Meet Shark Tank’s First Kosher Food Winner

Image by Screenshot
Well, that should buy a lot of sushi.
Guy Vaknin, the vegan-cuisine innovator who took his Beyond Sushi concept to ABC-TV’s Shark Tank Sunday night, has scored a $1.5 million investment from “shark” Lori Greiner and “guest shark” Matt Higgins, Eater reports.
Vaknin’s victory makes Beyond Sushi the first vegan “Shark Tank” winner – as well as the show’s first kosher food contestant.
The investment also makes Beyond Sushi a sibling of sorts with hot restaurant brands Momofuku and Bluestone Lane, both of which Higgins and Greiner co-own through RSE Ventures, their holding company.
As Vaknin told the Forward last week, the gist of his Shark Tank pitch was to “to grow business into a national brand. I think it could be the leading plant-based brand in the country,” he said. “The main focus is restaurants, but it’s also possible we’ll do wholesale and products that relate to our mission.” Beyond Sushi now employs more than a hundred people, Vaknin said; another location is set to open in Manhattan this year, with at least three more set for 2019.
Back in 2012, the Forward was one of the first to report on Beyond Sushi’s debut, when the company consisted of one counter – with Vaknin behind it slicing sushi rolls.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 2
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 3
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 4
Culture How two Jewish names — Kohen and Mira — are dividing red and blue states
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward ‘Another Jewish warrior’: Fine wins special election for U.S. House seat
-
Fast Forward A Chicagoan wanted to protest Elon Musk — and put a swastika sticker on a Jewish man’s Tesla
-
Fast Forward NY attorney general orders car wash to stop ripping off Jews with antisemitic ‘Passover special’
-
Fast Forward Cory Booker proclaims, ‘Hineni’ — I am here — 19 hours into anti-Trump Senate speech
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.