色色啦

But if the plans of one ambitious startup pan out, Hogtown could become the centre of the entire plant-based universe.

, a food manufacturing and technology company headquartered at Dufferin and Queen, is trying to completely re-invent the idea of vegan meat.

Almost all other current alt-protein companies, including the most famous, Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, make their products using extrusion 鈥� that is, pushing ingredients through a die to make burgers, sausages or nuggets. New School鈥檚 first product, on the other hand, is a plant-based salmon fillet that has been engineered to look, cook and taste uncannily like the real thing. 听

Founded in 2020 by entrepreneur Chris Bryson, New School began serving its faux fish last fall at the 色色啦 plant-based diner, .

It will soon be available at about 30 different spots across Canada, including the Gladstone Hotel, Sushi Momo and Jackson-Triggs Winery. A salmon burger, derived from the fillet trimmings, is also currently making its way onto menus, and the company is now eyeing the American market.

But for Bryson, salmon is just the beginning. New School is currently developing a half-dozen additional whole-cut products, everything from pork ribs to steaks. It鈥檚 also in the process of scaling up its testing, production and processing facilities. The company currently manufactures a thousand fillets and 1,500 burgers a day. It plans to make 10 times that amount by the end of next year.

A decade ago, Beyond Meat and Impossible Food promised to transform our eating habits. That shift never happened 鈥� Beyond鈥檚 stock and meat consumption hasn鈥檛 budged. Meanwhile, the climate and health problems their products were supposed to mitigate have only gotten worse.

Can New School鈥檚 salmon revive the plant-based revolution?

Building a better fish

Before Bryson launched New School, he founded Unata, an e-commerce platform for small and mid-size grocery stores.

He sold that company to Instacart in 2018 for a reported . Soon after, he had a moment of quiet radicalization; he became obsessed with the ethical and environmental ills of factory farming and started thinking of ways to fix the system.

鈥淚t felt like a big problem no one wanted to talk about,鈥� he says. He began putting his money into alt-meat startups.

But Bryson, who鈥檚 been vegan for seven years, was frustrated by the limited imagination of the industry. Extrusion was the name of the game, but Bryson felt that alternative meats weren鈥檛 convincing or tasty enough. Too many products, he says, were being rushed to market by tech investors eager to cash in on the Beyond/Impossible hype.

鈥淥ne of the most famous strategies in tech is, fail fast and iterate,鈥� he says. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 do that with food. If you leave a bad taste in someone鈥檚 mouth, they won鈥檛 come back.鈥�

Bryson had a hunch that there was a better way. He approached some of the most renowned university food science departments in the world, offering to fund the best ideas they could come up with. Most told him avoiding extrusion was impossible.

Then he received a compelling proposal from the 色色啦 Metropolitan University and Professor D茅rick Rousseau鈥檚 . Rousseau鈥檚 team proposed developing a novel process based on the work of food scientist Auke de Vries, which allowed them to simulate the muscle fibres and connective tissue of animal proteins.

New School set up shop at TMU. And after two years of collaboration and another 12 months of R&D, Bryson had a prototype.

The science of pseudo-salmon

While New School has spent countless hours and millions of dollars perfecting its recipe, making the salmon is a relatively straightforward process.

First, they whip up a kind of cruelty-free Jell-O using seaweed extracts like agar to form the 鈥渕uscle鈥� of the fillet. A different gel is then applied in thin white lines, creating the 鈥渇at.鈥� These lines do multiple jobs: they help the fillet resemble the real thing and provide flavour. They also melt at a different temperature than the 鈥渕uscle,鈥� allowing the fillet to flake and fall apart. Another machine helps solidify the gel into the fillet shape.

The next step is arguably New School鈥檚 biggest innovation.

A plate freezer, the exact same machine used to flash-freeze real fish, freezes the gel-fillet from bottom to top, creating a kind of honeycomb structure of ice. When the ice melts, it leaves behind channels that are infused with flavours, colours and proteins.

鈥淲e specifically freeze it in a way where we can control the width and resistance of the muscle fibre so we can emulate whatever species we鈥檙e trying to create,鈥� Bryson says. 鈥淎ll meat and fish is just muscle fibre and connective tissue in different combinations.鈥�

Bryson鈥檚 team experimented with chickpeas, soy and sunflower seeds, but learned that potato protein creates the best flavour. While the fillet doesn鈥檛 have quite the same protein per gram as regular salmon, it does have comparable Omega-3 fatty acids.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 one of the main reasons people eat salmon 鈥斕齠or the nutritional benefits, the brain candy,鈥� Bryson says. 鈥淲e wanted to make sure, pound for pound, it was the same.鈥�

But, really, how does it taste?

鈥淚t鈥檚 freakishly close,鈥� says Brodie Somerville, who owns two vegan restaurants in Montreal, the Asian-influenced and comfort food spot, . 鈥淔lavour, texture and smell 鈥� it hits all the notes.鈥�

At Natsu, New School鈥檚 salmon is the only fake meat Somerville includes on his menu, where it鈥檚 currently served with zucchini and a Thai green curry. It鈥檚 one of the restaurant鈥檚 most popular items, but its fidelity to the real thing can be divisive.

鈥淣on-vegans find it trippy,鈥� says Somerville, 鈥渂ut some vegans really dislike it because it鈥檚 too 肠濒辞蝉别.鈥�

Getting that omnivore buy-in, though, is Bryson鈥檚 real goal.

鈥淲e鈥檙e still not fooling 10 out of 10 people,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e want to get there.鈥�

New School has made 27 different versions of the fillet so far, with the latest iteration Bryson characterizing as 鈥渕ore oceanic, briny.鈥�

Spawning the future of food

Hanging in the front office of New School鈥檚 headquarters is a gallery of framed photographs of fake meat.

Some of them have straightforward names, 鈥淗addock Alpha鈥� and 鈥淩ibs 3.0,鈥� while others, like 鈥淔aulet Mignon,鈥� are labelled with the groan-inducing puns all-too-common in the vegan world.

All of them are products that the company currently has in development, and hopes to bring to market soon. For Bryson, the possibilities are practically endless.

The company is shopping its salmon at every possible place that might have food service: schools, entertainment venues, even the 色色啦 Zoo. While Bryson eventually plans to make the salmon available at grocery stores, he鈥檚 in no hurry, and wants to build 鈥渂rand credibility鈥� first.

He also wants to command a bigger slice of the global alt-protein market. As part of the expansion, he鈥檚 created a larger parent company (NS/TX being New School Textures), with the New School brand being the consumer-facing unit alongside R&D and tech platform arms.

Bryson鈥檚 hope is that other alt-protein companies, once they recognize the value and flexibility of New School鈥檚 operation, will be eager to partner with them on co-branded products and other opportunities.

鈥淲e think that, long term, this is a better way to make meat alternatives,鈥� he says. The company has already raised US$18 million from the likes of Ikea, Lever VC and Alwyn Capital.

鈥淭he cool thing about alternative protein is, if you can create a great product, you can create change, without asking someone to completely change their lifestyle,鈥� Bryson says. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not going to convince people to go vegan. But if we want a sustainable food system, and we make better products, then that will actually make a difference.鈥�