The History of Vegenaise

Vegenaise is a vegan mayonnaise created by the brand Follow Your Heart. It got its start in the 1970s, when a group of friends made up of Michael Besancon, Bob Goldberg, Spencer Windbiel, and Paul Lewin opened a small soup, salad, and sandwich counter in the back of a natural foods store in California. A few years later, a nearby butcher shop went out of business, and they moved into the space, opening up a larger restaurant called Follow Your Heart that offered plant-based food to customers. One menu item known as the “Love Plate” was an instant hit and featured a sandwich made with avocado, tomato, sprouts, and egg-free mayonnaise. However, the founders were shocked to learn that their vegan mayonnaise supplier had been lying to them — the seller had been replacing the labels on regular, egg-based mayo and selling the falsely labelled jars to the restaurant! The group was horrified and wanted to find a way to continue serving the sandwich that their community loved, so Bob began attempting to make an egg-free mayonnaise. After many unsuccessful attempts, an idea came to him in a dream and the next day, he got to work. After several more tests, he created his very own vegan mayonnaise, and the restaurant began selling the beloved Love Plate sandwich again. Customers loved the egg-free mayo so much that they began asking to take some home with them. Eventually, the demand grew so great that the team began manufacturing the product at a new facility, Earth Island, and made it available for consumers to buy. They named their egg-free spread "Vegenaise," and it quickly became a favorite among vegans, vegetarians, and those watching their cholesterol. Follow Your Heart eventually expanded to include other plant-based offerings like vegan cheese, too. Today, Vegenaise is still considered to be one of the best vegan mayonnaise spreads and has many devoted fans — in fact, it's so popular that the name is often used to refer to any vegan mayo product (similar to Kleenex and tissues)!