Chefs at Choux create natural flavour enhancer

Under the name 621 Ferments, they produce Garum from local waste streams

Merijn van Berlo and Maarten Bezem, chefs of the successful restaurant Choux in Amsterdam, have developed powerful natural flavour enhancers under the name 621 Ferments. Born from a shared passion for good food and sustainability, they have found a way to combat food waste while boosting dishes. After a search of more than three years for the perfect flavour balance and the right process, the flavours Mushroom (all-vegetable) and Beef (Gasconne beef) will be on sale from 22 May. In addition, they are busy working on a variant with black garlic and one of Dutch Shrimps that will follow later this year.

Garum has its origins in the Carthaginian Empire and later became an important ingredient of the Romans. Surplus fish catch was pickled with salt to ferment in the full sun. The enzymes present in the intestines of the fish played a major role in the transformation process: the fish were digested by those enzymes and transformed into an enormously powerful flavouring that we know today mainly from Eastern cuisine: fish sauce.

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In the same vein, 621 Ferments is working on natural flavour enhancers. For this, they use a production process developed by the Nordic Foodlab and recently made best known by restaurant Noma. Central to this modern Garum variant is the fungal culture aspergillus oryzae, also known as koji, which is also at the base of perhaps better-known fermentations such as miso, sake but above all soy sauce. By adding koji to the fermentation process, the same enzymatic effect is created, just like with the intestines of fish, but it is now also possible to work with completely different products, in this case meat or mushrooms but also chicken, shrimps or seaweed.

As mentioned, our Garum is produced completely naturally and is free of E numbers. Unlike soy sauce, for example, these flavour enhancers are gluten-free and therefore also suitable for people with gluten intolerance. The Mushroom variant is also suitable for vegans.

Garum is normally made with A-quality ingredients. Ferment 621 sets itself apart in this respect by working with local residual streams. Residual streams are often processed into animal feed or worse, thrown away. At 621 Ferments, these flows are carefully selected and upcycled through an ingenious process into a premium new product: N°621 Garum, the first Garum from Dutch soil. In this, N°621 is a nod to the synthetic flavour enhancer E621, which is not in here but you won't miss it either.

N°621 Garum is for sale via 621ferments.com, Lindenhoff Horeca or at Vanilla Venture.