The Future of Plant-Based Foods with JULIENNE BRUNO
Published on: February 8, 2023
London-based food tech start-up JULIENNE BRUNO is working to disrupt the dairy-industry. Their dairy-free, plant-based, fermented fresh cheeses are not vegan versions of dairy-based cheeses. They stand in a category of their own. Social Pantry has always been at the forefront of plant-based innovation. We’ve been creating plant-based menus that use pioneering techniques and simple natural produce since long before plant-based became a trend. We’re delighted to see new emerging brands like JULIENNE BRUNO championing this approach! We spoke to Axel Katalan, founder of JULIENNE BRUNO, about the journey so far and the future of plant based foods.
Tell us a bit about who you are, and how it all began…
I am Axel Katalan, founder of JULIENNE BRUNO. JULIENNE BRUNO is an idea I’ve been pursuing for over 7 years, and finally conceptualised in the heart of the first lockdown. My background prior to the world of cuisine was tech. I co-founded a venture call Pointr, that scaled up to numerous countries. It was a wonderful learning experience in all things startup.
My deeper grasp of cuisine really kicked off when I joined Alan Yau (who previously created some of the UK’s top favourite food ventures, such as Wagamama and Hakkasan) as a concept strategist. During 4 years, I learnt everything there is to know about ideation of a food concept, design, branding, fundraising, developing and launching. On the back of that, just before covid hit I was working towards launching a vegan burger concept store in Soho when the entire landscape of hospitality changed. Being so in love with creating plant-based food, I wanted to create something that could stand the test of covid, or any other location limiting event, and started working on JULIENNE BRUNO.
What prompted you to create a plant-based food specifically?
As a vegan consumer myself, I was curious about creating something that could be so versatile in the kitchen and that chefs would actually aspire to use.
What did the early days of JULIENNE BRUNO look like and how did you get here?
At first I created a early version of our cheese myself, having spent 8 months researching it. On the back of that I began building the early stages of the team. Chi San joined as Head of Food, and Alan Yau as board advisor. Then we closed a pre-seed round of investment lead by Seedcamp and Nicoya (along with some awesome angels and funds). Following that, Albert Adria joined as Head of Product Development. We built the first development kitchen in South Ruislip and developed what is now collection 01. Then we launched it online and with a few select partners such as Panzer’s and Supermarket of Dreams. The response was incredibly positive. This allowed us to raise another round of investment. This time the focus was on growth, lead by Cherry Ventures and Outsized VC.
That brings us to where we are today! About to go live with numerous nationwide restaurants and retailers with collection 01’s extensions just around the corner.
What’s different about JULIENNE BRUNO vs other vegan cheese products?
Our products are all fermented. They are all fresh cheeses. They are not a “vegan” version of it’s dairy counterpart. Please allow me to explain: We chose to call the product Burrella because it is not a Vegan Burrata. A burrata has strong cultural connections, history, provenance and a whole (super passionate) country that loves and deeply cares what the product represents. Going and calling something a vegan burrata would be inappropriate, not just to the heritage but also to the new product that has been created. That’s why we take inspiration from a burrata but also make it our own as a Burrella.
The delicate texture, the bite, the creaminess and moisture content of a burrella is exactly what a burrella is supposed to be like. From a customer behaviour angle, a few years down the line, we hope to have created a world in which people say “let’s get a burrella” instead of a “let’s get a vegan burrata”.
What are your guiding principles as a company?
In one of the first product development workshops we did, two sentences came about that anchored our decision making going forwards:
Don’t imitate, create.
Don’t compare, enjoy.
Tell us about the role of sustainability in your business.
It’s at the core of every decision we make. From sourcing, to producing, to storing, to distributing and of course packaging. As all of our products are naturally plant-based, the environmental impact is greatly reduced compared to dairy products.
What are some of the challenges you’ve encountered along the way?
What we’ve seen is large corporate companies launching vegan products at speed to meet the growing demand of vegan ingredients by consumers and supermarkets. This resulted (in my opinion) products that don’t capture the hearts of the consumers. Products that usually result in “trying once” and never coming back again.
As small, independent producers like us emerge, I see a second wave of “chance” coming. This is where consumers will be more curious and excited to try something that is naturally plant-based. It’s the chefs in restaurants using ingredients like ours who I believe will really propagate the aspirational desire amongst home cooks to experiment with creating new dishes with familiar yet new products.
Who are your products aimed at?
We are working on creating simply good products that anyone who likes food can enjoy. To start with, we’ve focused on chefs at restaurants. We aimed at creating products that chefs at restaurants actually want to use because it elevates the dish as opposed to “visually working”. What’s the use in a vegan cheese that drastically downgrades the taste of the dish to the point that some chefs recommend ordering the pizza without vegan cheese?! In our case, the product adds and elevates the experience. Our collection 01 can be used as an everyday item and directly be swapped with any recipe that calls for a dairy product of similar use.
What does the future hold for JULIENNE BRUNO?
Our collection 01 saw the launch of dairy free cheeses. We do have a few more additions to the collection coming up (in the next 1-2 months). Following that, we have products in development in all other areas of the supermarket, from frozen to chilled and ambient.
Our dream and ambition is to build a multiple portfolio food business on a global scale, whilst keeping true to two fundamental ethos. For the products to be naturally plant based and sustainable, and of course for it to taste good.
We are at the humble beginnings of our journey. Only now things are starting to pick up and we are gaining nationwide interest! We are very much looking forward to making our collection available through a number of forward thinking restaurants and retailers throughout the rest of 2023.
