Is This the Fake Egg's Moment?

Eat Just is building a small but early niche in China, a world away from its former name and vegan mayo scandals

- Deena Shanker and Larissa Zimberoff

On a recent Monday morning in a Shanghai conference room, four executives from a major Chinese food producer and distributor sat socially distanced from one another, pulled down their masks, and tried some fake eggs. In a makeshift basement office in San Francisco, 15 hours behind, Josh Tetrick, the chief executive officer of egg- substitute maker Eat Just Inc., watched via Zoom. His head chef in China presented the Shanghai execs with eight ways to serve the ersatz ovum, Just Egg, which is made primarily from mung beans. The hope was that one would be tasty enough for the Chinese company to sell online and at fast-food chains.

The eight options included Tetrick’s two favorites. The Inside-Out Egg is a faux omelette stuffed with lettuce, a hash brown patty, and spicy mayo; the Pinwheel Egg is essentially a fake-egg burrito with rice, fried onions, and pickled radishes. Both bombed. Still, the pitchees picked a winner, and while Tetrick stresses that no deal has been signed— hence the anonymity—he says Eat Just, better known as Just, is moving on to the next round of talks.

Although the negotiations have taken more than three years, things sped up over the past several months, Tetrick says. “Because of what’s happening around Covid,” the CEO says with uncharacteristic understatement, “there’s been a notable change