Former steakhouse chef challenges Beyond Meat
The founder of a London steakhouse is an unlikely entrepreneur in plantbased foods. But Neil Rankin, cofounder of acclaimed BBQ restaurant Temper in London’s Soho, says the meat alternatives out there simply aren’t good enough.
His list of complaints begins with meatless protein maker Beyond Meat, which he says, is good at capturing the “texture and look” of meat, but ultimately the company makes food that’s so far unprofitable to make and sell.
Quorn, the original meat substitute, is “clever and sustainable,” but “tasteless,” he says.
In 2020 the outspoken chef, now 45, thought he could do better and and started plant-based food company Symplicity Foods Ltd.
His aim is to make plant-based food so delicious that even die-hard meat eaters will want to choose his burgers over beef.
With the help of fermentation, a unique recipe and the pandemic lockdown, Rankin thinks he’s pulled it off. He says his food is “like a McDonalds health food. But better.”
The start of Rankin’s meat-to-plant conversion began with experiments in fermentation, a 12,000-year-old preservation technique, using vegetables in a glass jar at home, which he then pressed and minced into burger patties.
Six months spent perfecting the recipe led to a pop-up plant-based burger spot in Brick Lane, which proved the concept.
Today Symplicity Foods’ home is a factory in Harlesden, West London, but the recipe today is the same as the one made in Rankin’s kitchen.
The “meat” is made from mushrooms grown in caves in the UK, Poland and France that are mixed with onions, beetroot and a barley miso, which are then cooked and fermented for 10 days.
Next it’s pressed, minced, mixed with spices, formed into sausages, burger patties or schnitzels, steamed, frozen and packed off to London restaurants. The leftover juice from the fermentation is turned into gravy or a flavour enhancer which can be sold on.
The pandemic and lockdown accelerated the idea last year. Rankin teamed up with Mark Wogan, co-founder of Homeslice Pizza, who offered a shuttered restaurant for him to develop the idea further and expand production.
Before long Rankin’d signed up Bleecker Burger and Dishoom as customers, with make-at-home kits using his plant-based sausages getting rave reviews on Twitter.
The next big customer is Soho House, which wanted a vegan schnitzel. Rankin and his partners are bidding for contracts worth hundreds of millions of pounds, and he has huge airline food contracts in his sights.