Prince Andrew facing fresh questions about business dealings days after accuser Virginia Giuffre shock death
Prince Andrew's famously opaque business dealings have become even more convoluted after the BBC revealed bombshell new claims about the Duke of York's finances.
On Tuesday, the British public broadcaster uncovered that Andrew's defunct start up Pitch@Palace was secretly administered for two years by a firm controlled by the controversial millionaire Doug Barrowman.
Pitch@Palace was launched by the Duke of York in 2014 as a Shark Tank-style platform for UK entrepreneurs to match up with potential investors.
However, the venture was shuttered following the Duke of York's career-ending interview with BBC Newsnight in 2019, in which he responded to sexual abuse claims brought by Virginia Giuffre.
The Duke of York has denied the allegations but settled a multi-million dollar civil claim with the Jeffrey Epstein victim in 2021.
Giuffre, who claimed she was trafficked for sex to Andrew when she was just a teenager, took her own life last week at age 41.
Mr Barrowman has faced controversy in the UK after he was linked to a series of tax avoidance companies that may have assisted their clients in submitting misleading claims to the British tax office.
According to documents reviewed by the BBC, Pitch@Palace was held by Knox House Trustees (UK), which was controlled and ultimately owned by Mr Barrowman, from 2021 until 2023.
A lawyer for Mr Barrowman told the BBC said he "at no time... had any business or personal involvement with the duke".
Nevertheless, the revelation has shone fresh light on Andrew's complicated finances.
Earlier this year, The Duke of York reportedly agreed to a commercial agreement with a Dutch-based firm to commercially exploit contacts he made from his Pitch@Palace initiative.
Under the agreement, Andrew will reportedly be paid for each deal SBC strikes in territories worldwide, potentially earning him millions of pounds in total.
The deal was brokered last year around the time King Charles removed about £1 million ($1.9 million AUD) in annual funding from his brother and was seeking to evict the Yorks from Royal Lodge.
Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson have continued to live together at Royal Lodge after reportedly agreeing to pay for the colossal home's upkeep out of their own pocket.
Royal author Andrew Lownie, who is currently working on a book about the Yorks' marriage, previously told SkyNews.com.au that Andrew's biggest scandal is 'financial rather than sexual'.
'(Andrew) now says he has sources of income that allow him to stay at Royal Lodge and he needs to come clean about what those sources of income are,' he said.
Mr Lownie's book will explore how the Duke and Duchess of York may have been compromised by other foreign powers, including during Andrew's time as a special representative for British trade.
'They're useful idiots for these people,' he said of the Yorks' possible value to foreign spies and businessmen.
'Andrew was receiving high level briefings on defence, until it was stopped.
'He was privy to a lot of sensitive information possibly connected to national security, not least from his time in the navy.' NEED TO TALK TO SOMEONE?
Lifeline (24-hour crisis line): 131 114
Beyond Blue: 1300 22 4636 or beyondblue.org.au
Kids Helpline: 1800 55 1800 or kidshelpline.com.au
Headspace: 1800 650 890 or headspace.org.au
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sky News AU
39 minutes ago
- Sky News AU
Teen dies in e-scooter crash at Mareeba, Queensland
A young man has died after falling from an electric scooter in regional Queensland. The crash tragic accident happened in the town of Mareeba, near Cairns, on Tuesday night. A police spokeswoman told NewsWire, as of late Wednesday morning, the deceased male was yet to be identified. Emergency services were called to Strattmann Street in Mareeba about 10.45pm. Mareeba is about 60km west of Cairns. The male suffered critical head injuries and died at the scene. The spokeswoman said the police believe there were no other vehicles involved in the crash. The forensic crash unit is investigating. The tragic incident is the latest electric scooter crash to rock the country and follows the release of a report last week from doctors and researchers in Queensland highlighting the 'significant risk' to children from e-scooters. The report, published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, analysed 176 child e-scooter injury cases that presented to Sunshine Coast University Hospital between January 2023 and December 2024. The research found 71 per cent of cases were male, falls accounted for 78 per cent of crashes, while 13 per cent involved motor vehicles. Helmet noncompliance was documented in 42 per cent of the presentations, 12 per cent involved doubling, and 36 per cent exceeded the 25km/h speed limit. Further, fractures occurred in 37 per cent of cases, 18 per cent required computerised tomography scans and 11 per cent sustained life-threatening or potentially life-threatening injuries. Queensland has suffered a spate of e-scooter deaths and the Queensland government is looking to significantly tighten rules. Earlier this month, an 18-year-old male died after crashing his e-scooter on the Flinders Highway in Townsville. That crash was also a single-vehicle incident. Eight people died in e-scooter and e-bike crashes in Queensland in 2024. Queensland and the ACT are the only jurisdictions that allow under-16s to ride e-scooters. Queensland laws say anyone aged five to 15 must be supervised by an adult. The City of Perth has indefinitely banned the hiring of e-scooters, after the death of a 51 year-old pedestrian last month. A British working holiday-maker allegedly struck the man, and has been charged with death by dangerous driving while under the influence. Last month, the Queensland government announced a parliamentary inquiry into e-mobility safety. Originally published as Teen dies in e-scooter crash at Mareeba, far north Queensland
Perth Now
an hour ago
- Perth Now
Retailers fined for dodgy Black Friday sales
Three major Australian retailers have been fined for dodgy Black Friday sales. Jeweller Michael Hill, homewares retailer Global Retail Brands Australia, and Hairhouse Online have each paid a $19,800 fine following infringement notices from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), the regulator says. Paying fines does not amount to an admission of breaking the Australian Consumer Law. The consumer watchdog issued the infringement notices after finding the retailers were selling non-discounted items despite their website homepages spruiking 'sitewide' sales or sales on 'everything'. The discrepancies were found during a sweep the ACCC did of Black Friday sales, the period at the end of November where retailers typically have large discounts. Black Friday sales in Australia have extended to the whole of November, not just the end of the month. NewsWire / Luis Enrique Ascui Credit: News Corp Australia 'Businesses that make false discount claims not only risk misleading consumers, they also compete unfairly against other businesses which correctly state the nature of their sales,' ACCC deputy chair Catriona Lowe said. ACCC analysis shows that while Michael Hill had a prominent banner on its homepage promoting a 'member event' 25 per cent off sitewide sale, some items were not discounted. 'Michael Hill's statement may have misled consumers, and contravened the Australian Consumer Law, because some of the products in its online store were not part of the sale and were not discounted,' Ms Lowe said. Global Retail Brands Australia owns MyHouse, which has 28 physical stores in Australia, plus a range of similar homewares businesses. Splashed across the MyHouse e-store late last year was an ad saying 'everything' was subject to a Black Friday sale with discounts up to 60 per cent. The ad also promised an 'extra' 20 per cent off. 'We say this was misleading because the extra 20 per cent discount was not available on all of its products,' Ms Lowe said. 'Retailers need to ensure that their advertising makes it clear to consumers which products are discounted and by how much.' Hairhouse Online promised 20 to 50 per cent off 'sitewide' for Black Friday sales. More than one-quarter of items on the site were not discounted at all, the ACCC says. The haircare retailer is owned by Melbourne-based The Hairhouse Warehouse. Australians spent about $7bn on the Black Friday sales in 2024. NewsWire has contacted the three companies for comment.
The Advertiser
an hour ago
- The Advertiser
100 years in the making: What makes Kewpie Mayonnaise so irresistible
It's arguably the world's most recognisable mayonnaise bottle. Kewpie's label-less pear shape, aside from an embossed logo and the plastic packaging it comes in, and its bright red lid. It's a stroke of marketing brilliance - many brands would kill to have that kind of recognition worldwide. Its appeal has jumped beyond the supermarket shelf. Where there was once a space reserved for "homemade aioli" or "housemade mayo" on cafe menus, it's this mass-produced mayonnaise that is standing in the spotlight now. And yet, there is no other condiment that has taken hold of the culinary world such as this one. You still see housemade barbecue sauce or homemade tomato relish on menus. And no burger joint is complete without a special sauce. But when it comes to mayonnaise, why do menus make a point of mentioning Kewpie mayo? Kewpie mayonnaise may seem like the newest thing in culinary, a Millennial food obsession that has influenced the hospitality industry. But you can't even say that Kewpie is the best thing since sliced bread - because the mayo predates it. The Japanese brand is celebrating its 100th year this year (sliced bread was first sold in 1928), and yes, there are celebrations happening in Japan to mark the occasion, including at the mayonnaise's one museum, Kewpie Mayo Terrace. But the inspiration behind Kewpie didn't come from Japan itself, but rather internationally. In the 1910s Kewpie's founder travelled to the United States as an intern with the Japanese Department of Agriculture and Commerce. It was there that he developed a fascination with orange marmalade and the mayonnaise that was on potato salad. "He found it really tasty," Kewpie Australia managing director Kyoichi Isonaga says. "And he also realised that the foreign people were taller, bigger than Japanese people. So he found out that this sauce was tasty and then very nutritious. So he wanted to make the Japanese people like that." And by the time the 1920s came around, Japan as a country had a growing interest in Western culture. Western-style dancing was in vogue, baseball, golf, and tennis were popular, and Hollywood movies were screened in large theatres. It was the perfect time to launch a Western-style condiment, and in 1925, Kewpie Mayo was first launched in the Japanese market, with the idea that it would be nutritionally beneficial. "Looking back at our history, at [a] time when eating raw vegetables was still uncommon in Japan, we launched mayonnaise and dressing, which helped to promote the eating of salad," the Kewpie website reads. The name of the mayo itself was also leaning into those Western influences. The kewpie character had been popular in America since it was first published in the Ladies' Home Journal by American cartoonist Rose O'Neill. This led to the Kewpie dolls that proved very popular in the US and elsewhere. Australia is a country that loves Japan. And we also love our sushi - a food that has boomed in recent decades. You can't go to a food court now without the option of sushi. In fact, we love it so much that we have our own influence on the iconic Japanese food. Sushi hand rolls first emerged in Australia in the late 1990s and spread through shopping centre-based chains in the 2000s. It's a style of sushi that in recent years has taken off elsewhere in the world, with "Australian-style" sushi stores first opening in the United States in 2023 and in the United Kingdom in 2024. But with these stores came the use of Kewpie mayo. "In the past 10 to 20 years, we tried to expand our brand abroad as well. I don't know the exact reason, but a lot of people, especially in Australia, know that the Kewpie brand," Kyoichi says. "There's a unique culture in Australia, there are a lot of sushi kiosks. I've never seen a country like that. So there are so many sushi bars or kiosks. Of course, other countries have a sushi restaurant, but not that many in a sushi kiosk. And obviously, people use Kewpie mayo a lot. I think this is a wonderful reason. The people know the Japanese style, mayonnaise." And once people knew about Kewpie mayonnaise, the uses were endless. Now, places such as Recess in Griffith will opt for the Japanese-style mayonnaise over anything else. When the cafe first opened last year, they started making their own Japanese-style mayonnaise, but due to time and space constraints, they've started stocking the original. "Compared to traditional mayonnaise, it's more like umami, so it's more flavorful," chef Vance Arellano says. "We still mix our own yuzu juice into it, because I like to control the citrus flavour, but it's the Kewpie mayonnaise that we're using. "But it's a pretty big trend. Almost every cafe, restaurant, or home mainly has Kewpie mayo. "Social media has really helped it a lot. Those trends of baked sushi and things that so people got on board with this different kind of mayonnaise." While the packaging could make you believe that Kewpie is just the same (or similar) recipe with different branding, there are actually key differences when it comes to the recipe. Kewpie is made with only egg yolks, while whole-egg mayonnaise is obviously made with whole eggs. Yolks add richness and density to recipes, whereas egg whites tend to add a fluffy, light texture. The yolks are also used as an emulsifier, bringing fat, water and acid together, which is key to making a mayo. Effectively, if the yolk wasn't added with the vegetable oil, water and vinegar, it wouldn't combine and thicken. But Kewpie is actually quite proud of their emulsion process, because while mayonnaise generally has oil particles 0.005mm in size, they refine it further down, so it is between 0.002mm and 0.004mm, increasing the mayo's creaminess. The final difference is the vinegar. The secret ingredient, if you will. While other brands and homemade recipes use Western vinegars such as white and malt vinegar, Kewpie had to navigate the selection of Japanese vinegars, which are primarily rice-based. For Nakashima, the milder rice vinegar wasn't ideal for the mayonnaise, but he used it for the first few decades because what the founder considered ideal was not available. But in 1962, Kewpie founded Nishifu Industries Co., Ltd. (now Kewpie Jyozo Co., Ltd.) with the aim of specifically making vinegar for mayonnaise. This distilled vinegar (as it reads on the label) is added alongside the rice vinegar. "We mix a lot of types of vinegars - apple vinegar, malt vinegar. But this is very secretive," Kyoichi says. "But vinegar is key to the taste of mayonnaise. It's very important." And while the bottle has not always been what it is today - it was originally released in a glass jar - it does play a role in the flavour we know today. There are no preservatives in Kewpie mayo, which means that any oxygen can impact the flavour and quality of the product. So when the squeezy bottle was introduced in 1958, it was for a couple of key reasons. Firstly, the soft plastic allowed for ease of use, but it was also made up of various layers of different plastic, including a lining, that can help protect the mayo from oxygen. And secondly, the design allowed any oxygen in the top of the bottle to be replaced by nitrogen. It's arguably the world's most recognisable mayonnaise bottle. Kewpie's label-less pear shape, aside from an embossed logo and the plastic packaging it comes in, and its bright red lid. It's a stroke of marketing brilliance - many brands would kill to have that kind of recognition worldwide. Its appeal has jumped beyond the supermarket shelf. Where there was once a space reserved for "homemade aioli" or "housemade mayo" on cafe menus, it's this mass-produced mayonnaise that is standing in the spotlight now. And yet, there is no other condiment that has taken hold of the culinary world such as this one. You still see housemade barbecue sauce or homemade tomato relish on menus. And no burger joint is complete without a special sauce. But when it comes to mayonnaise, why do menus make a point of mentioning Kewpie mayo? Kewpie mayonnaise may seem like the newest thing in culinary, a Millennial food obsession that has influenced the hospitality industry. But you can't even say that Kewpie is the best thing since sliced bread - because the mayo predates it. The Japanese brand is celebrating its 100th year this year (sliced bread was first sold in 1928), and yes, there are celebrations happening in Japan to mark the occasion, including at the mayonnaise's one museum, Kewpie Mayo Terrace. But the inspiration behind Kewpie didn't come from Japan itself, but rather internationally. In the 1910s Kewpie's founder travelled to the United States as an intern with the Japanese Department of Agriculture and Commerce. It was there that he developed a fascination with orange marmalade and the mayonnaise that was on potato salad. "He found it really tasty," Kewpie Australia managing director Kyoichi Isonaga says. "And he also realised that the foreign people were taller, bigger than Japanese people. So he found out that this sauce was tasty and then very nutritious. So he wanted to make the Japanese people like that." And by the time the 1920s came around, Japan as a country had a growing interest in Western culture. Western-style dancing was in vogue, baseball, golf, and tennis were popular, and Hollywood movies were screened in large theatres. It was the perfect time to launch a Western-style condiment, and in 1925, Kewpie Mayo was first launched in the Japanese market, with the idea that it would be nutritionally beneficial. "Looking back at our history, at [a] time when eating raw vegetables was still uncommon in Japan, we launched mayonnaise and dressing, which helped to promote the eating of salad," the Kewpie website reads. The name of the mayo itself was also leaning into those Western influences. The kewpie character had been popular in America since it was first published in the Ladies' Home Journal by American cartoonist Rose O'Neill. This led to the Kewpie dolls that proved very popular in the US and elsewhere. Australia is a country that loves Japan. And we also love our sushi - a food that has boomed in recent decades. You can't go to a food court now without the option of sushi. In fact, we love it so much that we have our own influence on the iconic Japanese food. Sushi hand rolls first emerged in Australia in the late 1990s and spread through shopping centre-based chains in the 2000s. It's a style of sushi that in recent years has taken off elsewhere in the world, with "Australian-style" sushi stores first opening in the United States in 2023 and in the United Kingdom in 2024. But with these stores came the use of Kewpie mayo. "In the past 10 to 20 years, we tried to expand our brand abroad as well. I don't know the exact reason, but a lot of people, especially in Australia, know that the Kewpie brand," Kyoichi says. "There's a unique culture in Australia, there are a lot of sushi kiosks. I've never seen a country like that. So there are so many sushi bars or kiosks. Of course, other countries have a sushi restaurant, but not that many in a sushi kiosk. And obviously, people use Kewpie mayo a lot. I think this is a wonderful reason. The people know the Japanese style, mayonnaise." And once people knew about Kewpie mayonnaise, the uses were endless. Now, places such as Recess in Griffith will opt for the Japanese-style mayonnaise over anything else. When the cafe first opened last year, they started making their own Japanese-style mayonnaise, but due to time and space constraints, they've started stocking the original. "Compared to traditional mayonnaise, it's more like umami, so it's more flavorful," chef Vance Arellano says. "We still mix our own yuzu juice into it, because I like to control the citrus flavour, but it's the Kewpie mayonnaise that we're using. "But it's a pretty big trend. Almost every cafe, restaurant, or home mainly has Kewpie mayo. "Social media has really helped it a lot. Those trends of baked sushi and things that so people got on board with this different kind of mayonnaise." While the packaging could make you believe that Kewpie is just the same (or similar) recipe with different branding, there are actually key differences when it comes to the recipe. Kewpie is made with only egg yolks, while whole-egg mayonnaise is obviously made with whole eggs. Yolks add richness and density to recipes, whereas egg whites tend to add a fluffy, light texture. The yolks are also used as an emulsifier, bringing fat, water and acid together, which is key to making a mayo. Effectively, if the yolk wasn't added with the vegetable oil, water and vinegar, it wouldn't combine and thicken. But Kewpie is actually quite proud of their emulsion process, because while mayonnaise generally has oil particles 0.005mm in size, they refine it further down, so it is between 0.002mm and 0.004mm, increasing the mayo's creaminess. The final difference is the vinegar. The secret ingredient, if you will. While other brands and homemade recipes use Western vinegars such as white and malt vinegar, Kewpie had to navigate the selection of Japanese vinegars, which are primarily rice-based. For Nakashima, the milder rice vinegar wasn't ideal for the mayonnaise, but he used it for the first few decades because what the founder considered ideal was not available. But in 1962, Kewpie founded Nishifu Industries Co., Ltd. (now Kewpie Jyozo Co., Ltd.) with the aim of specifically making vinegar for mayonnaise. This distilled vinegar (as it reads on the label) is added alongside the rice vinegar. "We mix a lot of types of vinegars - apple vinegar, malt vinegar. But this is very secretive," Kyoichi says. "But vinegar is key to the taste of mayonnaise. It's very important." And while the bottle has not always been what it is today - it was originally released in a glass jar - it does play a role in the flavour we know today. There are no preservatives in Kewpie mayo, which means that any oxygen can impact the flavour and quality of the product. So when the squeezy bottle was introduced in 1958, it was for a couple of key reasons. Firstly, the soft plastic allowed for ease of use, but it was also made up of various layers of different plastic, including a lining, that can help protect the mayo from oxygen. And secondly, the design allowed any oxygen in the top of the bottle to be replaced by nitrogen. It's arguably the world's most recognisable mayonnaise bottle. Kewpie's label-less pear shape, aside from an embossed logo and the plastic packaging it comes in, and its bright red lid. It's a stroke of marketing brilliance - many brands would kill to have that kind of recognition worldwide. Its appeal has jumped beyond the supermarket shelf. Where there was once a space reserved for "homemade aioli" or "housemade mayo" on cafe menus, it's this mass-produced mayonnaise that is standing in the spotlight now. And yet, there is no other condiment that has taken hold of the culinary world such as this one. You still see housemade barbecue sauce or homemade tomato relish on menus. And no burger joint is complete without a special sauce. But when it comes to mayonnaise, why do menus make a point of mentioning Kewpie mayo? Kewpie mayonnaise may seem like the newest thing in culinary, a Millennial food obsession that has influenced the hospitality industry. But you can't even say that Kewpie is the best thing since sliced bread - because the mayo predates it. The Japanese brand is celebrating its 100th year this year (sliced bread was first sold in 1928), and yes, there are celebrations happening in Japan to mark the occasion, including at the mayonnaise's one museum, Kewpie Mayo Terrace. But the inspiration behind Kewpie didn't come from Japan itself, but rather internationally. In the 1910s Kewpie's founder travelled to the United States as an intern with the Japanese Department of Agriculture and Commerce. It was there that he developed a fascination with orange marmalade and the mayonnaise that was on potato salad. "He found it really tasty," Kewpie Australia managing director Kyoichi Isonaga says. "And he also realised that the foreign people were taller, bigger than Japanese people. So he found out that this sauce was tasty and then very nutritious. So he wanted to make the Japanese people like that." And by the time the 1920s came around, Japan as a country had a growing interest in Western culture. Western-style dancing was in vogue, baseball, golf, and tennis were popular, and Hollywood movies were screened in large theatres. It was the perfect time to launch a Western-style condiment, and in 1925, Kewpie Mayo was first launched in the Japanese market, with the idea that it would be nutritionally beneficial. "Looking back at our history, at [a] time when eating raw vegetables was still uncommon in Japan, we launched mayonnaise and dressing, which helped to promote the eating of salad," the Kewpie website reads. The name of the mayo itself was also leaning into those Western influences. The kewpie character had been popular in America since it was first published in the Ladies' Home Journal by American cartoonist Rose O'Neill. This led to the Kewpie dolls that proved very popular in the US and elsewhere. Australia is a country that loves Japan. And we also love our sushi - a food that has boomed in recent decades. You can't go to a food court now without the option of sushi. In fact, we love it so much that we have our own influence on the iconic Japanese food. Sushi hand rolls first emerged in Australia in the late 1990s and spread through shopping centre-based chains in the 2000s. It's a style of sushi that in recent years has taken off elsewhere in the world, with "Australian-style" sushi stores first opening in the United States in 2023 and in the United Kingdom in 2024. But with these stores came the use of Kewpie mayo. "In the past 10 to 20 years, we tried to expand our brand abroad as well. I don't know the exact reason, but a lot of people, especially in Australia, know that the Kewpie brand," Kyoichi says. "There's a unique culture in Australia, there are a lot of sushi kiosks. I've never seen a country like that. So there are so many sushi bars or kiosks. Of course, other countries have a sushi restaurant, but not that many in a sushi kiosk. And obviously, people use Kewpie mayo a lot. I think this is a wonderful reason. The people know the Japanese style, mayonnaise." And once people knew about Kewpie mayonnaise, the uses were endless. Now, places such as Recess in Griffith will opt for the Japanese-style mayonnaise over anything else. When the cafe first opened last year, they started making their own Japanese-style mayonnaise, but due to time and space constraints, they've started stocking the original. "Compared to traditional mayonnaise, it's more like umami, so it's more flavorful," chef Vance Arellano says. "We still mix our own yuzu juice into it, because I like to control the citrus flavour, but it's the Kewpie mayonnaise that we're using. "But it's a pretty big trend. Almost every cafe, restaurant, or home mainly has Kewpie mayo. "Social media has really helped it a lot. Those trends of baked sushi and things that so people got on board with this different kind of mayonnaise." While the packaging could make you believe that Kewpie is just the same (or similar) recipe with different branding, there are actually key differences when it comes to the recipe. Kewpie is made with only egg yolks, while whole-egg mayonnaise is obviously made with whole eggs. Yolks add richness and density to recipes, whereas egg whites tend to add a fluffy, light texture. The yolks are also used as an emulsifier, bringing fat, water and acid together, which is key to making a mayo. Effectively, if the yolk wasn't added with the vegetable oil, water and vinegar, it wouldn't combine and thicken. But Kewpie is actually quite proud of their emulsion process, because while mayonnaise generally has oil particles 0.005mm in size, they refine it further down, so it is between 0.002mm and 0.004mm, increasing the mayo's creaminess. The final difference is the vinegar. The secret ingredient, if you will. While other brands and homemade recipes use Western vinegars such as white and malt vinegar, Kewpie had to navigate the selection of Japanese vinegars, which are primarily rice-based. For Nakashima, the milder rice vinegar wasn't ideal for the mayonnaise, but he used it for the first few decades because what the founder considered ideal was not available. But in 1962, Kewpie founded Nishifu Industries Co., Ltd. (now Kewpie Jyozo Co., Ltd.) with the aim of specifically making vinegar for mayonnaise. This distilled vinegar (as it reads on the label) is added alongside the rice vinegar. "We mix a lot of types of vinegars - apple vinegar, malt vinegar. But this is very secretive," Kyoichi says. "But vinegar is key to the taste of mayonnaise. It's very important." And while the bottle has not always been what it is today - it was originally released in a glass jar - it does play a role in the flavour we know today. There are no preservatives in Kewpie mayo, which means that any oxygen can impact the flavour and quality of the product. So when the squeezy bottle was introduced in 1958, it was for a couple of key reasons. Firstly, the soft plastic allowed for ease of use, but it was also made up of various layers of different plastic, including a lining, that can help protect the mayo from oxygen. And secondly, the design allowed any oxygen in the top of the bottle to be replaced by nitrogen. It's arguably the world's most recognisable mayonnaise bottle. Kewpie's label-less pear shape, aside from an embossed logo and the plastic packaging it comes in, and its bright red lid. It's a stroke of marketing brilliance - many brands would kill to have that kind of recognition worldwide. Its appeal has jumped beyond the supermarket shelf. Where there was once a space reserved for "homemade aioli" or "housemade mayo" on cafe menus, it's this mass-produced mayonnaise that is standing in the spotlight now. And yet, there is no other condiment that has taken hold of the culinary world such as this one. You still see housemade barbecue sauce or homemade tomato relish on menus. And no burger joint is complete without a special sauce. But when it comes to mayonnaise, why do menus make a point of mentioning Kewpie mayo? Kewpie mayonnaise may seem like the newest thing in culinary, a Millennial food obsession that has influenced the hospitality industry. But you can't even say that Kewpie is the best thing since sliced bread - because the mayo predates it. The Japanese brand is celebrating its 100th year this year (sliced bread was first sold in 1928), and yes, there are celebrations happening in Japan to mark the occasion, including at the mayonnaise's one museum, Kewpie Mayo Terrace. But the inspiration behind Kewpie didn't come from Japan itself, but rather internationally. In the 1910s Kewpie's founder travelled to the United States as an intern with the Japanese Department of Agriculture and Commerce. It was there that he developed a fascination with orange marmalade and the mayonnaise that was on potato salad. "He found it really tasty," Kewpie Australia managing director Kyoichi Isonaga says. "And he also realised that the foreign people were taller, bigger than Japanese people. So he found out that this sauce was tasty and then very nutritious. So he wanted to make the Japanese people like that." And by the time the 1920s came around, Japan as a country had a growing interest in Western culture. Western-style dancing was in vogue, baseball, golf, and tennis were popular, and Hollywood movies were screened in large theatres. It was the perfect time to launch a Western-style condiment, and in 1925, Kewpie Mayo was first launched in the Japanese market, with the idea that it would be nutritionally beneficial. "Looking back at our history, at [a] time when eating raw vegetables was still uncommon in Japan, we launched mayonnaise and dressing, which helped to promote the eating of salad," the Kewpie website reads. The name of the mayo itself was also leaning into those Western influences. The kewpie character had been popular in America since it was first published in the Ladies' Home Journal by American cartoonist Rose O'Neill. This led to the Kewpie dolls that proved very popular in the US and elsewhere. Australia is a country that loves Japan. And we also love our sushi - a food that has boomed in recent decades. You can't go to a food court now without the option of sushi. In fact, we love it so much that we have our own influence on the iconic Japanese food. Sushi hand rolls first emerged in Australia in the late 1990s and spread through shopping centre-based chains in the 2000s. It's a style of sushi that in recent years has taken off elsewhere in the world, with "Australian-style" sushi stores first opening in the United States in 2023 and in the United Kingdom in 2024. But with these stores came the use of Kewpie mayo. "In the past 10 to 20 years, we tried to expand our brand abroad as well. I don't know the exact reason, but a lot of people, especially in Australia, know that the Kewpie brand," Kyoichi says. "There's a unique culture in Australia, there are a lot of sushi kiosks. I've never seen a country like that. So there are so many sushi bars or kiosks. Of course, other countries have a sushi restaurant, but not that many in a sushi kiosk. And obviously, people use Kewpie mayo a lot. I think this is a wonderful reason. The people know the Japanese style, mayonnaise." And once people knew about Kewpie mayonnaise, the uses were endless. Now, places such as Recess in Griffith will opt for the Japanese-style mayonnaise over anything else. When the cafe first opened last year, they started making their own Japanese-style mayonnaise, but due to time and space constraints, they've started stocking the original. "Compared to traditional mayonnaise, it's more like umami, so it's more flavorful," chef Vance Arellano says. "We still mix our own yuzu juice into it, because I like to control the citrus flavour, but it's the Kewpie mayonnaise that we're using. "But it's a pretty big trend. Almost every cafe, restaurant, or home mainly has Kewpie mayo. "Social media has really helped it a lot. Those trends of baked sushi and things that so people got on board with this different kind of mayonnaise." While the packaging could make you believe that Kewpie is just the same (or similar) recipe with different branding, there are actually key differences when it comes to the recipe. Kewpie is made with only egg yolks, while whole-egg mayonnaise is obviously made with whole eggs. Yolks add richness and density to recipes, whereas egg whites tend to add a fluffy, light texture. The yolks are also used as an emulsifier, bringing fat, water and acid together, which is key to making a mayo. Effectively, if the yolk wasn't added with the vegetable oil, water and vinegar, it wouldn't combine and thicken. But Kewpie is actually quite proud of their emulsion process, because while mayonnaise generally has oil particles 0.005mm in size, they refine it further down, so it is between 0.002mm and 0.004mm, increasing the mayo's creaminess. The final difference is the vinegar. The secret ingredient, if you will. While other brands and homemade recipes use Western vinegars such as white and malt vinegar, Kewpie had to navigate the selection of Japanese vinegars, which are primarily rice-based. For Nakashima, the milder rice vinegar wasn't ideal for the mayonnaise, but he used it for the first few decades because what the founder considered ideal was not available. But in 1962, Kewpie founded Nishifu Industries Co., Ltd. (now Kewpie Jyozo Co., Ltd.) with the aim of specifically making vinegar for mayonnaise. This distilled vinegar (as it reads on the label) is added alongside the rice vinegar. "We mix a lot of types of vinegars - apple vinegar, malt vinegar. But this is very secretive," Kyoichi says. "But vinegar is key to the taste of mayonnaise. It's very important." And while the bottle has not always been what it is today - it was originally released in a glass jar - it does play a role in the flavour we know today. There are no preservatives in Kewpie mayo, which means that any oxygen can impact the flavour and quality of the product. So when the squeezy bottle was introduced in 1958, it was for a couple of key reasons. Firstly, the soft plastic allowed for ease of use, but it was also made up of various layers of different plastic, including a lining, that can help protect the mayo from oxygen. And secondly, the design allowed any oxygen in the top of the bottle to be replaced by nitrogen.
