Miyoko’s Creamery
Local vegan creamery leads the way on non-dairy alternatives
Not long after Pat Townsley began offering vegan alternatives at Creekside Pizza and Taproom, his popular downtown San Anselmo restaurant, a mother and her two daughters came in and asked their server about the cheese being used on the restaurant’s vegan pizzas. Townsley was beckoned by the waitstaff to the family’s table and, according to Townsley, he explained to the woman that after the kitchen had tested various vegan cheeses they had determined that Petaluma’s Miyoko’s Creamery plant-based cheese was far and away the best in terms of flavor and melting and browning properties—so that is what they served on all of the vegan pizzas offered on Creekside’s menu.
“When I was done, the mother said, ‘Well, I am Miyoko!’ Townsley recalls. As the story goes, the next thing you know Miyoko and her daughters were back in the kitchen watching Creekside’s pizzas being topped with her vegan cheese.
The Creekside diner was Miyoko Shinner, who founded the eponymous Miyoko’s Creamery in 2014 Petaluma. The company’s founding principle was compassion and a commitment to counter the animal cruelty of large-scale industrialized agriculture. Over the past decade, Miyoko’s Creamery has grown exponentially, as a growing number of people espouse vegan, vegetarian and “flexitarian” diets for animal rights beliefs, as well as for personal health and environmental reasons.
Today the company produces a wide array of plant-based alternative dairy products—from butter to cream cheese to an array of soft and hard cheeses, including the mozzarella used by Creekside, Gouda, cheddar and pepper jack, along with various double creams and smoked cheeses that would be right at home on a high-end traditional cheeseboard.
Based on data collected in a 2021 study conducted by Sprouts Market, the trend toward a plant-based diet is not going away: 54% of respondents between the ages of 24 and 39 identify as “flexitarian,” (a mostly plant-based diet with small amount of sustainably and humanely produced meat), while 43% of the respondents believe this is a permanent lifestyle change for them and 58% said they believe all nutritional needs can be met with plant-based foods.
Rusti Porter, the chief marketing officer of Miyoko’s Creamery, believes that the success of Miyoko’s reflects a larger shift in consciousness that will permanently change the food system. “Millennials are the biggest drivers here,” says Porter. “As this change and movement continues to grow, I think in the very near future more people are going to be talking about compassion in our food system. Our animal-based food system is broken, and I believe we’ll see more people talking about animal rights; how we can end extreme animal suffering and abuse in industrial agriculture; and how we can better connect the love of food with the love of animals, which is a core belief of Miyoko’s Creamery.”
Rob Larman, chef-owner of Il Fuoco Pizza in Sonoma, is also grateful to be able to offer his clientele Miyoko’s locally produced plant-based mozzarella. Offering vegan alternatives is very important for economic reasons, says Larman.
“I used to have a barbecue restaurant, but I am now serving alternative choices to a different customer at Il Fuoco.” He adds, “It has opened up my market. I serve more women, more wine drinkers. I am very happy to offer vegan and gluten-free alternatives, and 80% of everything I source is local, so I am glad to be able to offer a local alternative that tastes good.”
Local restaurateurs Larman and Townsley, whose wife Laura Townsley also uses Miyoko’s at her recently opened Stonework Pizza in Petaluma, both say that the non-negotiable in the vegan dishes they offer is the flavor and consistency of a non-dairy cheese, and in that regard, Miyoko’s has outperformed competitors.
“We tested different styles and learned,” says Townsley. “We tried other popular vegan cheeses that were waxy and didn’t stretch. ‘Cakey’ is the best word I can use to describe how bad some of the alternatives out there are.”
According to Porter, Miyoko’s “Plant Milk Discovery Team” devotes significant time and resources to testing new recipes for plant milks made from cashews, various legumes and watermelon seeds. Uniquely, their approach to cheesemaking mimics traditional cheesemaking processes.
“Just like how animal dairy cheese is created, we add cultures to turn that milk into different kinds of cheeses,” says Porter. “And we’ve only scratched the surface. If you think about how long humans have been making animal cheeses, compared to how long we’ve been making cheeses with plant milks, we still have so much more to discover. Only recently did we discover that watermelon seed milk was a fantastic base for soft cheeses like cottage cheese, resulting in perfect texture and amazing taste.”
Miyoko’s products’ rising popularity is evidenced by their presence on the shelves of popular mainstream markets, from Trader Joe’s to Whole Foods and Sprouts, and even Safeway, Walmart and Costco. Their plant-based butter and cheeses are now sold in almost 30,000 stores across the United States and Australia. What was once a niche diet choice—plant-based dairy—has become a pantry staple in many American households.
From Porter’s perspective, the importance of this shift goes well beyond the flavor and healthy ingredients of Miyoko’s products. “Currently, with all going on in the world—the pandemic still fresh in our minds, war, domestic political tension, extreme weather and more—consumers are desiring to act more than ever before and are looking for solutions,” she says. “Control over what we eat is a source of power to impact our future, and as we move into the future, the trends we choose can essentially be an extension of the change we want to see.”
43% believe this is a permanent lifestyle change for them
54% of people aged 24–39 identify as “flexitarian,” (a mostly plant-based diet with small amount of sustainably and humanely produced meat)
58% said they believe all nutritional needs can be met with plant-based foods.
Kirsten Jones Neff is a freelance magazine writer who lives in a rural corner of Marin County. She writes regularly about food and wine, artisan producers, sustainable agriculture, health and environmental issues. KirstenJonesNeff.com and @fullbloomday.
