5 Questions for the Fake Egg Guy
One of the most talked-about foods this year is Just Mayo, an eggless mayonnaise that’s now on grocery store shelves across the country, everywhere from Whole Foods to Dollar Tree. Hampton Creek Foods, the company behind Just Mayo, has been getting a lot of press for their new concept — and they’ve managed to raise $29 million (and counting) in funding. They’re currently working on other products, including eggless cookies and an eggless scramble, both set to hit shelves next year, and they’re setting their sights on other plant-based protein alternatives.
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1. So why do you want to stop us from eating eggs?
The motivation comes from growing up with a dad who I could never, ever convince to eat healthier food, because he thought it didn’t taste good or it was too expensive. And the motivation comes from what the world would actually look like if we could make healthy food that worked for him — and if that good thing was affordable and was actually tasty.
The conventional chicken egg is merely the first step along that path. And it just so happens that lots of these eggs come from not-so-good places, but that’s a symptom, we think, of a larger problem: a food system that isn’t really suited to meet our values and [keep pace with] where the world is going. And that’s what drives us — trying to fix it.
2. So when did you first have that idea?
I spent about seven years of my life in sub-Saharan Africa, and I got back and was really frustrated because it felt like working with nonprofits was fine, but I was still frustrated. I had a conversation with my best friend about “How do we fix things faster?” and he told me about all these big companies he works with, and how he tries to get them to adopt better food policies. He said that he can never really get them to go all the way [with regard to eating healthfully] because “all the way” is too expensive for them.
3. How does the work Hampton Creek is doing intersect with the farm-to-table movement, and with local and sustainable food?
Michael Pollan — we’ve been fortunate enough to have him as a supporter of ours. And I think his approach and how it aligns with ours is that you’ve got this big problem that needs to be fixed, and there are different paths to fix it.
There’s a path of local sustainable agriculture; we think local agriculture and farmers’ markets are a phenomenal thing. On the other hand, [our population continues to grow] and we’ve got to be bold about how we solve it — because we’ve got to solve it. It necessitates a broader approach; it doesn’t mean better, it just means a broader approach.
4. You work with a lot of different scientists. Tell us about who is on your team and what they do.
We have chefs who are very much food people and food scientists who are very much food people. And then [we have] other scientists — like computational biologists and molecular biologists — that know nothing about food. But they know about the molecular properties of things, and that’s important to us because we want unplugged thinking. We want them to approach this anew and evaluate it from just the root of its molecular structure. It’s that, when matched with really amazing chefs and food scientists, that means we can do things.
5. A better food economy for the United States or for a wider market?
For the world; one of our investors is Lia Ka-Shing, the wealthiest man in Asia, and he invested tens of millions of dollars in Hampton Creek because he wants to solve the problem of food safety in China. He wants to figure out a way to feed more people without risking avian flu, without putting so much pressure on the environment.
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