Business for Good Podcast Is Plant-Based Meat about to Get Chunkier? Amos Golan of Chunk Foods Thinks So
For decades, the alt-meat movement has focused on ground meats like sausages, burgers, nuggets, sticks, and more. That's because it's just a lot less difficult to create these ground products than a more structured product like a steak or chicken breast. Still difficult, but less difficult. Several companies now though are trying to reach that holy grail of whole cut products, and one of them is Chunk Foods, hailing from the holy land of Israel.
As you'll hear in this episode, Amos Golan was a guy fascinated by chemistry. He tried a couple business ideas that didn't take off before starting to try to make steaks in his kitchen by putting soy through a fermentation process. After many failures, he finally created something he thought was worthy of showing to investors, one of whom was interested enough that they put in $50,000.
Fast forward to today and Amos has been making quite a lot of innovations in his process, is making a steak that I tried and really enjoyed, is overseeing a team of a dozen people, has raised millions of dollars, and claims his steaks are going to be hitting the United States by the end of 2022. Time will tell if that prediction pans out, and I certainly hope it does, but Amos has an impressive story that offers a good reminder to never give up, and that the most meaningful work of your life may still be ahead of you.
Books Amos recommends in this episode
More about Amos Golan
Amos Golan is the founder and CEO of Chunk Foods. He has a deep passion for innovation and solving hard problems, and a solid background in science, engineering and design.
Amos graduated from the Adi Lautman Interdisciplinary Program For Outstanding Students at Tel Aviv University where he obtained an MS.c. in Organic Chemistry. He later moved to Boston and gained a second Master's degree focused on Human-Computer Interaction from the MIT Media Lab where he conducted research and worked on various futuristic projects with fortune 500 companies.
After serving in various roles with startup companies in fields such as ag tech, chemistry and biotech, Amos joined Ferrero's Open Innovation team in NY as the youngest member of its leadership team. At Ferrero, he led some of the company's most cutting edge innovation projects in biotech, food tech, age tech and digital technologies, trying to address pressing challenges around supply chains, climate change and ingredient sourcing, better-for-you nutrition, and sustainability.
Amos loves food and cooking, and attended the Cordon Bleu culinary school, where he was trained in classic French cuisine and worked in several restaurants in Tel Aviv.