How a Pastry Chef Turned Kitchen Frustration Into a Plant-Based Startup

Описание: How do you create a better vegan butter for professional kitchens?

In this episode of The Perfect Bite, pastry chef turned entrepreneur Susannah Schoolman shares how she built Tourlami, a line of plant-based butters designed to perform in professional kitchen and baking environments.

After years working in elite kitchens, Susannah realized that existing vegan butters failed when it came to lamination, structure, and consistency. Rather than compromise, she spent years in R&D—testing fat structures, ingredient ratios, and functionality—to create a product chefs could actually trust.

In this episode, you’ll learn:
How chefs can turn firsthand frustration into viable food startups
Why product development matters more than branding early on
What it takes to build ingredients for professionals, not trends
How patience, iteration, and feedback drive real innovation
The realities of scaling a food product in a volatile ingredient market

If you’re interested in food entrepreneurship, plant-based innovation, or chef-led startups, this conversation offers practical, hard-earned insight.

👇 Like, subscribe, and share with a food founder or baker who needs this perspective.

You can learn more about Tourlami at www.tourlami.com. You can purchase Tourlami for your own kitchen at Chef’s Warehouse locations across the U.S and Canada and on Webstaurant Store.

You can follow Tourlami on social media @tourlami and Susannah at @itsschool_man.

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