Our project envisions a future where more home cooks can use microbial cultures as common ingredients in their cooking, akin to a “microbial spice rack.” Currently, microbial activity in the kitchen is limited to fermentations and using byproducts of fermentations. Our product will extend our research into isolating microbial metabolic pathways responsible for terroir to make microbial flavorings that could add complexity to food and humanize microorganisms away from being viewed as pathogens.

Our “Microbial Archive” initiative is a citizen science effort that would catalogue the diversity of kitchen microbiomes around the world and show us both the uniqueness of our own spaces and the interconnectedness of our lives via the microorganisms that show up all around the world. As yogurt cultures have been passed down around the world for centuries as a form of generational transfer, our initiative would recognize those traditions and create a catalogue of yogurt cultures that could hopefully enable even more cross-cultural exchange.