Golden Fork from the South East

from Great Taste Book 2022-23

Golden Fork from London

GOLDEN FORK FROM THE SOUTH EAST A SAUCE OF CONTROVERSY

Manisha Solanki and Jacob Thundil are on a mission to brew allergen-free sauces that are kind to the planet.

FROM BEEF TO palm oil, many of the foods we eat raise difficult ethical and environmental questions. But who knew that soy sauce is controversial?

According to Jacob Thundil, founder of London-based Sozyë, our appetite for soy sauce is contributing to the world’s deforestation problem.

“Traditionally, the sauce industry is very heavily reliant on soya. Soybean farming is responsible for causing widespread deforestation and displacement of indigenous people around our planet,” he says.

Noya is Jacob’s answer to the ethical dilemma posed by conventional soy sauce. Instead of being brewed from soya, it relies on Scottish seaweed to pack a umami punch.

“We brew our sauces in the UK using organic certified Scottish seaweed instead of soya. Our seaweed is harvested from the remote and pristine shores of Wick and we make sure that only the tops of the leaves are collected so that they can regrow within a few weeks,” says Jacob.

It took three years and hundreds of kitchen trials before he and his business partner, Manisha Solanki, had perfected the product. “We spent three years on the development of Noya and it is not the complexity of the process which makes this umami bomb - it is the quality of the ingredients,” says Jacob.

Finding the right variety of seaweed was one of the most time-consuming aspects of the development process, which is why Sozyë is anxious to keep this a trade secret. “The taste profile of commercially available seaweeds wasn’t right - they have a leathery aroma,” says Jacob. “We found a Japanese seaweed that worked, but we didn’t want to source from somewhere so far away. We were sure there must be a way of finding a local organic source.” Eventually, Sozyë found a company based in Wick, Scotland, that hand harvests a variety that has a taste very similar to fish stock, and in 2021 was ready to bring its soya-free sauce to market. Planet Organic, Whole Foods Market and Marqt in The Netherlands are among the outlets that have bought into the ‘no soya’ sauce concept. Having nailed its British-made soya sauce alternative, Sozyë has gone on to develop Nish - a fish sauce alternative - and Noyster - an oyster sauce alternative. “We believe that you can have the best of both worlds; not compromising on taste or the health of our planet,” says Jacob.