New School Foods: Innovative plant-based seafood development
14 Mar 2024 | New School Foods
Chris Bryson, founder & CEO of New School Foods, discusses how professional chefs' culinary expertise fuels innovation, focusing on plant-based seafood development. He shares insights into a current recipe and the challenges in mimicking salmon's texture and taste.
This is Xihong Wang at CNS Media, journalist of food ingredients first.
Today, I am delighted to be joined by Chris Bryanson from New School Foods.
Welcome.
Hey there.
Nice to, nice to be here.
Thanks for having me.
Yeah, thank you so much for joining us.
Today, we are going to talk about the alternative seafood sectors.
And the first question I would like to ask is that, what has the culinary expertise of a professional chef has brought to your innovation?
So, so New School Foods recently announced a partnership with a very famous chef named Matthew Kenny, and that's leading up to our launch of our first product, which is a plant-based filet of salmon, that is designed to look, cook, taste, and flake like the real thing.
So the reason that, that we're, we're involving chefs like Matthew Kenny and Matthew in particular is because We're planning to launch our product through restaurants, and so by working with a chef like Matthew, that helps to expose our products to new kinds of feedback, to the, the realities of a commercial kitchen, and to really find out how our product would be handled by our eventual customer to get feedback ahead of launching the product.
So this helps us understand a very important aspect of, of how a product performs.
Everyone talks about the importance of taste and texture, but it's also important to really understand how it cooks, how it holds up in, in a commercial kitchen, and we think that that's very, very, very important to the success of a product.
So, the other reason I think why working with You know, someone from the culinary world with a lot of that expertise is important is because the product that we're launching is unbreaded.
So what is that it is, it can be, you can add your own marinade, you can add your own sauces to this product, so it can be, it's a very versatile product.
It can be a tool in the chef's toolkit.
So because of that, it's very, very important for us to work with a chef like Matthew in order to explore different recipes and different applications.
So, since you mentioned that the product is unbreaded, so what are some of the recipes you can share with us that is under development at the moment?
Matthew, we, we just kicked off the partnership, so, so I'm, I'm just as eager as you are to find out what those recipes are.
But, but I guess what I can say is that when we first met with Matthew last year and we gave him the product, I remember.
I remember giving him 2 filets, and so what was really interesting is that about 10 minutes into him cooking the 1st 2, he immediately said, give me 2 more, and he started cooking 4 different filets in completely different methods, and I remember he tried one that was more of a a standard kind of way in which you would cook salmon that's more salt and butter and things like that.
He did another one that had a miso paste, another one that had an Italian kind of flair with some , some pasta sauce, he, I think we talked about doing a teriyaki version.
There, there, there's so many different ways that you can take this product, so, so we don't, the recipes, we just kicked off the partnership, so those recipes are in development, but I think, I'm very, very excited about what he's gonna be able to do with the product.
I think it's gonna be great.
That sounds very interesting.
And so when it comes to developing this product, have you encountered any challenges or breakthrough in replicating the texture and the sensory of the alternative seafood?
Absolutely.
So salmon is a is a very complex product to try to recreate.
It has a very distinct taste.
It has a very distinct texture.
It also has a very different, or distinct appearance, and so we've spent a lot of time on all three of those things.
So to your question about taste, you know, one of the things that we've really focused on getting is that authentic salmon flavor.
There are lots of companies who've put out plant-based products that taste fishy, but not necessarily like salmon.
So getting something that's not fishy, that's distinctly salmon, has been a huge area of research.
We've put 3 years of research and development into that.
The other thing that's been very important.
Has been making sure that if you develop this great flavor, it's important that you're adding it to a, almost like a blank canvas.
The problem with today's plant-based proteins is that they don't usually provide a blank canvas.
They usually provide a lot of off flavors, and that makes it difficult to make a good flavor because you're, you're trying to mask something else and you're competing with off flavors.
So we've done a, a lot of work on, on removing off flavors, and, and had a lot of, a great deal of success.
So I would, I would call that definitely a breakthrough.
I think in terms of appearance and texture.
We've spent a lot of time building a product that really looks Like salmon does.
And when I say looks like that, also when you buy it.
So the product at first looks like a raw piece of salmon and then visually transforms from a raw state to a cooked state, and that's very important because it provides a visual indication when you're cooking of whether or not it's done.
A lot of plant-based products today don't really offer that benefit.
So it can be difficult to know if it's undercooked, if it's overcooked, that can lead to confusion, confusion leads to discomfort.
Discomfort means that they probably won't buy your product again.
So we've focused a lot on the appearance and how it transforms during the cooking experience so that it feels familiar, so that it feels great, it feel, it feels exciting, and we think that that will increase the odds of people repurchasing the product.
The other thing I would say in terms of appearance that we've also spent a lot of time on is how we create the white lines within salmon.
And also how those white lines begin to melt when you cook them, so that it starts to fall apart and it flakes and it gives you that right texture.
So we've, we've had major breakthroughs in the last year in terms of how we create those white lines to give the right, not only the look, but also the right texture, how that provides flaking.
So we're, we're very, very excited.
Hopefully that answers your question.
Certainly, that is something very impressive.
And in terms of the nutrition level, I'm just asking because a lot of the consumers, they are thinking about choosing an alternative protein source, and I know that Summit is a popular protein source that has been chosen by a lot of consumers.
So, what do you think about your product in replicating the nutritional level?
It's a, it's a great question because fundamentally, salmon is viewed as a, as a health product to begin with.
So looking at the nutritional components are essential because if you're going to have a, an alternative seafood product instead of a seafood product, your expectation most likely is going to be that you're gonna get the same benefits, and we agree with that.
So we've designed the product to be very high in protein, at very similar levels to what you would find within the fish itself, and also to match almost exactly the same level of omega-three content.
Because, you know, that's a very, very essential, nutrient for people to, to consume.
And so what's exciting about this product is I think it's gonna be one of the first products that people see on the market where they can, they can see it as a health enabler, where it's providing a specific health benefit.
Whereas you might not get that with some other plant-based products.
So, we've really focused on more than anything, protein content, on omega content.
We've also added iron to the product cause that's also an important nutritional consideration.
And last but not least, we've also tried to match the fat content so that it's not too fatty, it's not, it's just fatty enough.
And when I say match the content, really a wild salmon, more so than farmed salmon.
Sounds very cool.
And so, could you elaborate more on the new school Culinary Council and what specific experiences are you seeking from your members?
Sure.
So the goal of the council is, is really to expose ourselves to a steady stream of feedback.
In order to create a great product, it's important that we be able to get lots of input, but make sure that that input is coming, from, from high-quality individuals and that, that feedback is very, very valuable and actionable.
So, our, our goal with the Culinary Council is to surround ourselves with chefs that come from different parts of the cooking or the culinary world.
So Matthew is, is absolutely an expert in the plant-based cooking world and in that sense, he's, he's seen all kinds of different products that are out there.
So I think he's gonna really be able to help us understand how this compares, but how other plant-based chefs might, might expect to, to work with this product.
We also want to work with other chefs that, you know, traditionally work with meat products.
As as chefs that work with other types of, of applications or, or I should say other styles of cooking, other, other cultures.
So it's gonna be very important to, to, to grow the council over time to make sure that we're exposing ourselves to all kinds of different styles of cooking and that we test our product under those different styles.
That will help us to develop the right recipes to uncover potential areas of improvement with the product, and to make it really at the end of the day, as, as good as possible.
So, that, that's really our intention.
Since you brought up that you like to meet the expectations of different culture, I have noticed that there is a growing demand of plant-based food around the world globally at this moment.
And so, what do you think would be like the potential for your product and tap into maybe fusion food or like the food that will meet the expectations from different regions?
That's certainly our goal and we've noticed that each region, each different culture will, will cook the product differently or cares more about certain flavors or certain types of applications.
So I, I, I fundamentally, new school foods, what we are building is we're trying to build a, a global product and a global brand.
So, even though we're going to be launching it first in the United States, our, our intention is really to bring our products to many other countries and many other cultures.
We don't really want to restrict it to North America.
So I think it will, it will be very applicable for, for all kinds of other types of cuisine.
In terms of sustainability, we are seeing that the fishing farms, some of them are facing severe challenges due to climate change.
Do you think your product can be one of the solutions that helps the fishing farms?
I, it depends on which way you're looking at it.
I don't know that we necessarily directly help them, but certainly what we're seeing is that demand for seafood is growing.
And, and obviously, today's oceans are, are not really increasing their level of output when it comes to fish catch.
So if, if you have your baseline, which is the, the fish that are sourced from the ocean, and then you have aquaculture, and aquaculture potentially can't keep up with demand, I do think that plant-based alternatives are, are something that can help to bridge that demand gap, certainly if they help to, to create a good authentic alternative.
What do you think will be the next big trend in the plant-based seafood sectors and what new innovations can we expect from new school foods?
It's, it's interesting that we're, that you're asking that question because fundamentally, the, the alternative seafood world is, is basically, it's, it's a baby.
It's in its very early stages and there, there's still not many products that have come out.
There have been a few and I think there's lots of room for other applications for product improvements as.
So in terms of of next big things, we think that whole cuts is the next big frontier.
So to date we've seen different canned products or flaked products, but I think a whole cut is really something that is going to change people's perceptions because it can finally be something that you get at the center of your plate when you go for dinner to a restaurant.
If you, if we're talking about a flakes product or a canned product, you, that doesn't really apply as much.
So, I'm excited about whole cuts.
I think that's the next big frontier, not just for alternative seafood, but for alternative protein in general, and , And we're really excited to be part of that, that journey.
So, so I think salmon, while that's our first product, I think what we've seen is that our technology is capable of lots of other things.
Fundamentally, it's a technology that can create different muscle fibers, and different, different arrangements of connective tissue, so we see that technology extending to many, many other applications for whole cuts.
We look forward to your launch of your product in the US Thank you and thank you so much for your valuable insight, Chris.
It's great to have you.
My pleasure.
Thank you for having me.
