Erewhon, the luxury Los Angeles health-food grocer, is changing up its hot bar—but don’t worry, you can still get favorites like the buffalo cauliflower and turmeric chicken tenders.
Instead of being fried in avocado oil, though, those dishes will now get their crisp from Zero Acre Farms’ Organic Fera fruit oil, a sustainable cooking oil made by pressing the fruit of the hybrid oleifera x guineensis palm tree.
Fera fruit oil is already used in more than 800 food service locations across the country, including the kitchens of Wynn hotels in Las Vegas and Cote Korean Steakhouse in New York.
All 15 Erewhon locations will now use Zero Acre Farms’ oil for frying. (Erewhon will still use olive oil and avocado oil for other cooking needs and select dressings.)
Zero Acre Farms made its Fera fruit oil as an alternative to seed oils like those made from soybeans, canola, and peanuts, which are commonly used in restaurant kitchens, especially for frying.
Though the backlash against seed oils is controversial, some health experts have cautioned against cooking such oils at high temperatures or reusing them. Seed oils are high in polyunsaturated fats, which are heart-healthy but can oxidize with heat (though they’re also high in Vitamin E, which is an antioxidant).
Avocado oil is high in monounsaturated fat, another considered heart-healthy, and is more stable at higher temperatures, but it tends to be more expensive. Fera fruit oil is also high in monounsaturated fats, and the company also says its oil is half the price of avocado oil.
Separate from health, Zero Acre Farms wanted to make a more sustainable oil, too.
Many seed oils, including canola, soybean, and sunflower, are annual crops, meaning they must be replanted every year. Fera fruit, however, grows on trees that produce fruit for about 25 years; its fruit is mechanically pressed, without using any chemicals.
Fera fruit does come from a palm tree, but Zero Acre Farms says it only works with partners who can commit to being deforestation-free. The oil is also Regenerative Organic Certified at the Gold level, meaning the fruit is grown on farms that prioritize soil health and climate-friendly practices.
The hybrid oleifera x guineensis palm tree uses about ten times less land than typical frying oils, according to the company.
And that benefit is compounded, says Zero Acre Farms cofounder and CEO Jeff Nobbs, by the fact that it has “twice the fry life” of seed oils, too.
“So that means if [a restaurant is] using half as much oil, then in effect, instead of using 10 times less land, they’re using 20 times less land for their oil needs,” he says.
Those environmental benefits appealed to Erewhon’s ethos. And the oil ended up performing well culinarily, too.
Erewhon’s biggest feedback, after praising the Regenerative Organic certification, Nobbs says, “was ‘whoa, the buffalo cauliflower has never tasted this good. The chicken tenders have never been so crispy. Our food feels less greasy.’”
That all 15 Erewhon locations are now exclusively using Organic Fera fruit oil for their frying is “a huge stamp of approval.”
Zero Acre Farms trained Erewhon staff on its product, even sharing videos of the South American farms where the fruit is grown. Erewhon hot food bars will feature QR codes that send customers to erewhon.zeroacre.com, where they can learn more about the oil and its health and environmental details.
“The majority of people are just going to buy their buffalo cauliflower and move on with their life,” Nobbs says. “But [for] the people who really care, they want to know what their foods are being cooked in.”