The Row 7 Flavor Edition

Colin here. The New Consumer, by friend of WITI Dan Frommer, is one of the most insightful things I read. Refreshingly, it's not a Substack (re)aggregator; there is new reporting, original thought, and deep research. He recently wrote about Row 7, a company that is trying to bring flavor back to food. In their ‘About’ section, they say that they "believe flavor can succeed where commodification has failed."

Frommer unpacks this idea a bit for us:  

Most vegetables, even at nice grocery stores, just don’t taste like much. The giant companies that dominate the American food chain have many priorities, but flavor isn’t near the top of the list. Row 7 is optimizing for making vegetables what they call a "center of the plate feature," by providing vegetables that are more tuned for flavor. 

Why is this interesting?

First, I love how when I have an exceptional piece of produce, it is like tasting the essence of the thing in HD. Reading Dan’s piece, I realized how rarely that happens: It rings true that the way these things make their way to our produce aisles is intended for scale and commodification, rather than optimising for how good they can actually taste. 

Tomatoes are a common example of this, but I was particularly intrigued with Row 7’s description of potatoes, which you don't normally think of as bursting with flavor. Yet here’s a detail from their site: "Selected by second-generation potato breeder Walter De Jong, this versatile little potato is delicious roasted, smashed or boiled. The creamy flesh is naturally packed with flavor—no butter required." 

I normally think of a potato as a bland vessel for other accoutrements like butter and sour cream (or caviar if ya nasty), but it makes sense that a beautiful potato, grown from the right seed in the right conditions, would jump off the figurative plate a bit. 

In fact, it reminded me of the Mallmann story, where he created an entire tasting menu from the humble potato.

…when he was asked to prepare a meal for L’Academie de Cuisine just outside Frankfurt. Mallmann decided to pay tribute to the Andes and served a menu of dishes featuring the product that Latin America is most famous for. He found out that he could not take the potatoes to Germany legally so he smuggled half a tonne of potatoes instead. All the dishes on that menu, included the dessert, featured the potato. He won the Grand Prix de la cuisine that year, emulating his friends and teachers.

The only issue with Row 7 right now is that the prices are predictably high. As it grows, the company becoming able to compete slightly better on price (even in a luxury category at premium retailers) will likely be necessary. That said, if you look down the aisles of Erewhon LA, it’s clear there are plenty of consumers willing to pony up for style and flavor—and that’s without any of Row 7’s compelling narrative. If the company can truly make vegetables more delicious and flavorful, communicate that well, and also mindfully think about sourcing, farmers and the supply chain, we might just have a winner. (CJN)