Mood Booster with
Pzaz’s Jonah Reider
July 22, 2022
Chef and culinary entrepreneur Jonah Reider talks about switching gears from cooking, relishing the small wins, and keeping a sense of optimism.
If there’s one thing Jonah Reider loves more than food, it’s a new project. Over the past decade, Reider has worked as a chef and culinary expert across food spaces—from cooking pop-ups to a column for Food & Wine to his intimate Pith Supper Club, which he expanded on with a line of jams, spices, and pantry staples during the pandemic. The lockdown also allowed Reider to hit reset and, like many others, consider what’s next. “When I started cooking and doing culinary work professionally, I was studying economics in school. I’ve always struggled to reconcile those two interests of mine,” says the 28-year-old, who eventually took a leap of faith in an unexpected direction for his latest venture.
This summer, Reider launched Pzaz, an energy mist in the form of flavored breath sprays concocted using plant-based caffeine, electrolytes, and vitamins. Designed to energize without the crash that comes with normal caffeine, Pzaz is adding to the mix of energy drinks and products found in New York bodegas and, as of this week, 130 Urban Outfitters stores across the country. Here, Reider lets us in on finding new momentum outside of food and building a business unlike anything he has done before.
QCooking and food has been your career focus up until now, and Pzaz is a total 180. What prompted that?
AA lot of what I like about food and beverage is how a really good meal is something you have to just be there for. It's so experiential, it's so ephemeral, and that's what makes it very satisfying. I was struggling to reconcile this passion with a desire to cut my teeth on a scalable business venture… to build something that could sell to a lot of people and impact people's lives. And so this project came to be after constantly thinking about this and watching a lot of people I respect and admire start to do that and commercialize an interest in food and beverage in their own way. I started to get excited about applying some of the things I've learned about flavor and brand and experience. I was looking at a lot of bodegas in New York. I was also thinking about growing up in the suburbs and how frequently we would stop at a gas station to pick up drinks and snacks and gum, and how much it was in my day-to-day life, going after school or before a party with friends. And then that kind of led me to this obsession with the energy category.
QCooking and food has been your career focus up until now, and Pzaz is a total 180. What prompted that?
AA lot of what I like about food and beverage is how a really good meal is something you have to just be there for. It's so experiential, it's so ephemeral, and that's what makes it very satisfying. I was struggling to reconcile this passion with a desire to cut my teeth on a scalable business venture… to build something that could sell to a lot of people and impact people's lives. And so this project came to be after constantly thinking about this and watching a lot of people I respect and admire start to do that and commercialize an interest in food and beverage in their own way. I started to get excited about applying some of the things I've learned about flavor and brand and experience. I was looking at a lot of bodegas in New York. I was also thinking about growing up in the suburbs and how frequently we would stop at a gas station to pick up drinks and snacks and gum, and how much it was in my day-to-day life, going after school or before a party with friends. And then that kind of led me to this obsession with the energy category.
QCooking and food has been your career focus up until now, and Pzaz is a total 180. What prompted that?
AA lot of what I like about food and beverage is how a really good meal is something you have to just be there for. It's so experiential, it's so ephemeral, and that's what makes it very satisfying. I was struggling to reconcile this passion with a desire to cut my teeth on a scalable business venture… to build something that could sell to a lot of people and impact people's lives. And so this project came to be after constantly thinking about this and watching a lot of people I respect and admire start to do that and commercialize an interest in food and beverage in their own way. I started to get excited about applying some of the things I've learned about flavor and brand and experience. I was looking at a lot of bodegas in New York. I was also thinking about growing up in the suburbs and how frequently we would stop at a gas station to pick up drinks and snacks and gum, and how much it was in my day-to-day life, going after school or before a party with friends. And then that kind of led me to this obsession with the energy category.
"IT'S CELEBRATING REALLY SMALL WINS AND FEELING GOOD ABOUT SMALL IMPROVEMENTS AND CONSTANTLY LOOKING TOWARDS THE NEXT OPTIMIZATION, THE NEXT IMPROVEMENT."
QCooking and food has been your career focus up until now, and Pzaz is a total 180. What prompted that?
AA lot of what I like about food and beverage is how a really good meal is something you have to just be there for. It's so experiential, it's so ephemeral, and that's what makes it very satisfying. I was struggling to reconcile this passion with a desire to cut my teeth on a scalable business venture… to build something that could sell to a lot of people and impact people's lives. And so this project came to be after constantly thinking about this and watching a lot of people I respect and admire start to do that and commercialize an interest in food and beverage in their own way. I started to get excited about applying some of the things I've learned about flavor and brand and experience. I was looking at a lot of bodegas in New York. I was also thinking about growing up in the suburbs and how frequently we would stop at a gas station to pick up drinks and snacks and gum, and how much it was in my day-to-day life, going after school or before a party with friends. And then that kind of led me to this obsession with the energy category.
QCooking and food has been your career focus up until now, and Pzaz is a total 180. What prompted that?
AA lot of what I like about food and beverage is how a really good meal is something you have to just be there for. It's so experiential, it's so ephemeral, and that's what makes it very satisfying. I was struggling to reconcile this passion with a desire to cut my teeth on a scalable business venture… to build something that could sell to a lot of people and impact people's lives. And so this project came to be after constantly thinking about this and watching a lot of people I respect and admire start to do that and commercialize an interest in food and beverage in their own way. I started to get excited about applying some of the things I've learned about flavor and brand and experience. I was looking at a lot of bodegas in New York. I was also thinking about growing up in the suburbs and how frequently we would stop at a gas station to pick up drinks and snacks and gum, and how much it was in my day-to-day life, going after school or before a party with friends. And then that kind of led me to this obsession with the energy category.
QCooking and food has been your career focus up until now, and Pzaz is a total 180. What prompted that?
AA lot of what I like about food and beverage is how a really good meal is something you have to just be there for. It's so experiential, it's so ephemeral, and that's what makes it very satisfying. I was struggling to reconcile this passion with a desire to cut my teeth on a scalable business venture… to build something that could sell to a lot of people and impact people's lives. And so this project came to be after constantly thinking about this and watching a lot of people I respect and admire start to do that and commercialize an interest in food and beverage in their own way. I started to get excited about applying some of the things I've learned about flavor and brand and experience. I was looking at a lot of bodegas in New York. I was also thinking about growing up in the suburbs and how frequently we would stop at a gas station to pick up drinks and snacks and gum, and how much it was in my day-to-day life, going after school or before a party with friends. And then that kind of led me to this obsession with the energy category.
