In this interview, Miki Talebi, Founder and CEO of oomé, shares the heartfelt story behind her premium smoked tofu company. Inspired by her late father’s love for smoked food and a desire to honour her Japanese heritage, Talebi created oomé as a tribute to family, good food, and sustainability. Oomé fills a gap in the tofu market, offering a flavorful, ready-to-eat smoked tofu that’s perfect for busy households seeking plant-forward protein options.
What is your business called and what does it do?
Our business is called oomé. We are a premium smoked tofu company.
What made you want to do this work?
oomé is the culmination of honouring the Japanese side of my identity on my mother’s side and wanting to extend the legacy of my late father and his love for delicious smoked food.
My father loved good food and had a passion for using his smoker to create delicious meals that brought the family together around the dinner table. Unfortunately, at the end of 2020 after suffering a significant accident, he passed away.
Over the course of the four months that my father was in the hospital, my sister and I would prepare meals for our children and then spend the evenings with our mother. We would regularly struggle with what to cook for our children and come up with different ideas. And then I remembered that smoked tofu was a convenient, delicious and easy protein that we could serve our children, but during the pandemic, we could not find it in any of our local grocers. At the time I lightheartedly told my sister that I could use our father’s smoker to smoke tofu for our kids. Then, when he passed away I found myself unable to let go of the idea of making smoked tofu. I did not know the first thing about smoking tofu, running a business, promoting a brand, or anything in this industry. But I decided that if I didn’t take a chance on myself and try to embark on this journey then I would regret it. I also wanted to take this opportunity to turn a very difficult experience into something positive and honour my father and his love for family and really good food and also demonstrate to my children that it’s okay to take risks in life and honour our curiosity and thirst for more.
What problem did you want to solve with the business?
I recognized that there was a gap in the tofu market. Tofu is notoriously rather bland and difficult to add flavour to. But I also recognize that it is such a great product – minimally processed and high in protein. And for me, it’s an incredible blank canvas with so much potential. I wanted to bring an element of convenience to our consumers and show them that there’s so much more to tofu than meets the eye. And part of this was through making tofu look beautiful from the outside in – hence the decision we made to invest in packaging that would captivate people’s attention and draw them in.
Who are your clientele/demographics?
Our tofu is for anyone who is looking for a product that is clean, sustainable, ready-to-eat, and is perhaps trying to incorporate a little more plant-forward protein into their lifestyle. Many of our consumers aren’t just shopping for themselves, but for their households as well. They’re thinking of how best to nourish their loved ones with convenient and delicious food.
How does your business make money? How does it work?
We marinate, smoke and package our tofu from our own manufacturing facility. Our focus is on reaching as many people as possible and making our product accessible to them as possible. This is why we are focused on retail. We sell our product to some restaurants, cafes and educational institutions, such as UBC. But our core focus is on bringing our product to as many grocery stores as possible. You can find our product in many retailers across the country!
Where in the city can we find your product?
You can find our product at a number of local retailers, including Safeway, Thrifty Foods, Whole Foods Market, Choices, Natures Fare, Pomme, Spud, Nesters, Urban Fare, and Save on Foods as well as a number of independent grocers across the province.
What is the best question a prospective customer could ask a member of your profession when comparing services? Give the answer as well.
A question that we are often asked is ‘Why spend more on your product than the competition?’ Our product is unique in that it is completely ready to eat right out of the package. It is already flavoured and smoked, so the cooking has been done for you. This means that our smoked tofu can be tossed into your salad, placed on a charcuterie board, or added to your sandwiches with no additional preparation. We use clean ingredients, are non-GMO project verified, and source our ingredients locally wherever possible. We also use natural wood smoke to get a lovely smokey flavour in our tofu. And our woodchips are sourced from the family cherry orchard in Oliver, BC. In addition to this, sustainability is a core part of our brand value. We are plastic-negative and certified by Repurpose. This means that we calculate all of our plastic consumption across the entire production process, double that calculation and then support waste management efforts in other parts of the world to offset our plastic consumption.
And then the last piece about oomé is the intangible component of the brand – we are a heritage brand that embodies our family values in everything that we do. oomé was founded in honor of my late father and our purpose is to create lasting memories around good food. It’s about creating an opportunity to gather around the dinner table with our loved ones and to enjoy our meals in a more sustainable manner.
What is the best part about what you do? What is the worst part?
The best part about what I do is being part of building a community. For us, building our brand is so much more than just about smoked tofu. We have the opportunity to shape people’s perceptions of what good, clean, and healthy food can look like. And we get to be part of people’s shared experiences sitting around the table and enjoying good food together.
The worst part about the business is that it is truly gruelling to build a brand and a business from the ground up. There is no downtime because when you’re not physically working on or in the business, your brain is still in it. My husband and I are both building oomé and we also have two young children. There is a lot of guilt around the sacrifice required to focus on the business.
Where can we follow you?
Website | Instagram | LinkedIn
PAY IT FORWARD: What is another local business that you love?
Chiwis! They are an amazing local brand out of Squamish that takes imperfect fruit and turns it into the most delicious fruit chips!
