May 09, 2016 8 Questions with: Lisa Fetterman
Sous vide cooking is the simple method of cooking vacuum-sealed food in a controlled, low-temperature water bath. It creates supremely tantalizing, effortless delicacies such as soft poached eggs that are creamy, custardy, and silky. Sous vide steak is often described as perfectly rendered and contrasted, juicy, flavorful, evenly cooked to precision. Who wouldn’t want to deliver this type of restaurant quality consistency in their home kitchen? Enabling home cooks to create Michelin star worthy food anytime and every time is what Nomiku has set out to accomplish.
Lisa and Abe Fetterman founded their first company in New York, called Lower East Kitchen, and created open-source, easy-to-assemble DIY sous vide kits to home cooks. To produce the first line of products, the two moved to China for a couple of years and participated in an accelerator, HAXLR8R. They later met their third founder, Wipop Bam Suppipat, and worked on the design of the Original Nomiku. The three co-founders have launched two successful Kickstarter campaigns with the first in 2012, raising nearly $600K (nearly triple the amount of their intended goal), and the second raising over $750K in 2014, funding the upcoming WiFi Nomiku. Immensely busy running this growing enterprise, Nomiku also became part of Y Combinator’s W15 class, and created its sous vide app, called Tender. Nomiku is also the first sous vide immersion circulator company to integrate sous-vide-ready meats into their business model. Now in beta, Nomiku offers sous vide-ready ingredients to be delivered in San Francisco that are ready to be dropped into a sous vide water bath.
We caught up with Lisa, who shares some of her aspirations and inspirations for Nomiku, as well as some insightful learnings through this four-year experience thus far.
Tell us how you concepted and incepted Nomiku, the first home cook sous vide solution.
I used to work for restaurants like Saison and Jean Georges so I was obsessed with new ways of cooking. Our industrial immersion circulators used at the restaurant were so expensive and hard to use, I longed for one that would be great for the home so my husband and I made a DIY open source sous vide kit. We got our start going from Makerspace to Hackerspace selling our kits.
What are some fun and unique applications of the sous vide technology process?
I’m really into cheesemaking with the Nomiku! You can control the temperature precisely to make exactly and make cheeses that the world has never seen before. Monica Lo of sousweed.com uses our machine to make lots of weed treats, she’s really clever the way she integrates medicine.
Describe your experience using Kickstarter to fundraise as well as participating in Y Combinator.
Kickstarter is a really humbling experience, it’s so important to listen to your earliest believers and communicate well. I am so grateful for all of the people who believed in this movement that pitched in as backers. It’s a great place to go to validate a market. YC was probably the most incredible program I’ve ever been a part of. The people who participated totally shaped me into a better person and I hope I can be as helpful as they are one day.
Where do you hope to take Nomiku in the near and long term?
We’re shipping right now so near term I hope that people are happy with their new Wifi Nomikus! As for the long term, I’d love for every kitchen to have one of my machines of course.
What are some learnings and insights you’ve gained about running your own business?
I’ve learned that nothing is guaranteed and things don’t necessarily get easier with more experience, they become harder in different ways. The best I can hope to become is okay with change and ready to handle new challenges.
What are some emerging food trends that you are seeing in the industry?
I love the imperfect produce movement! It’s so weird that things have to look a certain way— they all taste the same and there’s nothing wrong with a oval tomato! I also use my spiralizer quite a bit, it’s a fun way to get more vegetables into your diet.
What is your favorite dish/restaurant/chef?
Liquid toast from Saison by Joshua Skenes!
Where do you personally find inspiration?
I find inspiration whenever anybody triumphs over adversity. I am obsessed with people’s stories and I love underdogs.
photography by Albert Law and Monica Lo