The two looked at what plant-based alternatives were coming out of Silicon Valley—an industry predominately led by white men—and believed they had something new to offer as two Black men with no tech background, who weren’t interested in making food in a chemistry lab.
“We found that when we make food only out of food, it tastes like food and acts like food. There’s no mystery to it. We looked out into the world and said, ‘how do they make cheese?’ Well, they take dairy milk and culture it and age it. It’s really simple,” says Bullock. They wondered why no one was following the same process using plant-based milk. Martin, who took the reins as head chef, tried and failed and tried and failed to make it work. Eventually, Bullock encouraged Martin to join him for a cheese tasting at Wally’s, a gourmet wine & cheese bar in Beverly Hills. At this point, Martin was following a strict vegan diet but went along for the ride—“Ian will tell you he didn’t taste that many, but he did,” Bullock said, laughing.
They took note of which cheeses has crystallized, which ones were fatty, which ones had a punch of umami, which ones were smooth and creamy versus hard and salty. And then Martin got back to work.