My Food Job Rocks!

Adam Yee
My Food Job Rocks!

There is very little awareness of what the people in the food industry actually do. This stems back to the lack of knowledge and awareness of the range of degree courses and programs available that will equip them for a career in food. My FoodJobRocks! by Adam Yee is the first podcast of its kind that allows listeners to hear directly from people who are in the food industry and have a passion for what they do. They share how they became involved in food and describe what it is they do, plus a few more fun questions just to keep things entertaining. Listen to them here, and stay tuned for a new episode every Monday.

  1. 26/04/2023

    Ep. 283 - [Taiwan] Insights and Lessons from a Decade in Taiwan with Mai Bach, Co-Founder of Oohchacha

    Today we’re interviewing Mai Bach, Co-founder and CEO of Oochacha, one of the first vegan restaurants in Taiwan that serve raw smoothies. She’s a social entrepreneur who walks the walk and talks the talk. Mai and her husband/business partner did a 6-month trip around Asia and then settled down in Taiwan to start a vegan business. Sound familiar? Mai is an amazing conversationalist. I didn’t even edit this episode all that much because she just spoke so eloquently and was just full of knowledge. She talks about Taiwan being this small but big city and why she decided to set up shop here. Mai also goes through her vegan experience in Taiwan and talks about how hard it was to get nourished as a Vegan. So like all great entrepreneurs, she recognized a problem and then developed a solution which was green smoothies. Also, why don’t Asian vegans eat garlic, onions, leeks, shallots, all the alliums? I was so confused by Mai demystifies it, it‘s apparently a Buddhist practice because alliums flare up the emotions. So if you’re ever entering the vegan Asian market, you might be at a disadvantage if you’re using garlic and onion. Wow, I don’t think I could ever cook without those. Vegan is a relatively new term in Asia and it’s also super diverse so it’s been amazing unearthing on just how nascent the industry is  Overall, Mai’s journey building Ochacha is a masterclass example of finding a niche, finding out how to build something in a foreign country, and just being persistent in the decade in building this amazing concept We have a really good discussion before we actually started the podcast so I kept that in. Sorry for the Noise, we actually do this in Mai’s café in Taipei. At lunchtime, it was packed.

    1 h y 4 min
  2. 19/04/2023

    Ep. 282 - [Japan] How Science Fiction Inspires Us with Yuki Hanyi, CEO of Integriculture, Founder of the Shojin Meat Project

    Today we chat with Yuki Hanyu, Founder and CEO of IntegriCulture Inc., a cellular agriculture platform company developing cell-based meat and the technologies needed to produce it efficiently at scale. He is also the Founder of the Shojinmeat Project, a citizen-science nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing an open-source, inclusive future for cellular agriculture. Before starting Integriculture, Yuki started the Shojin Meats, is a project Yuki started that allows you to create cultivated meat from home. Yuki explains the unique process in the episode which I find quite insane. If you had no money, and no expertise to create cultivated meat, how would you do it? Yuki gives us a playbook in this episode on how you could create it, in your house! Yuki talks about crowdfunding a movement by using out-of-this world marketing tactics such as posting on video and putting a manual at a comic convention and reminds me of the early days of Apple, where a bunch of scrappy enthusiasts gathered together to create something amazing. I first met Yuki in California at Alex Shirazi’s Cultured Meat Symposium where in his presentation, he showed a video of him making cultivated meat in his apartment. If you get overwhelmed by technical jargon, you’re not alone! Yuki is an extremely smart and hyper-energetic drive. We also talk about some of the frustrations of regulation of cultivated meat and the governmental understanding and perception of cultivated meat is well, across the board. There is some hope that Japan is being proactive about this type of technology. We also talk about a lot of different anime and manga, science fiction shows and scenarios! So again, if you get lost don’t worry, it’s all part of the interview on how Yuki finds inspiration in his work, by the way, you might notice why Adam knows so much about this topic? Well… hard to explain Yuki is amazing. His transparency, his brain, his drive and his geekiness is really magnetic. You’ll also see a geeky side of me, which I think was quite useful when talking to Yuki.

    54 min
  3. 12/04/2023

    Ep. 281 - [Japan] How to Introduce New Food to Japan with Satoshi Umino, Founder of Sustainable Foods, Asia

    Today we’re interviewing Satoshi Umino, founder of Sustainable Foods Asia, a consulting firm that helps companies enter the Japanese market. Satoshi personally works with companies to prop and pop up restaurants and educates consumers about unique food ingredients. I’ve met Satoshi multiple times when I was back in the United States and it’s been real good bumping into him. It seems like a lot of Japanese companies are going to the United States to find the next big innovation. Our manufacturing partner has been courting through Japanese companies through his facility so something’s there. Satoshi does a great job describing the Japanese’s culture when it comes to tasting food and it’s been real interesting learning about how he’s introducing new food to the Japanese market. Pay attention specifically how he introduces things like jackfruit, spirulina and moringa, all fantastically new ingredients, to Japan Our world is global, and food itself is global and people like Satoshi are needed to explain just why our global food system is so cool. Satoshi echo’s Akiko’s interview in what the Japanese consumers look for in terms of the values go for food and some clarification on what the Japanese want in their food. It’s always amazing just thinking about the new friendships I’ve made throughout this journey and just having a network of global faces that I’ve seen coming to America has been absolutely wonderful.

    1 h y 1 min
  4. 06/04/2023

    Ep. 280 - [Japan] From High Tech to Food Tech with Akiko Okada, Research and Insight Specialist at SigmaXYZ

    Today we’re interviewing Akiko Okada, Research and Insight Specialist at SigmaXYZ. A consulting firm in Japan. Akiko is also the main point of contact for Smart Kitchen Summit Japan, a satellite conference of Michael Wolf’s conference of the same name, Akiko gives us a short history of the innovation of Japan, in which she played a huge part of in her past life. I think this interview also gives me perspective on what exactly is food tech. Whenever I talk about food tech, I generally gravitate to alternative proteins, but that’s not the case. Food Tech is where we apply any technology to food. Though the material is the cool part, there are tons of other sectors in Food Tech I personally have no idea about! One of my favorite quotes from Akiko was out discussion on the first SKS conference in Japan. Apparently, it was just a small 200 person conference but they were all full of crazy, passionate, people! You’ll also learn how SigmaXYZ works with big companies and startups to win. The startup mentioned in this is Base Foods. Check them out! I remember talking to them like 4 years back and now they’re big in Japan. And of course, I talk to Akiko about Japanese entrepreneurship. In general, Japan doesn’t have many startups because it’s too risky, but Akiko gives me hope that, that soon might change. When it comes to sustainability, the Japanese have a very different viewpoint on food. Basically, they don’t really care if food is sustainable, but they care about other things in food tech.

    1 h y 13 min
  5. 29/03/2023

    Ep. 279 [South Korea] - How a Diverse Ecosystem Pushes Us Forward with Jennifer Stojkovic Author of the Future of Food is Female

    Today we’re interviewing Jennifer Stokjovic, author of The Future of Food Is Female, Founder of the Vegan Woman’s Summit, and VC partner at Joyful VC. Jennifer is pretty much everywhere when it comes to food tech and coincidentally enough, she was in South Korea while I was there. But unlike me who was in South Korea goofing off, Jennifer was there advocating for food technology at the World Knowledge forum. Helen told me after her interview that she was in town, I sent a quick text and 4 hours later, I took a Korean taxi to one of the fanciest hotels I’ve ever seen and met Jennifer, where we proceeded to do a podcast right at the hotel. Amazing. Jennifer is, of course, a force. Extremely passionate, extremely productive, and extremely knowledgable and her ability to use her connections, knowledge pool and mission brings me in awe. So expect a ton in this interview as we go back and forth on our predictions in food. Lots of very interesting tidbits on policy, on environmental issues, and on the funding environment. Big insights on the diversity of our current food tech environment and how Jennifer has taken charge to change this. We also dive into practical advice on how we can make our ecosystem flourish through diversity. Jennifer has a great and compelling reason for fighting for compassion and animal rights. Deeply personal, but extremely valuable to learn and process. One of the quotes I loved during this interview is how to think about the future. One of the quotes that Jennifer says is that: The world is not going to be worse but it’s going to be different

    1 h y 2 min
4.9
de 5
75 calificaciones

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There is very little awareness of what the people in the food industry actually do. This stems back to the lack of knowledge and awareness of the range of degree courses and programs available that will equip them for a career in food. My FoodJobRocks! by Adam Yee is the first podcast of its kind that allows listeners to hear directly from people who are in the food industry and have a passion for what they do. They share how they became involved in food and describe what it is they do, plus a few more fun questions just to keep things entertaining. Listen to them here, and stay tuned for a new episode every Monday.

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