A Closer Look: Beijing's Best Food Entrepreneurs

A Closer Look: Beijing's Best Food Entrepreneurs

Kyle Mullin | Apr 2, 2015 5:00 pm | Add a comment | 2502 reads

A Closer Look reviews the winners from our 2015 Reader Restaurant Awards, which were announced March 16. This time around we take a look at the winners of the Best Food Entrepreneur category.

This year we had a rare tie for the top slot, with Andy Horowitz of Andy's Craft Sausages and Erica Huang of Farm to Neighbors sharing the spotlight, and Jonathan Ellis of Big Bear Baked Goods not too far behind. See a quick intro of the three below, and click through on their names to read a longer Q&A with each.

Best: Andy Horowitz, Andy's Craft Sausages
Andy Horowitz started his business with a RMB 3,000 loan from a friend, motivated by his inability to find a decent Italian sausage in town. Nowadays he's making about 10 flavors of sausages, two kinds of bacon, and sausage rolls for home delivery and to some of Beijing's restaurants and craft breweries.

Best: Erica Huang, Farm to Neighbors
Inspired by her farmers' market shopping experiences in Taiwan, New York and Seattle, Erica Huang started a farmer’s market in her Gulou neighborhood, with 15 to 20 regular vendors that she personally selected and can vouch for, selling items like vegetables, cheese, eggs, sourdough bread, and meats. Along the way, she hopes to foster a sense of community and help consumers build a connection to the source of their food.

Outstanding: Jonathan Ellis, Big Bear Baked Goods
Starved for a decent cookie in Beijing, Jonathan Ellis turned to making them on his own, and now his mini empire is on the rise. The one-man-show personally cooks and delivers each batch. His Mud and Snow cookies, featuring dark chocolate and Himalayan salt, are heavenly.