“When you ferment, you get to know the ingredients anew”
Markus Shimizu, founder of mimi ferments, is one of Germany’s best-known fermentista. We talked to him about the challenges of selling unknown products and why he no longer follows a vegan diet.
What do fish sauce and soy sauce have in common? Both are first-class fermented umami boosters and are thousands of years old in origin. While
“Being vegan in the early 90s was pretty horrible.”
Markus Shimizu started fermentation in 2004 to find new sources of protein, as he was still vegan at the time. He ate a vegan diet for almost 25 years, but now eats everything again. One remnant from this time is his love of fresh tempeh. “It tastes incredibly good when it’s freshly homemade and also very different to when you buy it from the organic market.” However, he believes that freshness is the key reason why the product has not yet made its big breakthrough in this country. “Ideally, supermarkets want to have products on their shelves that have a long shelf life and preferably don’t need to be refrigerated”. In other words, exactly the opposite of what would characterize good tempeh.
Nevertheless, Shimizu sees tempeh as a nice playground because you can not only add legumes, but also nuts. This allows for a wide range of flavors. Could it be a coincidence that Sandor Katz, whom Shimizu describes as his fermentista role model, has an ode to tempehin his book “The Art of Fermentation”?
At mimi ferments, he tries “to work traditionally wherever possible and where it makes sense, especially when it comes to techniques”. One eye always looks to his native Japan, where many of the techniques come from and where he also orients his taste. Even though he lives in Berlin, Shimizu thinks less about the German palate than the Japanese when creating new ferments. “I want Japanese people to like it too.”
“Sweet potato miso tastes like Capri sun”
However, this does not mean that it does not work very regionally: Most of its basic products, such as barley, soybeans and beet, come from controlled organic cultivation in Germany. The team also communicates this in the newsletter, in which new products are presented and events are announced. But that is one of the hardest aspects of the job as a fermentista. Amazake, sagohachi or shiro tamari mean nothing to most people at first. That’s why personal, direct contact with customers in the store in Berlin Moabit is important to Shimizu. Even if the product is explained, many people discover new flavors when they try the products from mimi ferments, even if they often contain ingredients they are familiar with. For Shimizu, this is part of the appeal of his work, as he says: “When you ferment, you get to know the ingredients in a new way”. For example, sweet potato miso tastes – to him – like Capri sun.
Beautiful inside and out with Koji
We have already worked with products from mimi ferments several times in the Food Lab. The two world-class Berlin restaurants Nobelhart & Schmutzig and Tim Raue are certainly better known customers of mimi ferments. However, this is more of a collaboration, as the chefs and Shmizu inspire each other.
Around 20% of the approaches are experiments. He has even gone so far as to make soaps that have been well received. According to the motto “beautiful inside and out with koji”, he sees great potential for koji cosmetics. Actually, the only limiting factor for expanding the product range is time. There is still a lot to try, for example another soy sauce that matures on the high seas.
Personal recommendation from the author: The Shiro Miso and the Amazake, to order in the mimi ferments online store.
