Going vegan isn't easy, especially when it comes time to replace - or do without - foods where animals have traditionally played the key, or only, role.
Foods like cheese.
Scour the Internet and you'll find the same sad refrain over and over again. From its smell to its consistency to its taste, vegan cheese does not get a lot of love.
But there's a business based right here in Penticton that's changing that perception while at the same time carving its own success story. It's called Pulse Kitchen, and in just three years it's gone from struggling startup to a serious force that currently sees its cheeses - all of them 100-percent vegan - sold in more than 200 stores nationwide.
And now, Pulse Kitchen has opened the doors to its own Penticton storefront and tasting room, a place where anyone can stop by and sample to their heart's content.
According to the man behind Pulse, it's only the second vegan cheese shop in the entire province. That it's also in the very same Cannery Trade Centre space where, for more than a decade, Walla Bakery bread wizard Ben Manea plied his craft before his untimely passing earlier this year, somehow seems fitting.
"We connected," said Pulse Kitchen owner and chef Stephanos Liapis yesterday in his new digs. "I knew Ben. He gave me a tour of his kitchen and I was amazed at what I saw. We're very fortunate to have this space to work in. And in some ways, we're carrying on a similar tradition in that he was a true artisan."
Pulse Kitchen is no newcomer to the Penticton scene. The name of both the business and the owner will likely be familiar to long-time visitors of the Downtown Community Market. There, Liapis was a regular in the early days of Pulse, selling vegan sausages and then vegan donuts.
It was 2016 and Liapis, who grew up surrounded by his parents' Vancouver restaurant business and loved to cook, had recently gone all-vegan. So too had his wife Brigitte.
"We've always cared about animals," he says, "and we wanted to see an end to the abuse they endure in animal agriculture. And by going vegan, we knew we'd no longer contribute to the climate change that comes from animal farming."
In Pulse, Liapis created a way to turn his long-time passion for food and his newfound passion for veganism into a business.
"I originally had a small facility downtown. Before us, it was called Allready Soups and Suppers. When the woman running it retired, I enquired and took it over in the spring of 2016."
But the sausages he created there never really did work out. "I wanted to replicate what another vendor was doing at the market, selling sausages in bread, except vegan. But the market wasn’t ready. And it was so labour intensive."
LiIapis then moved on to gluten-free vegan donuts, which he says sold out most weekends.
But then vegan cheese came calling. "Brigitte especially liked snacking on cheese, but we weren't overly impressed with the vegan cheese we could find at the time," said Liapis.
So they opted to make their own.
"We came up with cheddar first. We searched the internet for days for recipes, and we had hundreds of cookbooks at home. And we finally came up with a recipe we stuck with."
"We started selling it at the market and it sold like crazy. And to this day it remains our most popular."
Liapis has created numerous other varieties since then. Like the blue cheesey "Kind of Blue," named in an ode to jazz trumpeter Miles Davis. Or "Cashew Pepperjack," a spicy affair that we sampled and thoroughly enjoyed.
Liapis works hard to recreate familiar colors and textures, and he spent a good fifteen minutes filling us in on the cheeses and their ingredients and all it takes to get to the finish line. Kind of Blue, for example, involves a complex procedure featuring pumpkin seeds, cashews, and spirulina.
Unlike many vegan cheesemakers, he doesn't ferment his product. Although fermentation is popular, he believes it makes it difficult to maintain the level of acidity and results in a shorter shelf life.
"When I cook, I always try to balance my flavours, and if something is too sour, for me it's not balanced. So I approach cheese-making as if I'm making pot of soup. Not too sweet, not to sour, not too spicy. Balanced."
"I wanted people to see my product isn't just another vegan cheese, and I think there's room for people with more discriminating tastes to have something that's really tastes good."
Admittedly, the big transition from events and markets to a retail setup wasn't easy. "One winter, I really starved," said Liapis. "Then finally in the spring, through harassment and a little luck, I got into a few stores."
And when he ultimately did get orders, he spent too much of his time making bi-monthly deliveries throughout the Okanagan and the lower mainland in his "beat up Subaru."
"So I took on a distributor, and it grew from there. I took on another distributor, and it grew from there. And now I've got three distributors, and we're nationwide."
In October, Pulse Kitchen relocated to the bigger, better Cannery Trade Centre space, where meeting the demand of their now fully established wholesale business is easier.
Then last week, the doors were opened on the new public shop and tasting room.
But we still had a question. What, exactly, does the "Pulse" in Pulse Kitchen mean?
"Well, it’s not a heartbeat," laughed Liapis. "Pulses are dried beans, peas, and lentils. Worldwide they’re known as pulses, though here we call them legumes."
"They're very high in protein, high in dietary fibre, low in fat, low on the Glycemic Index. They're also highly sustainable. They leave the soil nitrogen enriched. And they're ancient foods."
"So all of the products I make contain some form of pulses. The cheeses all contain chickpea miso, which is a paste made with chickpeas."
Apart from 12 varieties of vegan cheeses - more than double the number Pulse Kitchen currently distributes to stores - the new shop/tasting room also offers stuff like chickpea tofu, vegan burgers, Greek olives, chocolate from Penticton chocolatier Maison Mulnati, and apple chips from The Dried Fruit Guy.
If you think all of the above would look great on a cheese board, you're right. Liapis focuses on precisely that, and in fact wants to talk to local food artisans who'd like to sell their product in his shop.
"I'm looking for vegan chutneys, preserves, pickles, jams, crackers. Things that make sense for a cheese board, or stuff like olive oil or balsamic glaze that would be good for bread dipping."
There's also a "pulse bar," where patrons can buy jars of their favourite organic legumes/pulses for five bucks apiece, then come back for $4 refills.
The shop's hours of operation are currently Wednesday to Friday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., though Liapis says those wanting to drop by outside those times can do so by calling in advance.
And if you can't make it in person, you can find Pulse Kitchen product at various spots in the south Okanagan, including Gratify Penticton at 469 Main, Save-On-Foods, Nature's Fare, and wineries such as Dirty Laundry in Summerland and Hester Creek in Oliver.
For more information, including product details and retail outlet locations, head to the Pulse Kitchen website.
