Future Food with Analisa Winther

Amass has been recognized multiple times not only as one of the best restaurants in the world, but also as one of the most sustainable. For them, a zero waste kitchen has been an incredible creative constraint inspiring major changes to how this fine dining institution cooks, recycles, sources, and operates in their local environment. Today the restaurant’s food and ingredients are 90% organic. Food waste has been reduced by 75% since they started in 2013 and their annual water consumption is down by 5,200 liters. The restaurant’s facilities also include a garden with 80 varieties of plants and an aquaponic farming system.

A Native New Zealander, Kim Wejendorp was the Sous Chef at Amass Restaurant in Copenhagen before becoming their head of R&D. In this conversation, we talk about how they undertook the sustainable transition, the creative process that produces a zero waste kitchen, and what kind of partners and innovations they are looking to partner with.

Episode Transcript 

Related Links & Episodes

More interviews with Nordic restaurants

More episodes on fighting food waste

Matt Homewood on dumpster diving to stop supermarket food waste

Electrolux on designing appliances for a plant-forward kitchen

Restaurants as a center for applied science and R&D

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Not long ago, Frida Jonson and her co-founder Lovisa Madås realized that the FoodTech and AgTech worlds were unfolding in parallel. No journalism outlet was covering all sides of the story from farm to fork. So, they started AgFo, a digital media outlet covering the intersection of agriculture and food in Sweden. 

AgFo's journalists travel all over the country reporting on different trends, perspectives, and innovations in the food system. Today, Frida gives us a front row seat to the conversations being had, the emerging trends, and collaborations to look out for. We also discuss why journalism is important for ecosystem development and connecting diverse communities.

Aquaculture is the farming of fish. As the fastest growing sector in animal food production, the industry has started to attract the interest of Silicon Valley. This might also be because aquaculture is some 20 years behind traditional agriculture in terms of development leaving it ripe for innovation.

We speak with Carsten Krome who is the Managing Partner of Hatch, the first global aquaculture accelerator program operating across Norway, Hawaii and Singapore and an investor into aquaculture with the fund Alimentos Ventures. He provides an excellent introduction to the aquaculture world and what we can look forward to in this space. 

Carsten has his own entrepreneurial experience through his start-up as a prawn farmer in Malaysia and he holds a Ph.D. in feed science from the University of Stirling as well as a Masters in Marine Biology from the University of Kiel in Germany. 

If you liked this episode, check out this podcast with Ocean Harvest from Denmark on regenerative ocean farming as a solution to climate change. For more conversations, join our community on Instagram or check out other episodes on www.nordicfoodtech.io.

Creandum has been an early investor in many of the most well known and successful Nordic companies including Spotify, Vivino, Klarna, and Kahoot just to name a few. 

In today’s episode, we are speaking with Carl Fritjofsson who runs the San Francisco office serving as a bridge to Creandum's European founders as their companies expand into the US. Join us as we discuss how this tech VC is investing into the future of food and how European startups should be considering internationalization. 

KBH Madhus has a mission is to change society through better meals and they’ve been doing this by helping the kitchens of hospitals, schools, and other public institutions go 90% organic, often on the same budget. So many meals are made in the public sector, that this kind of institutional change has massive impact.  In this episode, we talk about the process KBH Madhus uses as well as how any kitchen - big or small, private or public - can do the same.

Cecilia Tilli founded Ultuna Mejeri, one of the first vegan cheese startups to hit the Swedish market back in 2014. The company grew to be sold in 50 stores and had a devoted fan base. Still, Cecilia and her team had to take the decision to close the company and declare bankruptcy. In this episode, Cecilia shares her personal story of starting the company and gives us a look into the realities of having your startup journey end in bankruptcy.

Gustav Johansson is behind Swedens largest vegan food blog. He’s also the author of two vegan cookbooks - one covers Swedish comfort food and the other is for athletes in collaboration with the World Wildlife Fund and the Swedish Olympic Committee. 

Gustav's work is fascinating. His work centers on using his platform to make it easier for people to chose a planet friendly diet. He does so by developing a trove of recipes that don’t require consumers to sacrifice the tastes they love or dishes they grew up with in order to eat more sustainably. He also works with supermarket chains and food entrepreneurs to ensure that the vegan products people want make it to market. He also develops recipes for new products to make sure there are resources available online for how to use them.

Besides Gustav's story and approach, we also cover how new products are released in Sweden - it only happens three times a year - and why Swedes seem to be leading the charge when it comes to embracing a vegan diet. 

Lolland-Falster is fascinating not only because it has some of the richest soil in the country, but also because its considered “udkantsdanmark” or outer Denmark - a rural region, which has been struggling to attract growth in competition with big cities.

Despite this, Growth Train's 7-week accelerator program has succeeded in attracting startups to the region. Their program focuses on connecting the big agricultural operators with startups, giving them a playground to test new technologies. The goal is to work with corporations to soure solutions to their innovation challenges. I speak with Christiane Paaske-Sørensen on the ins and outs of the program.

Episode Transcript

Related Links

Coop’s members use crowdfunding to get new food startups on the shelves

Why the Danish government's fund is now investing in FoodTech

How Denmark's Agro Business Park connects startups and corporations

Danish Technical University's on helping students invent the next big food solution

How Copenhagen Food Space helps new startups get off the ground

NordDetect is doing rapid soil testing

Nicolai Jæpelt is the Project Leader for Coop Crowdfunding. Coop is one of the largest supermarket chains in Denmark and is run as a cooperative with approx. 1.8 million members. The supermarket has created a crowdfunding platform where members can invest in early stage food initiatives they believe in. We cover how to get on Coop's shelves, why this new pathway is so interesting, and what consumers are investing in. We also chat about how to make a successful food crowdfunding campaign and why the platform has become a trend spotting platform for other purchasers. 

If you're into food and find yourself in Sweden, then one of your first points of contact should definitely be Sweden FoodTech's Johan Jörgensen. The org is fully focused on developing the ecosystem through community, events, and biz dev assistance. Johan is an Internet entrepreneur turned investor with 20+ years of experience under his belt. He was once voted Best Investor in Sweden. Listen in as we discuss the ins and outs of Sweden's FoodTech ecosystem including Stockholm's plans to become a future food city.