Jonathan Van Ness and Antoni Porowski on Their New Gourmet Pet Brand and Halloween Costume Plans

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For Queer Eye‘s food expert Antoni Porowski and hilarious hairstylist Jonathan Van Ness, the “zhuzhing” doesn’t stop at humans. The Netflix series co-stars both known to pamper the pets of their crew and makeover subjects (remember Porowski’s Corgi moment?), and fans of the Netflix series will recall Porowski’s journey in adopting a beagle-pitbull puppy, Neon.

They’ve combined their expertise (hair and self-care for JVN, healthy culinary upgrades for Porowski) and their passion for pets in the form of Yummers, a new brand for the furriest members of the family. Available at the company’s website and Petco, the line’s debut range ($15 to $30) includes gourmet dog and cat food mix-ins and functional meal toppers for addressing issues with dry skin, joints and hips, dull coats, digestion and heart health. Pet parents might be tempted to taste-test with delectable flavors such as salmon and sweet potato, cheddar cheese, chicken and ginger turkey and cranberry, and more.

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The duo worked with pet industry veteran Rebecca Rudisch to launch the company, which will eventually expand beyond food, says Porowski.

“During the pandemic, I started fostering [Neon] and started feeding her kibble. I got bored looking at the kibble every single day so I started figuring out what can I add, some kind of high-price treat situation to make the meal a little more palatable. If I’m going to add lemon zest, and flake salt to my meals, I should be adding something that’s dog approved too,” Porowski tells The Hollywood Reporter. “With Rebecca’s expertise and experience, she’s guided us along the way and we’ve come up with 14 mix-ins. And it’s just the beginning!”

Van Ness’ seven pets (a cat named Liza Meownelli is among his five felines and two dogs) were among the inspirations for starting Yummers.

“I was struggling to get Liza to eat because she really didn’t like the prescription dry food. Through testing some of our stuff that went on to become meal mix-ins, she was gobbling it down and she was finally starting to gain weight and got better,” they told THR. (Van Ness identifies as non-binary and uses they/she/he pronouns.)

“I have another cat who is 9 who has a bit of an icky lower back and hip [problems] and he was just getting a little older. I was doing these oil additives for him. So all of my cats needed different things that weren’t easy to find. Some of them were such a hunt and there were things that were really necessary for my animals and that’s how Yummers came into fruition. It’s been so fun to create this together with a friend. And we think there’s so many other pet parents out there who need to fill out their pets’ diets for a multitude of reasons and Yummers is going to be such a good help for that,” explains Van Ness.

“I know this is TMI, but the poop is giving solid! They’re feeling good they’re looking good, yes! And I have one cat who has such IBS (irritable bowel syndrome), literally if you look Liza Meownell wrong, honey, if you look at her wrong she’ll just poop everywhere. This additive has her so solid and consistent. We’re here for it,” Van Ness adds.

Rudisch, who has led merchandising and business development for Petco, Target, 7-Eleven and other blue-chip companies, adds, “these two inspired me like you wouldn’t believe. As someone who’s been in the pet, retail and consumer industries for a long time, I did what I always do and I started doing the research. I learned that what these two do with their own pets is exactly what consumers are doing today in terms of bringing more variety to meals, whether it’s to make them more tastier or to make them more healthy. The fun part for me is creating with these two what I believe is an incredible brand that is going to inspire pet parents to do even more to love their pets. We’re just getting started with meal toppers and mix-ins and it’s going to be fun to give people permission to do some really great things at mealtime with Yummers.”

Read on for more from our conversation, and shop the brand online below or at Yummerspets.com and Petco.

How did Yummers come to fruition, and what has it been like working together?

JVN: Personally, I’ve been obsessed with Antoni since the day I laid on my eyes on him. We’re very good friends. We both love pets. I had two cats when we started Queer Eye, I’ve now grown my herd to five cats, I have two dogs. Antoni has since adopted a dog. Antoni would very much load up on Benadryl and come over to see the cats throughout our journey on Queer Eye because he’s a little allergic to cats but we walk our dogs together. We’ve always bonded over our love for our pets. I’ve always posted a lot about my pets [on social media] and just how much I love them.

One day we were minding our own business one day towards the end of 2019 Rebecca called us and was like — I’m paraphrasing here — “Quaints! (Acquaintances!) I have some ideas I’d love to chat about it.” And that’s where meal mix-ins kind of came in, it was a really super cool process because at first, we weren’t exactly sure. And through our conversations, by that time I had four cats, and one of them had really intense upset tummy digestive issues and because of that could only eat dry food.

We imagine there was a lot of taste-testing involved among all of the pets. What was that like?

RR: We did a lot, we did palatability testing not only with formal suppliers, but I’m sure Larry (one of Van Ness’ dogs) and Neon and the whole gang have tried dozens of different products and given feedback and there’s definitely been a lot that’s gone into it. Combining what we know is really important around nutrition which based on my experiences. We’re co-creating this brand in a way with Petco, they’ve been really helpful along the way too. We’ve been able to leverage their expertise in the way they’ve developed and formulated the products.

JVN: It was a lot of boxes, we’d have eight weeks for everyone to try things, and you’d give feedback. It was all done during the early part of the pandemic… It was a nebulous idea prior to the pandemic, and then towards the beginning of the pandemic it really solidified. Antoni had a dog. And we went through a lot of stages. At each stage, we had a couple of months to keep refining and seeing what was working. It was really exciting, we’d submit gorgeous feedback and keep refining our ingredients. And also for our packaging, the way the colors work, every part of the brand has been a collaborative, fun process bringing our personalities and our sensibilities of humor and fun. Even the name Yummers comes from Antoni making food on Queer Eye and me going, ‘yummers!”

It’s been a very passion- and fun-filled process. These ingredients are really simple but beautiful and nicely sourced, the freeze-drying process …my cats have never been shinier.

AP: It’s such a fascinating process truly, there are so many similarities in the way I approach recipe development in the kitchen — the size that things are cut so you can actually mix it in with the other [ingredients] so that pets don’t just simply eat the morsels or the freeze-dried food and leave the kibble at the end.

My favorite part of the whole thing — because I’ll be honest, Neon will eat a slipper if you tell her it’s a snack. But that said, when we found good quality ingredients like those high-priced treats, I’m just going to say it, that are stinky [like] things that are salmon-based, she’s happier when she eats it. It affects her coat, it affects her all around. And it brings me so much joy as a pet parent to see her thrilled and so excited for her meal, so truly everybody wins.