Start ’Em Young: A Fine-Dining Chef Has Designed a Range of Baby Food To Broaden Young Palates

At nine years old, chef Jed Gerrard’s son eats the kinds of foods some adults are still wary of.

“He really likes eating oysters, he likes sushi, he likes going to yum cha, he loves chicken curry,” says the Wills Domain culinary director (who previously worked at now-closed Sydney fine diner Tetsuya’s and Perth’s Como the Treasury and Ritz-Carlton). “I don’t think that would have happened if he wasn’t exposed to different flavours when he was a baby.”

That philosophy is what Gerrard and founder Justine Conley want to bring to the table with Juca, a chef-designed premium baby food range introducing more flavour-forward options into babies’ diets.

A long-time food lover, Conley couldn’t find anything on the market with high-quality ingredients, flavours and textures when she had her first baby. Five years later, after she had her second, she realised nothing had changed.

“At the time, I was working [sales and marketing] in the food industry with amazing Western Australian produce and had the idea of wanting to create a product that was savoury-first, and could include as many of the superfoods that I tried to put into recipes for my kids that I made myself,” she says.

Gerrard’s involvement was partly down to right place, right time – Conley was cooking for a work event when she realised she wanted to work with a chef of that kind of calibre, so the decision to approach him to join the project came naturally.

“Also having young children, I thought it would be a fun project to get involved in and look at ways we can utilise common, more grown-up flavour combinations, and then suit them more towards a baby’s palate,” he says.

Juca’s meals are designed for ages six months and above. And while other brands typically lean sweet to appeal to picky eaters, Conley and Gerrard have chosen to maintain a savoury-first approach. Research shows that cutting sugar until a baby is two years old can reduce the risk of health issues like diabetes and high blood pressure later in life.

The five flavour profiles in the first range lean more classic Australian with native ingredients: there’s grass-fed lamb with roasted carrots, river mint and peas; free-range chicken with coconut cream, mango, brown rice and lemon myrtle; 12-hour beef broth with roasted vegetables, olive oil and bush tomato; and wild-caught salmon with sweetcorn and native bush basil. There’s also a vegetarian option with root vegetables, chia, olive oil and native thyme.

The flavours can be purchased separately in packs of six pouches, as bundles with all five flavours, or in curated pairings that mix and match different combinations.

“I think if you introduce babies to these different flavours earlier rather than later, then their palates will adapt and get used to eating more vegetables, eating more legumes – not just pasta or fried chicken nuggets or chips,” Gerrard says.

Only the signature range is available for now, but a second line is slated for release later this year. Expect more global, multicultural flavours that reflect more of what Australians are eating today.

“As adults, we experience a broader breadth of herbs and spices. Obviously we’re not including chillis and things like that in the baby food, but there’s absolutely capacity within the spectrum to introduce exciting and different flavour experiences that are under-utilised by parents in what they cook or buy for their babies,” Conley says.

juca.com.au

We hope you like the products we recommend on Broadsheet. Our editors select each one independently. Broadsheet may receive an affiliate commission when you follow some links.