Founder's Circle

The email I got every week for years: Are you kosher yet?
For years, the same customer has emailed us every week with the same question. "Are you kosher yet?" And every week, we wrote back the same answer. "Not yet, we're working on it." I'm sure they had our reply memorized. Today, I get to write back something different: Rebel Cheese is now certified Kosher Pareve by KSA, Kosher Supervision of America. Fred and I have wanted this since we opened. I didn't expect it to take years. Here's why it did. We use a lot of unique ingredients. Each one... Read more...
Weeks of waiting for one baby tomato and what a 13-year mole sauce taught me about cheese
I've picked up a new hobby this year. I'm growing my own vegetables, and I've found a real passion for it, which makes sense because I love to create.What I didn't expect was how long everything takes. We've been watching our tomatoes for weeks and weeks, waiting for one little baby tomato to finally be ready to eat. Same with the jalapeños.It got me thinking about a 13-year mole sauce I tried a couple of years ago. I remember being blown away by the layers and complexity of what that... Read more...
500 five-star reviews in Murray's hometown
A couple of years ago, an email landed in my inbox. The owner of Riverdel, a vegan cheese shop inside Essex Market in New York, was closing, and she wanted to know if we'd buy it.My first feeling was sadness. What if she couldn't find a buyer? My second, right behind it: heck no. We don't have time for that. New York is four hours away by plane.And it's New York. It's where Murray's Cheese was born, the cheese epicenter of the country. Opening a plant-based cheese counter there felt... Read more...
I had no idea what they were roasting
We had just moved to Austin from Seattle, and I was going into Central Market one day when I saw these big black iron drums set up outside the doors, roasting tons and tons of chiles. Who roasts anything outside a grocery store? You could smell them across the parking lot, and they smelled really good, so I stood there for a minute wondering what they were and started dreaming up all the ways I could use them. Of course I had to buy some.They were unlike anything I’d ever tried.... Read more...
Why I’m at the gym at 9 o’clock at night
Most nights I work out at 8 or 9pm. Not because I love late workouts. It’s the only time I can get there.The gym is my therapy, and I make a point of going no matter how the day went.But what keeps me paying for that membership isn’t the equipment. It’s that the place feels like mine. Member events, people who know my name, small perks that add up. I pay for a membership and what I get back is a community.I’ve been thinking about that a lot, because we’re... Read more...
I got Fred a pizza oven for his birthday
Fred loves pizza. It might be his favorite food on earth. The trouble with pizza when you're plant-based is that you have to make it yourself. Order one out and there's no cheese or meat to choose from. You're left with bread and veggies.So a few years ago, when I had no idea what to get Fred for his birthday, I landed on a pizza oven. Best birthday gift I've ever given, and I say that as the person who uses it most.Here's how pizza night works at our house. We... Read more...
The one cheese we never tested
Pimento cheese used to be my favorite, back before I went dairy-free. I was determined to bring it back.One night I pulled out cream cheese, shredded cheddar, pimentos, jalapeños, and a few other things I’d been saving for the right moment. I mixed it together and tasted it. It was right, the first time.That almost never happens. Most of our cheeses go through hundreds of tests before they’re ready to sell. This one didn’t need a single one.I should be honest, though. The cream cheese and cheddar underneath that pimento... Read more...
The two people who've held Rebel together for five years
Over the years we've pulled more all-nighters than I'd like to admit. Opening the restaurant was one of them. So was the night our Shark Tank episode aired, and then again during COVID, when ecommerce was brand new for us and everything happened at once. The way we always knew a night had gotten out of hand was Curtis. He'd come walking in to start his shift in the morning, and we'd look up, see him, and realize we hadn't gone home at all.This month, both DJ and Curtis are hitting... Read more...
We're in Whole Foods. It only took seven years.
Seven years ago, Whole Foods found us. We'd opened our restaurant in Austin. A few months in, a buyer reached out. We hadn't pitched them or sent a single sample. They'd heard about the cheese and wanted to talk. We met, they were eager to get us on shelves, and I remember being amazed that they'd come looking for us.Then the pandemic hit a few months later, and everything went on hold.When things reopened, we reached out again. But Whole Foods had changed. Amazon owned it now, and the buyer... Read more...
One writer killed vegan cheese this week. Another revived it.
Two articles came out this week about vegan cheese. One said the category was failing. The other said it had finally gotten good. They were looking at different things. The Economist spent four thousand words explaining why vegan cheese is a disappointment. Their main example was a Silicon Valley startup that pitched itself as a data-science company for cheese. By the end, you'd think the category was done. Several people reached out to me after they read it. They told me I should contact the writer directly. Based on what... Read more...
Our harshest critic graduates next week
My daughter Aanika graduates next week. She’s 22. She was also our harshest critic when Fred and I started making cheese in our kitchen. The first taste tester. She told us, plainly, when something was off. She helped us tweak the recipes you eat now. The notes you taste, she pushed for those. I’ve been thinking about that this week, with Mother’s Day coming. The version of Rebel Cheese that exists today exists partly because she didn’t let us settle. She also has Obie. Obie is a mix we rescued... Read more...
Kirsten Maitland, Rebel Cheese CEO, on a backhoe.
I practiced our Shark Tank pitch on a backhoe
You could call us control freaks. We make the cheese, age it, package it, and fulfill it. Little is automated. It's the only way we can make sure everything meets our... Read more...