Page 34 - Food&Drink magazine November-December 2022

✷ RISING STAR
SPONSORED BY
Wonder crop for a creamy treat
Having worked in product innovation for food and beverage multinationals like Mondelez, Kraft Foods, Mars, and Asahi Beverages, SuperSeed founder Susie White knew how to tap into an emerging food trend.
Finding ghee
A quest to improve her own health ended up putting Lisa Ormenyessy on a whole new career path. Her biodynamic and organic ghee brand OMGhee is the result.
AS Covid lockdowns continued into 2021, and with a fresh diagnosis as a coeliac, food and beverage innovation specialist Susie White was prompted to reassess her eating habits.
Also aware of the growing popularity of the plant-based food movement, White began experimenting at home, to create a gluten-free, vegan ‘icecream’.
A turning point came during Melbourne’s first bout of Covid lockdowns, when she was rummaging through the freezer, trying to find suitable foods to suit allergen requirements for her extended family; realising “there isn’t one product for all of us”.
“That set me on the path. I got my own ice cream maker; which I had sitting in the back of the pantry and I decided to make my own gluten-free ice cream.
“The first of the Melbourne lockdowns ran for 42 days.
Over 12 months of trial and error, White bootstrapped her way to building a dedicated allergen-free kitchen in the Yarra Ranges, completed training to become a gelatiere chef, and worked alongside a food technician to perfect the creamy, vegan and allergen- friendly recipe that became SuperSeed ice creme.
“I couldn’t see anyone doing it in the market. Certainly not in Australia,” says White.
Due to its diversity and eco-benefits, hemp has become more widely used in the production of textiles, biodegradable plastics, skincare, medicines, paper, paint and biofuel.
“It’s a wonder crop. It absorbs 22 tonnes of carbon dioxide per hectare, which is
more than any other crop grown on land, and it requires limited water and no fertilisers or pesticides,” says White.
White says SuperSeed is still working at an artisanal level, but with a reliable kitchen, recipe and demand in place, the next step is to scale up. She is currently working with two co- manufacturers and a Victorian distributor. ✷
WHILE grappling with a high pressure job in business coaching and consulting, Lisa Ormenyessy became unwell. She saw a traditional Ayurvedic doctor, who recommended eating ghee as part of her healing process.
Used medicinally for thousands of years and in everyday eating across India and the South Asian region, ghee is considered a superfood.
Ghee is made by boiling butter at a very low temperature for several hours, resulting in a lactose-free product.
She knew ghee would become an all-consuming passion when she found herself in the supermarket looking at all the different butter brands and asking herself how each would respond in the pan.
The ghee obsession came at a crossroads for Ormenyessy.
“I wanted to go into business on my own and was thinking it would be consulting like I had been doing for the past 20 years. But that felt really hard. I said to a friend that I just wished I could make ghee and ultimately, I granted my own wish,” she says.
Ormenyessy says as she has
learned more about ghee there are myths she wants to dispel.
“The biggest misconception is that ghee is clarified butter. I want to blow that myth out of the water,” she says.
Ormenyessy is currently looking for a wholesalers to make OMGhee available in the eastern states.
“I’m looking for a distributor that I can build a relationship with. I am all about education andIwanttobeabletotalkto retailers to come up with ways we can teach people about ghee. I don’t want to just hand it off to a distributor,” she says.
One of the key messages at the centre of OMGhee is ‘the cook is sacred’, which Ormenyessy says is, “an overriding philosophy on delivering the best possible ghee to you for healing and transformation”.
Ormenyessy says, “For me, making ghee has become a metaphor for life and I want to share and educate anyone who will listen.”
Ormenyessy’s ultimate goal is to get affordable ghee on the table of every household in Australia. ✷
34 | Food&Drink business | November-December 2022 | www.foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au