Founder's Circle
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 pick up a crust from Trader Joe's, the accidentally vegan one. We put out sauce and whatever vegetables looked good that week, and everyone builds their own.
A handful of mozzarella, a few minutes in the oven, and dinner is done.We don't do it all the time, and that's on purpose. Pizza night is a treat. It's for summer evenings when friends and family are over and nobody is in a hurry.
But there's a reason this tradition means so much to me.
When Fred and I gave up dairy over a decade ago, pizza was one of the first things I mourned. Cheese was what made food feel special, and nothing made that clearer than a pizza without it. We tried the shreds. They sat on top of the sauce and refused to melt. So for years, pizza felt like something from our old life.
Honestly, I don't think I would have bought Fred that oven if our Mozzarella didn't exist. There's no point owning a pizza oven when cheese is off the table. Watching it melt and pull the way it's supposed to, with friends reaching over each other for toppings, feels like getting a piece of my life back.
The one thing we never had a great answer for was the meats. Then we found The BE Hive.
They're out of Nashville, and their story sounds a lot like ours. A group of friends in a band started cooking vegan food for each other. First potlucks, then a farmers market stand, and now a deli in East Nashville where they make everything from scratch.
That's the part that got me. They didn't start a company. They started feeding people they loved, and it turned into one. Fred and I know exactly how that goes.
The meats themselves sealed it. Their pepperoni has real fennel and smoked paprika in it, and it crisps up in the oven the way pepperoni is supposed to. We tried it once and stopped looking.
So we built a Pizza Box together. Their Italian crumbles and pepperoni, next to our Mozzarella, Tomato Fromage, Parmesan, and Black Truffle Pecorino. People have told us for years that our Tomato Fromage tastes like pizza. It felt like time to put it on one.
It's a limited-time box, and it won't be around forever. If you make a pizza with it, send us a photo. I want to see your creations.
Here's to pizza night,
KirstenCo-founder, Rebel Cheese
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