The Future of Flavors: An Interview with Yair Yosefi, Chef and Co-Founder of Mediterranean Food Lab
Written by: Taire Brown
Mediterranean Food Lab (MFL) is transforming flavor innovation through culinary expertise and advanced technology. We spoke with Chef Yair Yosefi, Co-Founder of MFL, about his journey, the development of their new product SHO, and how MFL is redefining natural flavors for a sustainable future.
In the rapidly evolving world of food technology, flavors play a pivotal role in defining our culinary experiences. The Mediterranean Food Lab (MFL) is at the forefront of this flavor revolution.
Co-founded by B.Z. Goldberg and Yair Yosefi in 2019, MFL combines solid-state fermentation technology with an AI-driven computational platform to create clean-label savory ingredients that give depth, body, and meaty flavors to everything from plant-based dishes to soups, stews, and sauces.
Yair Yosefi, a seasoned chef with 30 years of experience, studied under the guidance of three-star Michelin chefs in Paris and later became an R&D chef before becoming a Co-Founder of MFL, where he built a multi-disciplinary team responsible for creating and developing new products, experimenting with ingredients, and pushing the boundaries of culinary techniques to create innovative foods for the food industry and food service sector.
We sat down with Yair to discuss his extensive culinary journey, the evolution of MFL, and their groundbreaking new product, SHO. Yair shares insights into how the company’s founding principles are reshaping the future of food and flavors.
You have had an extensive career in the culinary world. Can you share some key experiences that have significantly shaped your vision for MFL?
Yair: We created the company with a spark that ignited when I met my partners. Omer, my partner at our restaurant Brut in Tel Aviv, and our executive chef Asaf, are now a significant part of MFL. Our journey took a pivotal turn when we met BZ, an entrepreneur and filmmaker who was leading a project dedicated to restoring cereal biodiversity of cereals in the middle east. BZ gave us ancient varieties of wheat and we decided to ferment them. We came to a meeting with a tupperware container full of very moldy very ancient variety of wheat. All the other chefs and bakers looked at us as if we were completely insane. BZ saw the fermented wheat, reached into the box, and took a chunk of moldy wheat, tasted it, and said, “this is great!”. We looked at each-other like long-lost cousins and the rest is history.
Our brainstorming sessions when we founded the company revealed three core pillars that guide MFL today: addressing the most challenging problems in the global food system -things like high consumption of salt, sugar, and animal protein – promoting the Mediterranean diet, and leveraging the power of research and innovation. We aim to harness fermentation focusing on deliciousness and simplicity. To “make food truly food again”, in culinary solutions at scale.
You talk about MFL as a Flavor 2.0 company. What does Flavor 2.0 mean to you?
Yair: Flavor 2.0 is about creating new, ethical, and sustainable flavor solutions that can revolutionize the food industry. The traditional flavor industry relies heavily on the chemical or biological synthesis of individual molecules, highly processed ingredients, and spends a lot of energy on increasing craveability rather than advancing nutrition or sustainability. At MFL, we believe in creating flavors that come from natural fermentation, and contain thousands of molecules, like in nature. This makes our products not only delicious but also extremely healthy and sustainable. This involves rethinking the entire process, using both ancient and modern technologies like solid state fermentation, and integrating AI to help us navigate the complexity of flavors. This approach is crucial, especially when working with alternative proteins, to ensure they are palatable and desirable to consumers.
How has your culinary journey influenced the development of MFL and the idea of Flavor 2.0?
Yair: My culinary journey has taught me that when we think about food, one thing must be true above all others: deliciousness. If you want to change how people consume food, you must provide them with delicious solutions. Without that, it’s bound to fail. Look at what has been happening with the alternative meat sector over the last two or three years—it’s not performing well with consumers because the focus on deliciousness was forgotten, and because most of these products are based on long lists of highly processed ingredients.
Tell us about SHO, your new product line of ready-to-use stocks.
Yair: SHO is a portfolio of culinary products for the food service sector. SHO is aimed at increasing deliciousness of the full spectrum of savory products, going way beyond just alternative proteins. Our first launch focuses on one of the central pillars of cooking the world over; convenient, ready-to-use concentrated stocks, starting with two key offerings: a dark stock, which serves as a flavorful replacement for beef or pork stock, and a light stock, designed to replace chicken stock. These are the flagship products we’re introducing to the market. SHO has deep, meaty, rich flavors and can seamlessly substitute commercial beef or chicken stocks commonly used in kitchens, but with significant differences—it’s actually more delicious than the industrial animal-based stocks, healthier, and less processed. Crafted through solid-state fermentation, SHO’s clean label reads like a dream: fermented chickpeas, sunflowers, coffee, buckwheat, concentrated onions and carrots, water, and salt. It’s an alternative to what’s currently offered by major players, providing chefs with a superior product that contains no additives, emulsifiers, colors, preservatives, or flavoring agents. And it contains zero animal protein.
Our goal with SHO is to provide chefs with a much more delicious, healthier, and less processed alternative to the mediocre solutions currently available in the market. We want to be competitive both on flavor, label, and price with the big players, giving chefs the possibility to use our stock for vegan or vegetarian solutions, or even in combination with animal protein, reducing the amount of animal protein in the final dish.
We have two main go-to-market strategies for SHO. One involves, as I mentioned, working with chefs and with foodservice companies directly. The other is working with larger or medium-sized food producers, either directly or via mid-sized flavor companies, “blenders”, and distributors.
How do AI and other technologies improve your flavor creation process?
Yair: We are a data-driven company, and AI plays a critical role in our operations. We’ve been using AI for the last two years, particularly in facilitating the complex world of flavor development and formulation. AI helps us with everything from data mining to simplifying sensory science, which is incredibly complex. We have tools that we’ve developed to speed up and enhance flavor creation and production. For example, one that is designed to assist flavorists and food scientists, enabling faster and more precise development iterations for final dishes. These tools help us create better products, like SHO, by making the entire process more efficient and tailored to our goals.
Flavor is very, very complex—it’s not linear, it’s not additive. If you take two “flavors,” say banana and strawberry, and mix them together, you might think you’d get a strawberry-banana flavor, but you actually might end up with something completely different, like goat cheese or celery. This complexity is another reason AI is so essential. We use AI to manage and analyze the thousands of fermentations we perform, helping us understand how to achieve the desired flavors and aromas in our products. AI also assists our in-house sensory panel, which tastes and evaluates everything we produce. It simplifies sensory science, making it easier for us to create delicious and consistent products.
How do you ensure that your products, like SHO, are both healthy and sustainable?
Yair: Our approach is to make products that are not only delicious but also better for you. Thanks to the deep umami-rich flavors of SHO stocks, for instance, they are made with far less salt than current market alternatives—about 20% less sodium. We’ve iterated the product based on feedback from chefs across several countries to ensure it meets their expectations while still being healthier. Our focus is on reducing ultra-processed ingredients and creating a product that chefs can use as a one-to-one replacement for existing stocks, but with a better nutritional profile and more natural ingredients. Additionally, our process is rooted in sustainability; beyond reducing dependency on animal protein, our fermentation protocols use far less water and energy than other methods, and we are also able to use agro-industrial waste and side streams and upcycle these to create high value, delicious foods.
What is your vision for the future of flavors?
Yair: The younger generations, like Gen Zs and Millennials, are demanding more from their food—they want it to be healthy, sustainable, delicious, and ethical. This is where I see the future of flavors going. We need to embrace a ‘deliciousness revolution’ in the food industry, much like the green revolution of the 1950s. We must ask ourselves how we can feed humanity honestly, ethically, and sustainably while making sure the food is not only nutritious but also brings people together in moments of pleasure and joy. This is the future of food and flavors—a move towards making food “food” again, but at scale, and in a way that checks all the boxes that consumers are asking for.
If I could wave a magic wand and change one thing in the food industry, it would be to shift the entire system towards this new model of deliciousness and sustainability. The food industry has been focused on efficiency and profitability for too long, often at the expense of taste, health, and the environment. It’s time to rethink our approach and create food that is not only good for people but also good for the planet. This is the vision we have at MFL, and it’s what drives everything we do.
PeakBridge Perspective on the Future of Flavors
At PeakBridge, we see the future of flavors as a convergence of innovation, sustainability, and authenticity, much like the vision articulated by the team at MFL. The food industry is undergoing a transformation driven by consumer demand for healthier, more sustainable products, and the integration of advanced technologies such as AI and fermentation.
One of the significant trends we observe is that while alternative proteins had been the initial use case for many flavor companies, the potential applications for flavor innovation extend far beyond this sector. Flavors have always been a critical component across a wide range of food categories, from ready meals to snacks, sauces, and condiments – but now, the way consumers are responding to flavors is changing.
The rise of conscious consumers—those who seek food that aligns with their values—has significantly influenced market trends. The global market for plant-based foods is projected to grow to $162 billion by 2030, driven by health-conscious consumers and environmental concerns. This shift is a clear indication that the future of flavors will not only be about taste but also about ethics and sustainability.
Innovation plays a crucial role in this transformation. The global market for AI in food and beverages is expected to grow from $9 billion in 2024 to $48 billion by 2029, underscoring the importance of AI in driving flavor innovation. Companies like MFL, which combine traditional fermentation techniques with modern technology, exemplify the future of flavor creation.
Consumers are also demanding simplicity and authenticity in their food. The clean label food market, valued at $51 in 2024, reflects the growing preference for products with natural, recognizable ingredients. MFL’s commitment to creating flavors that are simple, natural, and free from ultra-processed additives aligns perfectly with this trend.
At PeakBridge, we believe that the future of flavors lies in the concept of “Flavor 2.0,” where innovation and tradition come together to create products that are not only delicious but also ethical, sustainable, and health-conscious. The application of these flavors extends beyond alternative proteins, offering vast potential across various food categories.
We are proud to support innovators like MFL, who are leading the way in this ‘deliciousness revolution.’ The future of flavors is about more than just taste—it’s about creating food that brings people together for moments of bliss and pleasure, while also contributing to a healthier, more sustainable world.