My Food Job Rocks!

I’m so excited to have my good friend David Kay on the My Food Job Rocks podcast. David is employee number 1 at Upside Foods, which used to be called Memphis Meats. You may know them as one of the leaders of the cultivated meat movement. As we all know, bringing new technology to the world can be risky so you’ll learn a ton of the strategies David has used to what he says, derisks bringing cultivated meat to market I got a tour of the Upside food facility, called EPIC. Before it was bought out 2 years ago, it used to be a grocery store in the heart of Emeryville. When you enter the building, you are greeted with an open kitchen and then David gave me a tour. Upside Foods is working on a bunch of stuff. Though I heard a bunch about them when I was in California, it’s nice to see the visual progress. They’ve found a way to produce any type of meat by developing a robust process to generate cells. By the way, haven’t tasted Upsides’ stuff yet! Some day. Upside Foods is valued at around $1 billion dollars and is

Today we’re interviewing Durgalakshmi Sathiakumar, or Durga for short. She’s the COO and first employee for Shiok Meats, one would say the most ahead of the cultivated meat ecosystem in Asia. It’s currently, in Series B and raised $21.5 million according to CB Insights and is valued around $99 million. Though a modest amount in United States standards, this is huge when it comes to Asia. So I learned shiok is basically a term for deliciousness which embraces the focus of Shiok Meats as it is specifically headquartered in Singapore. What was surprising is that Shiok actually does more than just shrimp. It’s also doing Wagyu beef thanks to an acquisition. Do they synergize? The answer’s fuzzy. You’ll not only learn why Shiok focuses on seafood but also the perception on cultivated meat in Singapore, and we compare it to places in the United States. Though the data is ever-changing. Durga herself gives some valuable advice on some of the skillsets you need in the industry as well as trying to find your ikagai, o

We’re interviewing Dr. Dalal AlGhawas, Director at Big Idea Ventures, a global accelerator focusing on protein technology. Well, Big Idea ventures isn’t just an accelerator, it’s also a venture capitalist arm, a networking hub, and all around, global player in the food tech space. I remember interviewing Andrew Ive, the CEO of Big Idea Ventures. Pre-pandemic just when they were getting started and Big Idea has grown so fast. Last I’ve heard, they’ve been going global hosting competitions and demo days in Korea and Japan. Now I’m interviewing Dalal, who’s been so helpful in connecting me to not just some amazing interviews in Singapore, but also in general, meeting some awesome people personally and professionally! Dalal is a wealth of knowledge and I’ve noticed she has a great understanding of the history of whole industries, which allows her to gather insights to give out practical advice. If you’ve been following this series since the beginning I hope after this episode, you might be seeing a sort of congea

Today we’re interviewing Max Rye, co-founder and Chief Strategist at Turtle Tree Labs. Which is a precision fermentation company focusing on lactoferrin, a supermolecule in cow’s milk. One of the most unique things about Turtle Tree is that they have hubs in Singapore, Davis California and Boston Massachusetts. I know a few companies who are taking this approach because certain areas have certain talents. To level set, Turtle Tree has raised around $40 million dollars so you do need a lot of money to prepare for managing a global company. Though the world is changing thanks to technology and it seems like event startups can take advantage of location. Max tells us how turtle Tree manages that. Talent is surprisingly more location dependent than you think. This is generally why despite what anyone says, the United States still produces the most talented employees in the world. Ok enough bragging. Max ran a software company for about 15 years before handing it off and diving into solving sustainability problems

  Today I’m interviewing Mihir Pershad, co-founder of Umami Meats, a cultivated seafood company in Singapore. Mihir has great in-depth knowledge of the fish farming industry and does an amazing job explaining and articulating the complexities in traditional seafood agriculture. What I really enjoyed is that he captures the nuances and the problems quite well. This gives him a significant advantage when he launched Umami Meats, which focuses on cultivated seafood. After this interview, Umami Meats had people try their product in Singapore’s fine dining among other cultivate meat brands so they are innovating fast! Be prepared to swim in fish and seafood facts in this interview. Mihir is super knowledgeable in not just the fish industry but understands just how the whole world works and that insight enlightened me a lot in just how it’s all connected. If you’re planning to start a business, Mihir does a great job explaining just a lot of things that are really useful for entrepreneurs such as understanding your

Today I’m interviewing HonMun Yip, currently asset manager for KICL Group which manages investments but he does a lot of stuff. Mainly, he’s invested in a ton of alternative protein companies as an early-stage investor. His list can be found on LinkedIn but some of his portfolios includes but is definitively not limited to: Impossible Foods, Eat JUST, Motif Foodworks, Gingko Bioworks, and Youkuai Meats. HonMun has been through it all in his career seeing the rise and fall of the dot com era and the eventual adoption of the smartphone era and now he’s in the action of the food tech era. In this interview, you’ll gain deep insight on a bird’s eye vision. HonMun compares the current food tech landscape like the smartphone industry. It took 30 years to fruition so as an investor, you have to recognize trends and stay for the long term I caught HonMun right after his trip to the United States, and he tells me just how exciting it is to see the technology progressing and the energy that exudes from meeting with fou

We're interviewing Chef Jeff Yew, Product Development Lead at GOOD Meat Asia in Singapore and this guy plays with cultivated meat every single day. He works for the only country that has actually commercialized cultivated chicken commercially, GOOD Meat. In America, you might be familiar with JUST. The company that makes a very popular plant-based egg. It’s the same company. Throughout this interview, Chef Jeff shows time and time again how for lack of a better term, ballsy, he is in making big changes to his career. From jumping on a plane to interview for a New York restaurant, to moving to Indonesia to build his own, to trying half a cultivated chicken nugget and totally pivoting his whole career to bring this technology to market, Jeff is an inspiring innovator who really follows his heart.   So besides that, this episode gives me the opportunity to talk to someone who’s actually worked with, as in, has felt, understood it, and optimized, cultivated chicken so I asked him all sorts of questions. You’ll ha

This episode is with Valerie Pang, the Innovation Associate for the Good Food Institute Asian Pacific, shorten to GFI APAC, and is generally the first point of contact for anyone who wants to know about the Asian Pacific Region in alternative proteins. If you’ve been a long-time fan of this podcast and listen to the alternative protein stuff, you hear their name often as the go-to source for getting into this field. During the short time, GFI has existed, they have been a center point of supporting the food industry in adapting to the alternative protein space. Whether big companies are anxious to dip their toes, to ex-business consultants looking for a technical cofounder, GFI has always been at the forefront in developing this ecosystem. And GFI has grown tremendously. What was once a budding organization in the United States has gone global and of course, they have an APAC section, where I was introduced to Valerie Pang, a bright, engaging, and knowledgeable employee who shared with me some of the vegan fo

Today I’m interviewing Aparna Venkatesh, the Collaborative Innovation lead for Southeast Asia and Oceana at Buhler where she leads collaboration on innovation strategy in emerging opportunities for sustainable foods and novel food technology applications For those that don’t know, Buhler is a swiss multinational business-to-business giant. Though they do a ton of things, if you’ve worked in the food industry, you would know that they do a lot of process equipment. Arpana goes into a lot more detail about the many industries that Buhler innovates in and properly educates me on the origins and capabilities this company has. Aprana also has had a decade of experience working for the Singaporean government and was one of the scientists that began the process of approving cultivated meat in Singapore. So we deep dive into the technological advancements in both cultivated and plant-based meat and we discuss just how important a proactive government is when it comes to pushing this technology. We also discuss how co

Today I’m interviewing Ratna Juita, a well-being strategist and a TEDx speaker, facilitator, and trainer based in Singapore to talk about mental health and how to avoid burnout. Scrambling to figure out what to do in Singapore, I found Ratna’s content on LinkedIn really informative so I reached out and she agreed to be on the podcast. Ratna is a joy to talk to and is very organized in her approach to mental health. In this episode, you’ll hear a few exercises that might help you figure out how to control burnout or overworking. Ratna’s methods have been presented to a lot of corporate teams so they are legit. Ratna also talks about her own struggles. For example, how she overcame her fear of public speaking after a devastating failure I think mental health is extremely important in this day and age and it’s only recently that we are more open about it. Just like physical exercise and rest, our brains must go through the same thing. We talk a lot about big problems on My Food Job Rocks, so having Ratna on is a

Today I’m interviewing Jolene Lum, client development, for Asia Sustainable Foods newly named NURASA. They are a wholly owned company of Temasek Holdings, for those who don’t know, Temasek is one of the most well-known private holdings company that is known for its moonshot investing and is directly owned by the government of Singapore. Jolene is an entrepreneur at heart, extremely passionate about all things sustainability, very eloquent, and can explain things really easily. I really enjoyed our discussion discussing some of the interesting challenges going on with the current food tech space in Singapore. Jolene also has great insight into the farmer side of the industry. Singapore imports 90% of its food and the food they do grow is vegetables. Her first business was to connect these farmers to consumers for higher quality produce. I find her empathy with the farmers really enjoyable. We do this in a WeWork in downtown Singapore Shownotes: http://myfoodjobrocks.com/256Jolene

Today I’m interviewing Andrew Yip, Head of Future Food at Monde Nissin Singapore, what the heck is Monde Nissin and why are they interesting? They are a philipino based mega food corporation that bought Quorn about 7 years ago. Andrew was one of the first people I contacted in Singapore mainly because he posts great food content on Linkedin. When I visited him, I was introduced to some amazing food applications using Quorn technology.  If you want to see some pictures, check out the shownotes. I have mixed feeling about Quorn. Some products in the United States are not my favorite. Their hot dogs taste like cat food and their nuggets taste like fish but I was super impressed with the spam sticks and bao I tried using Quorn technology. Anyways, we then did a podcast in the Monde Nissin office. You’ll learn about Andrew’s journey from being a chef to an R+D scientist, his philosophy in product development and also why Andrew believes Singapore is such a central place for brands like Quorn to set up an Asian HQ

Today we’re interviewing Franklin Yao, who is the CEO of Youkuai Group, where they make Zrou meat. For those who don’t know, it’s a kinda pun of zhurou, which means pork in Chinese. Yes, even though I don’t know a lick of Chinese, I know a lot of food in Chinese. This interview is my first Chinese startup. So my favorite part of this interview is asking Franklin a million questions on the differences between Chinese and American everything. Consumer mindset, entrepreneur culture, and the value of meat and we volley back and forth comparing and contrasting how we see each culture act on each subject. You’ll learn similarities and difference a lot of aspects in what a young Chinese alt protein startup has to deal with and it’s enlightening to know we have the same successes and the same challenges that many other alternative protein companies have I really enjoyed this interview with Frank. It’s an inspiring story on how to form a stellar team, winning superfans and building for the long game. Shownotes: http:/

Fiona Fleming is the CEO of Australian Institute of Food Science and Technology; FAIFST and Principal, FJ Fleming Food Consulting You know, people say this is a food tech podcast and I’m quite flattered I’m considered one but one thing I pride myself in is the diversity of our guest list. So I’m really excited to interview Fiona because her vast array of knowledge about the Australian food industry is really enlightening. You’ll get a big breakdown on some really interesting stuff such as the farming industry in Australia, or how bush fires and floods affect the food supply down under, and my personal favorite topic, demystifying regulatory hurdles in Australia. Shownotes: http://myfoodjobrocks.com/253Fiona

Today we’re interviewing Simon Newstead, founding partner of Better Bite Ventures. A Venture fund that focuses specifically on Asia Pacific. Why? You’ll find out in this episode! Simon has an entrepreneurial background in tech and started investing in the early stages alt-protein companies because of his compassion for animals. Some of his and his business partner, Michel Klar’s portfolio includes notable brands like Tindle and Green Rebel Ok, so you might have heard me rant before, he's a tech entrepreneur? Does he even understand food? Did you know before starting Better Bite Ventures, Michel Klar and Simon Newstead started and sold their own chocolate company just to understand how the food industry works? That’s dedication. Simon’s interview is full of data and statistics that show APAC as an amazing land of opportunity for alt-protein startups. You’ll also learn some practical tips on how to get into investing. If you’re interested. Shownotes: http://myfoodjobrocks.com/252Simon  

Today we’re interviewing Sarah Qian, founder of Compassion Creamery,  an oat-based cream cheese company located in Sydney, Australia. They’re a really small plant-based brand only native to Sydney but I found the conversation to be quite enlightening. I think the best thing about Sarah is her actionable and relatable experiences such as how to validate that your product is good, how to get a champion or mentor, and using your parents as…free labor! Side note, when I was at Better Meat Co, we had to go to San Francisco every month and I would use my parents’ place as a free hotel. Wow, dinner and a room, can't beat that! Sarah’s laid-back attitude and relatable problems are a joy to listen to. I hope you enjoy this episode with Sarah Qian, we do this in the University of Sydney at the Incubate office Shownotes: https://myfoodjobrocks.com/Sarah251  

George Peppou, the CEO and cofounder of Vow Food is extremely funny, quirky, and extremely knowledgable. He talks fast but really knows his stuff. Vow’s approach to Cultured meat is a lot different than what you’ve heard. I’m sure you’ve heard the story of a well-funded cultured meat startup, which talks about their black box technology and replicating a chicken nugget. Vow’s approach is to really sell cultivated meat as a new, unique type of product that’s never been eaten before. You’ll hear them talk about Morsel, their first product. I don’t do a good job explaining it, but the way George does it, well, it gets the gears turning. Have to thank my friend and genius inventor Mike Manion for helping me hunt down George! George was Mike’s first employee and when I was telling Mike I was going to Sydney, he connected me with George. George’s story is inspiring and an entrepreneur’s underdog tale in that creating an innovative company isn’t just about the product you produce, but the people you surround yoursel

Today we’re interviewing Larissa Zimberoff, a food tech reporter and author of the book Technically Food, Inside Silicon Valley’s Mission to Change What We Eat. She is a freelance journalist who covers the intersection of food, technology, and business. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Businessweek, and many others. Shownotes: http://myfoodjobrocks.com/249Larissa

Today we’re interviewing Caroline Cotto, COO and Co-Founder of Renewal Mill. I’ve wanted Caroline on for a long time cause I think Renewal Mill is a super cool company that’s always doing amazing things. We’ve met a multitude of times during conferences and it’s always nice seeing her. In this interview, we talk about how Carlone got into the food industry, her try-all journey at Renewal Mill, and you learn a lot about Upcycle, how it’s evolved in the past five year,s and a new and trending certification that shows upcycled food in bright light. Shownotes: http://myfoodjobrocks.com/248Caroline

Phil Saneski has worked in Michelin-Star and James Beard Award finalist kitchens. He led the launch of the Research Chefs Association Upcycled Foods product development student competition--the world's first event focused on manufacturing byproducts. His curiosity about ingredients historically considered “waste,” and his passion for formulating delicious products led him to be VP or Product at ReGrained, an innovative upcycled food start-up helping to change the way the world thinks about “waste” ingredients. Phil has spoken about upcycled foods at numerous local events as well as SXSW, New Products, Cereal & Grains Association, and Stanford Design Thinking conferences. After Regrained, Phil moved on to product development for CCD Innovation, a chef-driven food & beverage consultancy in the San Francisco Bay Area. Now Phil is the Culinary Manager of Farming Hope, a culinary job training non-profit that uses recovered food to train Apprentices experiencing major social and economic barriers to employm