Protein Bars & Kimchi & Bagels, Oh My

by Lisa Reisman The New Haven independent

Onika Bent, founder of Black Girl Kimchi, winning the inaugural Chris Marcocci Emerging Brand Award.

In the end, there was no clear winner.

Would it be canned milk so fresh and delicious that it would make milk viral again? Award-winning bagels with “double-proofed” seeds that stay on the bagel? A sauce with flavors that ranged from Curry Coolada to Sweet Yak to Beer Nutz?

The occasion: Saturday’s pitch competition at the Big Connecticut Food Event at Yale School of Management’s Evans Hall. Organized by the CT Food Launchpad, the annual one-day event, in its fourth year, brought together over 30 Connecticut-based food and beverage businesses with a mission to strengthen the growth of the state’s food economy and get more local brands on grocery shelves.

Before the competition, there were intensive one-on-one coaching sessions, industry panel discussions, and another competition, one for emerging brands. That part, said chef, food justice activist, and event organizer Tagan Engel, as she stood amid the hubbub of tabling participants earlier Saturday afternoon, “is about connecting innovative food entrepreneurs often toiling in obscurity with people established in Connecticut’s food ecosystem.”

Just then, attendees were summoned to the auditorium for the highly anticipated pitch competition. At stake, to be determined by judges from Bozzuto’s, Whole Foods, and Pip’s Heirloom Snacks, among others: a $10,000 grand prize, with $5,000 going to the second-place winner, $2,500 to the third, and $1,250 to the two runner-ups.

Finalists and judges at the 2026 Big CT Food Event: from left, Da Last Drip’s Donovan Evans; Arshad Bahl of Amrita; John (judge), Moozy’s Brie Hyde; Kobla Asamoah of Slow Money NYC, judge; Danielle Lutsky of Plantidote; Chaka Wade, managing partner, Fullerfield Capital, judge; Justin Lindemayer of Pip’s Heirloom Snacks, judge; Scott Rowe of Bozzuto’s, judge; Craig Hutchinson, Olmo Bagels.

The eventual champion was Arshad Bahl’s Amrita protein bars, which came into being when Bahl’s young son was diagnosed with autism and severe gastrointestinal issues at the age of two. Finding studies that correlated autism and GI issues, Bahl and his wife set out to create a low-inflammation diet for their son.

There was nothing. “So we created our own protein snack,” he told the audience of 90, one that was low in allergens and sugar and plant-based, and naming it for the Sanskrit word for divine nectar of the gods.

Bahl said his son will soon graduate from RPI with a bachelor’s degree. He showed a slide of Jack, among the employees at his manufacturing facility with developmental disabilities. “They are why I do this,” he said.

Donovan Evans, founder of Da Last Drip, the second-place winner, recalled himself experimenting with foods while growing up. “We didn’t study the periodic table at my house,” he said. “Instead of learning about uranium, I learned about cayenne pepper, paprika, and raising agents.”

He professed his love for wings—and his dismay on searching for a viable sauce at the grocery store. “Highly processed, limited use, zero innovation, same recipes, same boring packaging,” he said, shaking his head.

That’s how Da Last Drip was born in his Hartford kitchen. From there, he and his team tested their products at events, festivals, and expos. “We saw that people wanted bold flavor and better options, so we leaned into exotic flavors,” he said—among them, Sweet and Spicy Peanut Butter, Monkey Blood, and Holy Cacao. “Our customers built the blueprint for our entire product line.”

Among the reasons third-place winner Olmo Bagels is venturing into wholesale from its Whitney Avenue headquarters just down the road: unlike New York bagels, they’re “not dense and not boiled, with seeds falling everything,” Chief Operating Officer Craig Hutchinson wryly told the crowd. Unlike Montreal ones, they don’t “break your teeth, and they’re not too thin for a sandwich.”

With the fresh-milled grains in its bagels, its “steam, not boil” process, and its “seed proofing” that keeps the seeds on the bagels, Olmo has consistently won national acclaim, including the grand prize at BagelFest 2023, since its 2018 founding. Now, according to Hutchinson, it’s time to expand. “One investment in bagging and freezing equipment is all that separates Olmo from putting a New Haven-style bagel on the shelves of coffee shops, specialty grocers, and institutions across Connecticut and beyond,” he said.  

Brie Hyde, head of dairy ventures and sales for Ellington’s Oakridge Farm, issued a challenge for the first-ever farm-fresh milk in a can, which tied for fourth place. “Let’s replace our reach for soda, for juice,” she said, reminding the crowd that “milk is the original superfood.”

Designed as a “grab and go” drink to make milk more accessible and appealing, Moozy is available in flavors like regular whole, chocolate, coffee, and horchata. “Let’s make milk a shareable food experience,” she said.

Arguably, the highlight of the event came with the sheer ingenuity of the emerging brands—among them, Aves by Craves cheesecakes-to-go in a jar; Purple Drop, a Peruvian “super drink” made of craft-brewed purple corn; and Aasaaska, a “Black Latina woman-owned, young male-led” local honey-making operation based out of Hartford.

None more so, perhaps, than Black Girl Kimchi, which took home the inaugural Chris Marcocci Emerging Brand Award, named for Marcocci, a champion for food entrepreneurs, who died in 2024. The award came with a $10,000 check.

“We are not trying to change Korean kimchi,” founder Onika Bent said earlier in the day. “We are expanding what kimchi is in the diaspora,” using collard greens, okra, baby bok choy, with jerk flavor. “It’s a love of fermentation and cultures plus the health benefits of probiotics.”

Upon hearing her name, announced by Marcocci’s wife Rita, Bent dropped to her knees and covered her face. “This means everything,” she said.