you upwards of several million later in the game, not to mention a failed start, which is the worst possible outcome. So I recommend, by all means, don't just come up with a name between you and your founders and think that it's great. Test it, put it in front of groups. There's great organizations that will actually do concept testing for you, and New Hope is one of them that's in the natural products space. For very little amount of money, you can test a couple concepts and see how it resonates with consumers. Spend that money. To nickel and dime that early stage is arguably a death nail for a company, if you get it wrong. F Geyrhalter: Amen. It was a very tough pill to swallow for a lot of bootstrap, early stage founders. C Kerr: Yeah. F Geyrhalter: But in the food industry, you basically cannot be too bootstrapped in order to make it to the market, so. C Kerr: Well also, I really encourage people to not fall in love with their own branding. It's easy to do, you feel like it becomes part of your own personal identity. You came up with it, or your family did. It really is important to relay a message to the consumer, not to your sister. I think at the end of the day, a good brand will reach a really wide swath of the world and tell them exactly what it is you're doing. That's pretty critical. F Geyrhalter: Chris, this is how I started pretty much every speech to entrepreneurs. I tell them, everything you do right now is not about you. It's about them, right? C Kerr: Well said, well said. Ego can really get in the way of these. One of the things that we do with the companies that we start up with, our job is commercialization. Part of that commercialization is an education around the branding side of it. So if you look at the New Crop team, we're actually made up of a whole bunch of entrepreneurs, people who have started companies before. One of our guys, Dan Altschuler, used to run a branding agency, it's what he did. We have another woman, Laura Zane, who helps us put together the decks. Because quite frankly, selling investors on it is very similar to selling a product. You need to sell them on the concept, and they need to be able to understand it quickly. So that starts the design phase, by the time you're hitting the shelves, at that point, it's too late. So absolutely, you need to think of it from the ground up. F Geyrhalter: Any piece of brand advice and founders as a final takeaway? I know you already dropped a lot of them. Anything that you didn't share with us yet, as we come to a close? C Kerr: Test, test, test, and then test again. And by the way, the world isn't static. When we launched Good Catch, we did testing on words for our packaging, and two years later, the entire market shifted and we need to test it again. So by all means, the consumer changes, consumer perception changes, the markets change. Don't be afraid to change with them. Your job there is to get consumers to understand what you're doing. The other part of it is, test your products. Try new things. At the end of the day, don't be a believer in your own stuff. You need to actually rely on the broader community to help you with that. The good news is, they are delighted to help. Particularly the early adopter world where I come from. Vegans love to try new food, and when they find something great, they are incredibly loud about it. Be partners with them in that, and allow them to test as well. I think everybody can have fun with it when you're testing new things, so it's not a challenge, it's a joy. I think if you look at it from that perspective, everybody gets to have fun with it. F Geyrhalter: Fantastic advise. What's still untapped in the plant based market? I mean, is there something you're excited about that you'd love to see a team create, or something you'd be excited to invest in next? Or is this all beyond ... Not Beyond Meat, but beyond closed doors? C Kerr: So we've now hit pretty much every area out there. We're working on, pork still hasn't been done well, and that's a massive market, as you can imagine. F Geyrhalter: Right. C Kerr: We're working on some things there. F Geyrhalter: It's a huge necessity too, right now, I suppose. C Kerr: I'm sorry, say that again? F Geyrhalter: Pork is in huge demand, and there's lots of issues surrounding pork. And there's a shortage, and God knows what, right? So there's a huge need for it, too. C Kerr: China alone, I mean, it's just not ... F Geyrhalter: Right. C Kerr: So here's what's both sad and exciting. The meat, dairy, eggs, and seafood market's over a trillion dollars, and we are just, just, just getting in there. We're a rounding error in that. So the opportunities are global, they are massive, and they are urgent. You put those things together and create a little bit of R&D around that, these are going to be exciting times. Give us another decade. Look at what happened with the Beyond burger and the Impossible burger just in the last two years. They just got onto the map on an industry that's a couple million years old at this point. F Geyrhalter: Yeah. C Kerr: Since we started eating animals. This is going to be a very, very exciting ride. I would say collectively, if you ignore the marketing side, collectively, R&D and the plant based meat world, and dairy, I would argue, is less than $100 million in the history of it, that they've actually put into the R&D side of it. The more money that flows into that, you're going to see some absolutely phenomenal outcomes. I would imagine that the next decade is going to be spectacular for consumers, for animals, for the environment. Everybody's going to win, and it's going to be a fun time. F Geyrhalter: I think on that note, I want to thank you, Chris. It was impeccable for you to make it onto Hitting the Mark the day after the big IPO, I so appreciate the time you took away from doing press or simply celebrating on this huge day. C Kerr: Thank you. F Geyrhalter: It's a huge day for you, your company, and Beyond Meat. So absolutely, thanks for being here. C Kerr: Well, and thank you to the Beyond Meat, they're a spectacular team. They did all of the work. I got to sit back and watch the ride. But thank you for having me on, I really appreciate it. F Geyrhalter: Thanks to everyone for listening, and please hit the subscribe button and give this show a quick rating. I'm seeing way too little TLC from you out there, I know how many of you are listening. So if you have a split second and enjoy the show, please give it a quick rating. This podcast is brought to you by FINIEN, the brand consultancy creating strategic, verbal, and visual brand clarity. You can learn more about FINIEN and download free white papers to support your own brand launch at FINIEN.com. The Hitting the Mark theme music was written and produced by Happiness One, I will see you next time when we once again will be Hitting the Mark.
-Jasmin and Mariann talk about Jasmin's recent New York visit, how Fiddler on the Roof relates to animal issues, a really fascinating discussion about animal agriculture on Ezra Klein's recent Ask Ezra Anything podcast. -Mariann talks to Asher Brown of Pollution.tv about producing videos for clients like Beyond Meat, Gardein, and So Delicious; the Million-Dollar Vegan campaign; and Switch4Good, the dairy-free athlete non-profit he co-founded. (19:15) -Mariann, who insists you refer to her as a veganista now, brings us Rising Anxieties from around the world from some familiar, anxious voices (55:10).
Episode 10: Special guest Dylan joins us for episode X as we discuss whether swallowing semen is vegan plus even MORE blowjob talk, and rhapsodize about Queer Eye for the Straight Guy for a hot minute. Vegan chicken and waffles: -2C vegan chicken (we used Gardein brand strips)-olive oil-1/4 beer (we didn't have any on hand so we omitted)-liquid smoke-1/2tsp Louisiana hot sauce1 1/2tsp Creole seasoning (we used spices we had laying around)-2C vegan Bisquick mix-1 1/2C soy milk-1/2C margarine-2C maple syrup-1tbsp applesauce Preheat your oven to 375F. Cut the vegan chicken into strips or nuggets. Line a cookie sheet with foil and spray with olive oil. In a small bowl, mix the beer, liquid smoke and hot sauce. In another small bowl, combine the Bisquick mix and Creole seasoning. Dip your vegan chicken in the liquids bowl to completely cover the pieces and then dip the chicken in to the Bisquick mix. Place all your pieces on the cookie sheet and spray with more olive oil. Bake for 10-15 minutes to a light golden brown. While the chicken bakes, make your waffles! Preheat your waffle iron. Mix all other ingredients except the margarine and maple syrup in a large bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. Make waffles to your heart's content and top with the chicken and buttery syrup! Featured song: Year of the Slut - Itchy Kitty (Spokane, WA)facebook.com/itchykitty666itchykitty.bandcamp.comvimeo.com/itchykittyIG: @itchy.kitty If you want your music on our episodes, reach out and touch us @ drunch@podcast.me. Don't forget to subscribe and follow us on Facebook, Instagram & Twitter @drunchpodcast!
It’s never been easier to go plant-based. More importantly, there’s never been a better time to do it. Faced with an epidemic of disease and the threat of global warming, it’s the one thing all of us can do to make a positive difference - both for our health, and the planet. Today’s two guests made the shift to veganism after watching the groundbreaking (and super powerful) documentary Earthlings. Now, they want to help other people transition to plant-based living, and better health. Melissa is a plant-powered personal chef and founder of ForkinPlants. We’re so inspired by her story. After studying healthcare and working in an office for years, she quit her 9 to 5 to follow her dreams and focus on her passions: cooking and helping people live healthy lives. But she wasn’t always on this vibe. In fact, before going vegan she used to eat cheese out of a can! Fifteen years ago, she had to take a 14-day course of antibiotics to clear an H-Pylori stomach infection. The result was a destroyed digestive system, chronic acid reflux and really bad eczema. Through research and Chinese medicine, she discovered that some of the top superfoods, like turmeric, were actually making her condition worse. Now, having healed herself through food, she helps others do the same. Read her blog post to find out how she healed her skin issues. Elana’s journey is similar. She suffered from chronic acid reflux from the age of 16. Of course, doctors just gave her a pill to take and unsurprisingly, this didn’t work long-term. She had her light-bulb moment at a retreat where the host made everyone watch Earthlings. Now vegan and healthy, Elana is a plant-based influencer and foodie, spreading vegan holistic health knowledge to those who need it most. She runs vegan events, and is about to quit her office job to follow her passion full-time. Her website Klean-Slate focuses on being real about food - because let’s face it, it’s not about being perfect, it’s about making small sustainable changes that last. Check out Episode 120 for Elana’s first appearance on the show, where she shares tips to rebalance your gut microflora. Our favorite vegan substitutes: Milk: Oatly milk - and chocolate milk. Their barista blend froths up beautifully Malk milk - sprouted nuts, no binders, super-clean and super tasty… especially the maple-pecan! Cheese: For everyday cheese, go for Follow Your Heart vegan cheese slices Kite Hills chive cream cheese Daiya cheese Miyoko’s cheese Yvonne’s vegan cheese Yogurt: Laava Forager Vegan meats: Beyond Burger - everyone loves this burger, even meat-eaters Gardein - but this is more a treat food than a health food Ice-cream: Cocobella Ben & Jerry’s vegan options Breyers vegan options Van Leeuwen Salt & Straw Being hailed as “Sex and the City for Food,” The Food Heals Podcast brings together experts in the field of nutrition, health and healing to teach you the best-kept natural secrets to being a hotter, healthier, happier YOU! The Food Heals Podcast is hosted by Allison Melody and Suzy Hardy – two self-proclaimed natural chicks who will rock your world and change your beliefs about health! This sexy, savvy duo provides eco-friendly advice on a variety of issues including the healing power of nutrition, living authentically, turning your passion into your career, choosing the best natural health and beauty products, the benefits of a plant-based diet and so much more!
Ryan Caldbeck has two words for brands planning to raise capital in 2018: be careful. With billions of dollars in play in the red-hot CPG space, Caldbeck, the co-founder and CEO of funding platform CircleUp, is advising brands to take extra caution when vetting potential investment partners. He believes that while funding opportunities for food and beverage companies are the most abundant since launching the firm in 2013, he’s concerned about the lack of a strategic component in the money that is currently flowing in from large private equity firms and tech-focused venture capital firms. “They will pay close to zero attention from the $2 billion fund that just invested $10 million; they won’t know their name,” Caldbeck said of some large investors. “Now you’ve partnered with someone that’s not going to give you the support beyond capital.” In an interview included in this episode of Taste Radio, Caldbeck noted that “the tailwinds and the structural dynamics for early-stage consumer companies -- call it $1-$15 million in revenue -- are extremely attractive” for investors of all kinds. Yet, he urged fast-growing companies to “think about the incentives of the investor or the partner that you’re working with” and ask “who else have you worked with that looks like me?” “And when you can drill down on who else they’ve worked with that has similar growth drivers of your business, you’ll find an investor or a partner that’s right for you,” he said. Within the food industry, few categories are attracting more investment than plant-based and lab-grown meat. The Good Food Institute (GFI), a non-profit organization that advocates on behalf of plant-based meat brands, is helping to support the growth of many companies in the space. This episode includes a full-length conversation with GFI co-founder and executive director Bruce Friedrich, who details the origins of the organization (it was “literally a religious calling,” he said) and how it supports scientific research and investment in the clean meat space. In this week’s edition of Elevator Talk, we meet with Nansee Kim-Parker, the founder and CEO of Yoot, a brand of ready-to-drink herbal root teas made with herbs and spices. This episode is presented by Saffron Road. Show notes: 2:05: Waxing on West -- The hosts chat about their biggest takeaways from Expo West 2018, including how the show reflected a shift in the retail landscape and route-to-market for natural brands and showcased the sophistication and rapid maturity of many early-stage/pre-launch companies. 16:47: Interview: Ryan Caldbeck, CEO/Co-Founder, CircleUp -- We sat down with Caldbeck at the 2018 Winter Fancy Food Show, where he offered his perspective on the landscape and climate for CPG investment. 42:28: Interview: Bruce Friedrich, Co-Founder/Executive Director, The Good Food Institute -- Also joining us at the Fancy Food Show was Friedrich, who spoke about the the rapidly emerging plant-based meat space and where the category is headed. In our conversation, he detailed a clash in perspective with some in vegan community, why GFI is stressing “clean meat” as the preferred nomenclature versus “lab-grown,” regulatory hurdles for clean meat and how improved technology and taste is helping to win over consumers. 1:13:26: Elevator Talk: Nansee Kim-Parker, Founder, Yoot -- Inspired by the traditions of Ayurvedic Herbal Medicine and Chinese Herbal Medicine. Yoot is a brand of herbal root teas brewed from superfood herbs. We caught up with founder Nansee Kim-Parker who dug into the roots of her brand in this edition of Elevator Talk. Brands in this episode: Beyond Meat, JUST, Impossible Foods, Tyson Foods, Maple Leaf, Field Roast, Tofurky, Boca, Memphis Meats, Gardein, Finless Foods, Good Catch Foods, Yoot Tea
In this episode I interview Cale Drouin from Plant Based Foods, a distribution company in Brisbane, Australia. With a background in sales, Cale has worked for variety of organizations. He ran a vegan café and grocery store for three years, before moving into distribution three years ago. Through Plant Based Foods he imports US products including Gardein, Tofurky and Match Meats, as well as working with local Australian brands such as Herbisaurus to get them into retailers. In this interview, Cale talks about: • The advantages for US product manufacturers of launching their products in Australia • What US product manufacturers need to know when considering distribution in Australia • The amount of capital a vegan business owner needs to get their products into retailers • The realities of trading terms and profit margins • Why you should not become dependent on large supermarket chains to stock your products • The major mistake a retailer won’t put up with, which can destroy a food manufacturer • The importance of knowing your own strengths – and why Cale recently ‘fired’ himself as CEO of his company • And much more Visit the Plant Based Foods website Brands mentioned in vegan business news roundup: Planta (Toronto) Fry’s Family Foods Maker Sydney Happy Maki VegFestUK Follow Vegan Business Media on: Facebook Twitter Instagram Connect with me personally at: Facebook Twitter LinkedIn
In this episode I interview Cale Drouin from Plant Based Foods, a distribution company in Brisbane, Australia. With a background in sales, Cale has worked for variety of organizations. He ran a vegan café and grocery store for three years, before moving into distribution three years ago. Through Plant Based Foods he imports US products including Gardein, Tofurky and Match Meats, as well as working with local Australian brands such as Herbisaurus to get them into retailers. In this interview, Cale talks about: • The advantages for US product manufacturers of launching their products in Australia • What US product manufacturers need to know when considering distribution in Australia • The amount of capital a vegan business owner needs to get their products into retailers • The realities of trading terms and profit margins • Why you should not become dependent on large supermarket chains to stock your products • The major mistake a retailer won't put up with, which can destroy a food manufacturer • The importance of knowing your own strengths – and why Cale recently ‘fired' himself as CEO of his company • And much more Visit the Plant Based Foods website Brands mentioned in vegan business news roundup: Planta (Toronto) Fry's Family Foods Maker Sydney Happy Maki VegFestUK Follow Vegan Business Media on: Facebook Twitter Instagram Connect with me personally at: Facebook Twitter LinkedIn
DANA SLATKIN is a Culinary Institute of America-trained chef, cookbook author, food blogger and cooking class instructor in Los Angeles. She trained in France with Michelin Three-Star chefs Georges Blanc and Michel Guèrard and with renowned patissier Pierre Hermé at Fauchon. After cooking in New York City at Bouley, Dana moved to Los Angeles to become General Manager at L’Orangerie, one of the city’s most highly regarded formal restaurants. In 1994, seeing a need to engage her local community, she launched the Beverly Hills Farmers Market, which became the name and inspiration for her own line of award-winning food products, sold to airlines and supermarkets for a decade. Dana’s first cookbook, Summertime Anytime: Recipes From Shutters On The Beach, was published in 2008 by Clarkson Potter. Dana’s appearances include The Today Show, ABC News, Extra!, Martha Stewart Radio, Maria Shriver’s Women’s Conference in Long Beach, UCLA Festival of Books, and NAPTE. In addition to writing for The Huffington Post, Dana has been featured in Food + Wine Magazine, C Magazine, House & Garden, Town + Country, and many other publications. Dana has been an online spokeschef for Crisco, Smuckers, Little Black Dress Vodka, Gardein and 360 Cookware. As the Beverly Hills Farmgirl, Dana teaches a popular series of cooking classes in her home, runs a pop-up shop and online store, and writes a weekly blog, 90210farmgirl.com. She is currently at work on a food-related television show. Being hailed as “Sex and the City for Food,” The Food Heals Podcast brings together experts in the field of nutrition, health and healing to teach you the best-kept natural secrets to being a hotter, healthier, happier YOU! The Food Heals Podcast is hosted by Allison Melody and Suzy Hardy – two self-proclaimed natural chicks who will rock your world and change your beliefs about health! This sexy, savvy duo provides eco-friendly advice on a variety of issues including the healing power of nutrition, living authentically, turning your passion into your career, choosing the best natural health and beauty products, the benefits of a plant-based diet and so much more! Find out how to win a swag bag full of our favorite organic, vegan health and beauty products including luscious face lotion, wrinkle-reducing clay mask, refreshing essential oil spritzer, delicious deodorant, detox supplements and more by subscribing to our show! Upcoming & past guests include John Salley, Sophie Uliano, Kimberly Van Der Beek, Joe Cross, Kerri Kasem and MORE! Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss out on any of these amazing episodes!
Actor, Environmentalist and exceptional human, ED BEGLEY, JR chats with Jon about his life as a vegan dating as far back as 1970 - a time before Daiya and Gardein, when Tofu ruled the veganverse with a squishy fist! They discuss ways new homeowners can cut costs and save the planet at the same time, traveling through small towns as a vegan and much much more! Also, be on the lookout for Ed's NEW cleaning product-line, Begley's Earth Responsible Products! ENJOY!
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