Learn about Tempeh Tantrum
In 2003, Ryan Billig visited Indonesia to study gamelan, traditional Indonesian percussive music. During his time there, Ryan enjoyed the local food, especially the banana leaf-wrapped tempeh. Tempeh, a plant-based protein made from fermented soy beans, is something that had interested Ryan for a long time, especially when he was working as a cook and baker at Minneapolis’s Hard Times Café, making almost everything from whole foods. He’d made tofu before, but tempeh was different, and he didn’t know anyone making it. The tempeh he tasted in Indonesia was a fresh, versatile food, and sampling it there planted the seeds of inspiration. A year later during a bookstore run, Ryan happened upon The Book of Tempeh, which included detailed instructions for how to make the dish. And so, through a combination of trial, support from tempeh makers and friends in the Indonesian community, and weekly batches that went to friends and friends of friends, Ryan eventually opened Tempeh Tantrum in 2014.
