Janay Jones, founder of Rooted Delights (Photo by Milez Ivan Haynes of High Club Productions courtesy Rooted Delights)
History: While serving vegan comfort food aboard her Baltimore-based food truck, Janay Jones, 31, often heard customers say that they wished they could purchase the dairy-free cheese she used in her dishes. Jones, who was using a vegan cheese sauce in her recipes, began to experiment with creating a firm vegan cheese that could be shredded. In 2018, she moved to Richmond and rebranded Rooted Delights from a food truck to a vegan cheese company.
Specialties: Rooted Delights sells a Mild Cheddah wheel and a Creamy Mozzah wheel. “The majority of my family is not vegan, but we give them the cheese, and they absolutely love it,” she says.
Production: Jones blends homemade oat milk with sweet potatoes, red peppers and spices. She then adds tapioca flour to ensure the cheese stretches when it melts. The mixture goes through multiple setting stages to ensure the melting properties and flavors are “just right,” she says.
Buy: Find Rooted Delights’ cheeses at Ellwood Thompson’s, Good Foods Grocery and online.
