As natural orange wines surge across trend-driven bars, and kefir, kimchi and kombucha crowd supermarket shelves, fermentation is having a moment—and so is David Zilber. After redefining the craft at Copenhagen’s legendary Noma and co-authoring cult classic The Noma Guide to Fermentation, he’s now shaping the future of sustainable food at Novonesis, a global biotech leader. Coupled with his role as a judge on Top Chef Canada, Zilber’s voice resonates across both high science and popular culture. Ahead of the show’s new season premiere on October 14, we caught up with him to talk about microbial innovation, creative roots and why the future of food might just hinge on one of humanity’s oldest biotech tools.

You recently took on the role of application scientist with Denmark-based biotech firm Novonesis, where you’re blending culinary creativity with microbial science. What drew you to this position?

After leaving Noma, I was drawn to Novonesis through an ongoing relationship with its predecessor, Chr. Hansen—a 151-year-old Danish company and global leader in microbial cultures—where I had already been collaborating informally with their scientists on food fermentation experiments. Joining them in-house felt like a natural evolution of that work.

You’ve spoken of fermentation as a transformation and as a metaphor for our place in nature and society. How is that view informing your new role in biotech with Novonesis?

We have a future in the past, in that while [Novonesis] is a publicly traded company with shareholders and a CEO who speaks at Davos, the living organisms it relies on have been employed by humans for thousands of years. The company positions itself as a leader in sustainable industrial food solutions, and it is very true that biological solutions often result in a lower carbon footprint than synthetic chemicals or industrial manufacturing. As we face the challenges of the next hundred years, we may either fall back on ancient processes as complex systems fail or learn to lean into nature to temper the worst externalities of the modern world by including organisms that dampen the downsides.

What does the work actually look like day to day?

They built me a test kitchen where I experiment with off-the-shelf bacteria, yeast and moulds—either exploring my own ideas for new foods and drinks or working on internal projects to develop new cultures and products. One example is a patented bacteria we launched to improve the flavour of plant-based meats through fermentation, making them taste cleaner and more earthy. I also customize microbes for recipes, serving as an applied food scientist who finds new uses for proven microbial tools—now within a newly merged company that combines bacteria and enzymes for solutions across food, agriculture, biofuels and more.

Is there a particular type of food or product you find yourself working with often that’s being directly shaped or influenced by your work?

I work extensively on plant-based meat alternatives, developing prototypes such as salami made solely from vegetables, fruits and legumes. I also focus on East Asian fermentations like tempeh and ongko, helping small start-ups refine their processes—all within a broader goal of making the food system more sustainable at an industrial level.

How did your upbringing at the intersection of Jewish and Caribbean cultures shape the way that you look at food and fermentation?

It afforded me an incredible openness to the world of food at large. Growing up in Toronto, my close friends were South Asian, Taiwanese, and Romanian Jewish, and we’d eat at each other’s houses—pickles and cabbage one night, Chinese noodles or dried mango the next, or shake and bake chicken and gefilte fish at mine. That experience shaped how I raise my own kid—not letting him eat the same thing twice—so he never settles on what’s “normal.” It underwrites my openness to trying funky ferments or unfamiliar foods, and it colours how I think about recipes and food culture, even if I’m not in the lab trying to make the world’s best Jamaican hot sauce.

Now that you’re a judge on Top Chef Canada, how do you balance your scientific expertise with your creative, cultural roots when assessing a dish? What do you look for beyond flavour?

I look for technique, a story and a totality of little things that make a complete picture; judging food competitions feels instinctive, like something one of my first chefs told me about cooking meat: you touch it, and you just know. It’s not just about what I like, but about why one dish is more complete, better seasoned, more precise or tells a better story—it becomes a critique of art.

Top Chef Canada premieres on October 14 at 10 p.m. EST on Flavour Network and streams on STACKTV.