About Us

What is Basic Ingredient Solutions, Inc?

BISI is a collective of plant-based food ventures launched in 2022 to serve the Outer Sunset neighborhood with a growth plan to serve San Francisco more broadly as the company evolves.

 Our goal is to provide people with affordable, healthy, delicious plant-based options when they want to eat out, and to develop, produce and distribute retail products that can be pantry staples to enhance and facilitate plant-based diets.

The name reflects our values. We believe in starting with the most primary form of the ingredients we work with. Basic in this case is meant to imply primary, or whole. Using these carefully sourced basic ingredients we strive to produce food that is minimally processed. The food that we produce with these ingredients we hope will give people plant-based options that are a happy choice, rather than a chore. We also believe that it is essential that humanity move to a more plant-based diet to secure a future that includes species diversity and a healthy biosphere. We hope that our efforts will be a small part of many solutions.

 

How are we doing this?

Our initial efforts are focused on two ventures. 

The first is a once weekly street food stand at the Outer Sunset Farmers Market and Mercantile. At this stand we are making a limited menu of plant-based dishes – breakfast tacos and sesame noodles. Limiting the menu is allowing us to learn how to be more operationally efficient and refine our methods, as well as operate with minimal staff. Our initial vision is to price the menu items where we ourselves would want to purchase them, and to work diligently to serve them as quickly as possible so that customers do not have to wait more than a couple of minutes. We are also concentrating on making all the packaging compostable, with only one aspect (foil wrapper for tacos) that is recyclable.

 The second effort is producing a Sichuan style chili oil and marketing this product at the Farmers Market stand, while working on developing a retail and online presence. The chili oil is unique in the sector because of the ingredient sourcing and the recipe. The ingredients are difficult to find in the US, which has required extensive research and networking.  We are now able to source Cai Zi You (a virgin or cold pressed Rapeseed Oil) and Er Jiang Tiao chili peppers. These two basic ingredients are the critical underpinnings. Our recipe, while traditional, is the result of extensive development and trial and error and produces an oil that is balanced in its flavor profile.  Other products on the shelf in this sector have dominant flavors like fermented black bean, or fried garlic, that color any dish they are added to. Our chili oil instead harmonizes with other flavors and heightens them, only subtly lending its spice complement to the whole dish. It is spicy and numbing (the classic Sichuan Ma La flavor profile) but this is not overwhelming for the majority of people, rather it produces a pleasant feeling. The Cai Zi You has an excellent mouthfeel with good viscosity when cold, a unique property. And our method for infusing the chilis results in a crispy texture that adds another dimension to any dish where it is used. The Er Jiang Tiao chili peppers have a unique complex flavor profile that we complement with other chiles for heat and color. Long term we think that chili oil will become a pantry staple for many people, as it is in our house. Just like soy sauce was relatively uncommon 30 years ago but is now in every refrigerator, we think that chili oil has the same potential.

 What is the long-term plan?

 Our vision for the next year is to use the Outer Sunset Farmers Market stand to give people in the neighborhood a weekly option to get a healthy, delicious, fast, and affordable meal. As we get better at the food service aspect, we may explore adding dishes to the menu, or changing our offerings based on customer response. We also hope that the stand serves to bring awareness to the chili oil product and begins to develop a clientele for that market. We are simultaneously working on sourcing and production methods to increase our output, with a one-year plan of having basic ingredient solutions chili oil on retail shelves.