Eindhoven, 10 June 2025
With the publication of Mastering Food Innovation | Impact by Design, innovation strategist and food impactor Mary van Hoek-Hendriks introduces a powerful new standard for anyone working on the future of food. The book offers both a strategic and practical guide for entrepreneurs, food professionals and innovation teams from startups to multinationals to innovate faster, smarter, and with greater impact.
Innovation means believing in what no one else can yet see
“I am not crazy, I am just being first,” says Mary. “This sentence perfectly captures why I wrote Mastering Food Innovation. In the early years of my career, I often felt alone. Not lonely in company, but lost inside. No one was there to say: ‘You’re on the right track, keep going.’ No cheerleader. No mentor. No compass. Just a gnawing feeling that I could see something others could not yet, or did not want to, see. Opportunities that had no name. Visions that came too soon. Ideas that clashed with the status quo. There were moments when I seriously thought I was losing my mind. Why was I pursuing things no one seemed to want? Why was I talking about the food of the future when the market was still struggling with the present? Why did I hold on to a feeling I could barely explain? What I didn’t know then, but have learned after more than twenty years of pioneering, trial and error, is that real innovation is a battle. Against inertia. Against doubt. Against colleagues. Against systems that prefer the comfort of the familiar. Against your own uncertainty. And most of all, against the temptation to give up. Innovation doesn’t require answers, it requires courage. Trust in yourself, your vision, your pace. And the courage to step off the path, even when no one follows. That’s why I wrote this book.”
Design Rules, Tools & Fools: the recipe for innovation
According to author Mary van Hoek-Hendriks, successful innovation rests on three essential ingredients: Design Rules, Design Tools and Design Fools. Design Rules provide direction. In Mastering Food Innovation, Van Hoek-Hendriks introduces the Food Innovation Journey as a Design Rule, the model that helps translate ideas into scalable innovations with both social and commercial impact. The second ingredient, Design Tools, offers practical instruments to drive progress. From insight to action, from idea to realisation. The third ingredient, Design Fools, are the brave pioneers. People who colour outside the lines and simply start. Like Kipster, which is revolutionising the food system with circular poultry farming. And Mary’s own initiative, the Fruit & Veggie Brigade for Food Banks, which demonstrates how innovation can help combat food waste and support vulnerable communities. Together, these three ingredients form the foundation for real progress.
If you’re serious about reshaping the future of food, this book is your go-to manual. Packed with actionable advice and inspiration towards a healthy and sustainable future.
For Innovators in Food
Mastering Food Innovation is written for entrepreneurs, innovation managers, product developers, marketers and changemakers in the food sector, from startup and scale-up to SME and multinational. “This is a book for anyone who, like I once did, feels there is more out there. Who struggles with how to turn vision into reality. Who wants to develop and launch innovations despite resistance, rules and opinions. With this book, I want to be the cheerleader I once missed. The compass that offers direction amid the chaos. The mentor who reassures you when things get tough. This is no fairy tale. It is a journey. From idea to impact. From insight to introduction. I wasn’t crazy. I was just being first.”
Book Details
Title
MASTERING FOOD INNOVATION – Impact by Design
Author
Mary van Hoek-Hendriks
ISBN: 9789083557205
Publisher: Start a Food Story B.V.
Price: $89 / €85
Language: English
Available via: Amazon (worldwide) and shop (The Netherlands)
