JULIENNE BRUNO® 2024: Naturally Plant-Based Cheeses

Axel Katalan is the founder of JULIENNE BRUNO®, a London-based company dedicated to creating original, plant-based food products. Passionate about food, provenance, and quality, Axel leads a small, committed team that focuses on developing unique culinary creations. Julienne Bruno’s ethos, "Don’t imitate, create. Don’t compare, enjoy," reflects their commitment to innovation and enjoyment, offering delicious and distinct products designed to become part of your weekly rituals. Axel and DeliveryRank chew the proverbial cud.

What inspired the development ethos of “Don’t Imitate, Create”; for your products, and how does it differentiate your offerings in the market?

At JULIENNE BRUNO we do not imitate or compare. Instead, we offer a different perspective on plant-based food, creating familiar but new products for people to enjoy due to the quality and taste of them, not because they’re plant-based. Our goal is to make plant-based food the most exciting choice for everyone, everywhere, regardless of dietary preference and we want to inspire food lovers to use our ingredients to cook without limits. 

Our Collection 01 is unique as our dairy free cheeses are created in fresh batches each week in-house at our kitchen facilities in West London. We live in a world where artificially flavoured vegan cheese substitutes with 12 months shelf life are common, we have instead created fresh, handmade cheeses from fermented soy that feels like a single-ingredient product. This is in part, made possible by our unique team which is steeped in gastronomic expertise, including Head of Product Development, Albert Adria (a gastronomic trailblazer with multiple Michelin Star awards, previously Head of Creativity at El Bulli, Founder Tickets Restaurant, Hoja Santa and Enigma to name a few) and Head of Food, Chi San (previously Head of Food for Alan Yau Projects, Head Chef at Wagamama (1992) and following through to projects such as Hakkasan, Busaba etc). Together, we share a love for quality and taste, fueling our mission to create products loved for their taste.

Collection 01 is made using organic soya and organic coconut oil and are naturally fermented through a bespoke system, which has been perfected over the past two and a half years. Guided by the expertise of Head Of Product Development, Albert Adria. In doing so, the brand has hit a sweet spot in providing customers with fresh, creamy cheeses that are free from preservatives and added flavouring.

Philip Khoury, Head Pastry Chef at Harrods recently commented the following, which we believe perfectly encapsulates the JULIENNE BRUNO mission, “These products are a rare stroke of gastronomic ingenuity. Authentic and original, a gastronomic delight.”

How do you ensure the quality and provenance of your plant-based ingredients, and why are these aspects important to your brand?

Quality is at the core of everything we do. This is where our gastronomy heritage resonates. The core ingredients for Collection 01 are organic soya and organic coconut oil, sourced from quality, trusted suppliers. After two and a half years of rigorous testing and development, we achieved the optimum level of taste and flavour for the Collection 01 and were ready to launch.

We’ve developed unique processes that allow us to quality control every stage of development and work to the highest hygiene standards. 

Can you share a specific example of a new, unique characteristic that you’ve successfully integrated into one of your products?

Our Collection 01 contains three distinct offerings: Burrella, Superstraccia, and Crematta. Each product is carefully crafted through a meticulous process of studying dairy cheese fermentation and traditional methods. We have pioneered our own soy fermentation and hand-shaping techniques, which are integral to our products' distinctive characteristics. Though all three products are indeed unique, we often see the “crowdpleaser” is the Burrella, our flagship offering which has its own identity. A delicate sphere with a rich, creamy curdled interior. The reason we called it Burrella as opposed to a ‘vegan burrata’ is because it is not a burrata. We respect the provenance and culture from which Burrata originates from, which is why our name takes inspiration from it, and allows us to create a life of its own. JULIENNE BRUNO was the first brand to craft such a unique dairy free product and this led to the Burrella being crowned winner of the World Dairy Innovation Awards in 2023.

How do you approach the creation of new flavours and textures to ensure a delightful and an enjoyable experience for your customers?

Our flavours are created naturally through fermentation, with the process guided by the expertise of renowned Michelin star chef and Head Of Product Development, Albert Adria. As mentioned above, the process to create the texture comes through our innovative process which mirrors how traditional dairy milk would create cheese, although ours are made using organic soya (the protein) and coconut oil (the fat) and are naturally fermented through a bespoke system. The textures are unique to each product, the Superstraccia’s rich creamy curds are created through heating and cooling, whereas the Crematta is delicately whipped until we achieve the creamy, soft texture. We are meticulous both in the original formulation of the process and ensuring we have a skilled kitchen team that can replicate this process time and time again to our high standards. 

In what ways do you collaborate with chefs, restaurants, and retailers to promote your products and further your mission of reimagining food? 

The world of gastronomy is deeply rooted in JULIENNE BRUNO and played a significant part in driving the growth of our brand, with our Collection 01 quickly becoming a much loved ingredient by chefs and home cooks alike. Restaurants and hospitality were the launchpad for the brand with the likes of Big Momma Group, Theo’s, Caravan, Holy Carrot, Panzer’s and Bistrotheque featuring Collection 01 in their recipes in the early days of launching. Our community has grown significantly since with our ingredients featuring on the menus of; Gauthier, Luca, Gaucho, Humble Grape, Metropolitan Pubs, Drake and Morgan Urban Pubs, Mildred's, Norma, Soho House, Neat and Plant Club and amongst many more.

Retailers have been vital to growing as a brand and inspiring more people to cook without limits. Both in store and online retail has been essential to achieving our mission of inspiring home chefs to reimagine food using our naturally plant-based ingredients. We were honoured to have secured Selfridge’s as our first retailer. Since then we have launched our Collection 01 into the likes of; Ocado, Wholefoods, Harrods, Daylesford Organic, Planet Organic and recently launched our largest retailer to date, Coop Switzerland, where our Burrella is available in 375 stores, and our Superstraccia available across 170 stores nationwide. 

The above collaborations have enabled us to say, with great honour, that we have achieved a 4.8/5 rating from over 440 Trustpilot reviews, with 95% of reviews being 5*. We have learned that our primary customer base consists of non-vegans, demonstrating our product's ability to captivate and seduce the palates of food lovers, regardless of dietary preference..

If you would like to find out more about JULIENNE BRUNO, please visit https://www.juliennebruno.com/