As someone who truly loves butter, I found it almost impossible to wrap my head around what food tech company Savor was doing. Butter made without cows? It sounded unthinkable—at best, some kind of imitation “butter” I’d normally hard pass on.
But after experiencing an entire meal built around it—inside one of the Mission District’s most iconic victorians, surrounded by esteemed guests in the food innovation space, and San Francisco’s top chefs, and bakers—I was sold.
The lavish San Francisco launch dinner showcased Savor’s breakthrough in real time: a delicate asparagus tartlet with a rich, flaky crust; the perfect caramelization of spaetzle and mushrooms made possible by Savor’s higher smoke point; butter-roasted golden beets tucked into crispy panipuri shells; a decadent tart with caramel, ganache and a buttery crust and more. With every dish, Savor’s sustainably-crafted butter proved it wasn’t just a novelty—it was a shocking game-changer.
Backed by Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Savor, has achieved the unimaginable: creating the world’s first butter made from carbon, without relying on traditional agriculture.
The breakthrough wasn’t born from imitation or shortcuts. Instead, it’s the result of a scientific process that molecularly constructs fat out of carbon dioxide (CO₂), green hydrogen (GH₂), and methane (CH₄)—building real fats from the most fundamental elements of life. For consumers, the implications could be profound, reshaping not only the way we eat, but how we sustain a growing population while protecting the planet.
Founded in 2022 with a mission to create truly sustainable ingredients, Savor reached a major milestone this March: the commercial launch of its animal-and-plant-free butter. The announcement, arriving on the company’s third anniversary, caps years of research, development, and culinary innovation.
Savor’s rapid trajectory has already earned it a spot on Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies of 2025, and its CEO and co-founder Kathleen Alexander was recently honored as one of Inc. Magazine’s Female Founders 500.
“Savor was founded to find the most sustainable way to feed humanity. Truly sustainable solutions can’t just reduce our environmental footprint, they have to be affordable, approachable and craveable,” Alexander shared. “As the only technology with the potential to replace palm oil and other widely used fats with a very low-carbon equivalent within the next decade, Savor is positioned to make a substantial impact on global sustainability efforts in the food industry.”
Savor’s method dramatically slashes land use, water consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions. Unlike traditional agriculture, which cycles through plants and animals to create usable fats, Savor builds fats directly from carbon molecules under carefully controlled heat and pressure.
“Our technology begins with the most fundamental building blocks of life—carbon gases like carbon dioxide and methane,” Alexander explains. “Through a carefully controlled process involving heat and pressure, we transform these simple carbon gases directly into carbon chains. These chains are then converted into fatty acids—the essential building blocks of fats and oils—and ultimately into complete fat molecules.”
The result is chemically identical to the fats we consume daily, but produced without the burdens of farming. Savor’s platform also offers remarkable versatility, capable of mimicking the properties of everything from dairy fats to tropical oils—and even specialty fats used in cosmetics.
To celebrate the launch, Savor hosted special dinners in San Francisco and New York City, offering esteemed guests a first taste of its butter in action. Collaborations with high-profile restaurants such as Michelin-starred SingleThread, Atelier Crenn and ONE65, and beloved bakeries like Jane the Bakery, are already underway. These chefs and bakers haven’t just endorsed the product—they’ve rigorously stress-tested it across a range of demanding applications.
“Many chefs and bakers around the Bay Area have tested Savor butter, from its early prototypes around late 2023 to its commercial version,” says Pierre Coeurdeuil, Senior Manager of Strategic Partnerships. “They’ve been instrumental in pushing our product’s limits to make it better over time.”
In the world of pastry, butter must rise to an exacting standard—especially when it comes to laminated pastries like croissants. Early versions of Savor’s butter underwent relentless trials: melting, baking, laminating, freezing, and reheating.
“It was difficult, but we can proudly say that we did it!” Coeurdeuil shares. “As reported by practically all the chefs who tried it, Savor butter now performs better than any other butter alternative and is comparable to typical dairy butter.”
Incremental tweaks—adjusting fat content, melting points, and malleability—helped the team crack the code, thanks to meticulous feedback from leading chefs.
At Jane the Bakery, the results have been transformative. “At Jane the Bakery, we love using Savor Butter in our croissants because it delivers the rich taste and performance of traditional butter while being completely vegan and sustainable,” says Amanda Michael, Owner of Jane the Bakery. “Its exceptional quality ensures our pastries are flaky, flavorful, and indulgent, all while aligning with our goal to use environmentally friendly practices as much as possible.”
For Juan Contreras, Chef Pâtissier at Atelier Crenn, the shift felt natural. “[Savor butter] has gotten to the point where it’s like working with dairy-based butter…As guests of this planet, we have this obligation to be better and work with people who want to make a difference. I think it’s an amazing product.”
At SingleThread, the innovation struck a personal chord for Chef-Owner Kyle Connaughton. “I’m particularly interested in Savor because it’s this intersection of gastronomy and environment and technology,” Connaughton says. “We’re evaluating it based on its flavor, its deliciousness, what it can do as an ingredient in the functionality within our dishes.”
Meanwhile, the technical performance impressed Clement Goyffon, Executive Pastry Chef at ONE65 San Francisco, who worked Savor butter into a flaky shiitake brioche. “The difference between Savor butter and butter from cows is practically imperceptible,” he says. “Its melting point and stability are real advantages. We achieved perfect lamination without transfer between the fat and the gluten, and it gave an extraordinary melting profile to ganaches as well.”
Looking ahead, Goyffon believes products like Savor’s are the future. “The pastry and bakery industry is greatly impacted by climate change and overdemand. If we want to continue making the same delicious and indulgent products that people know and love, and maintain the same level of quality, we must turn to this type of innovation.”
While chef endorsements have propelled the butter’s credibility, Savor’s ambitions stretch beyond fine dining. Major consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies are collaborating with the company to explore large-scale applications, from plant-based confections to carbon-smart cosmetics. Savor’s proprietary technology allows for tunable fatty acid profiles, unlocking an array of possibilities far beyond dairy alternatives.
“We work with both major CPGs and boundary-pushing chefs because both are essential to our mission,” says Chiara Cecchini, VP of Commercialization. “Scope 3 emissions don’t shrink without scale. At the same time, smaller CPG innovators and chefs are often the ones willing to take bold creative risks and challenge the status quo.”
Having achieved self-affirmed GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe) status with the FDA, opened a 25,000-square-foot pilot production facility in Batavia, Illinois, and expanded its R&D headquarters in San Jose, Savor is building the foundation for rapid growth.
While some might worry that large partnerships could dilute culinary integrity, Savor sees it differently.
“When it comes to culinary integrity, we’re an ingredient company,” Cecchini says. “Our job is to deliver the best-quality, best-performing fats, and then let our partners express their own creativity.”
Looking ahead, Savor is laser-focused on reaching price parity with high-value fats like dairy and cocoa butter.
“We’re designing our first commercial facility to be able to achieve this price point,” Alexander says. “We are expecting to build toward that over the coming years with continued joint development and pilot trials.”
For Savor, the vision is clear: to change how the world makes—and thinks about—fat. In doing so, they’re not just building a more resilient food system. They’re offering a new blueprint for how science, sustainability, and flavor can come together to nourish the planet.