Lab-grown food startups already make gourmet cuisine

It’s been nearly eight years since a protest outside his restaurant in Soho, London, turned Alexis Gauthier into an enemy of foie gras. Faced with convincing arguments about the cruelty involved in its production – the “fatty liver” comes from force-fed ducks and geese – the Michelin-starred chef decided he could no longer serve the delicacy.

In fact, the meeting led to a broader change of heart: Gauthier went vegan and stripped his restaurant of animal products. But now he’s considering putting foie gras on the menu again — as long as it comes from a lab, like the one where French startup Gourmey is producing a cell-based version of the dish.

Although Gauthier has yet to experiment, he welcomes the emergence of a cruelty-free alternative. “I think it’s a good place to be when you have to ask yourself if it’s grown in a lab or not,” he says.

Gourmey isn’t the only company working on cell-based gourmet foods. Fish maw and shark fin, refined ingredients in Chinese and Asian cuisine in general, have attracted the attention of other biotech startups. Their efforts are good news for chefs and consumers who don’t want their dishes to be tainted by concerns about cruelty or sustainability.

Fish stomach, or swim bladder, can cost tens of thousands of dollars per pound. This has fueled an illicit trade in tripe obtained from totoaba, an endangered species found off the coast of Mexico, which is also the most prized source of this ingredient. Demand for shark fins has also led to overfishing, including the cruel practice of cutting the fins off live sharks and throwing them back into the sea to die.

The high prices, coupled with the possibility of regulatory bans, make producing alternatives to these foods interesting for cell-based protein companies, which grow animal cells in large numbers in labs and try to give them the taste and texture of conventional meat or fish.

However, it is difficult to make the products viable. While the carbon footprint is potentially much smaller, the current costs are much higher. In the case of gourmet ingredients, the price difference between laboratory and conventional versions may be smaller, but there are still regulatory barriers to overcome: so far, Singapore is the only country that has approved the marketing of laboratory meat.

As the industry grows, though, lab versions could become much more affordable, says Mirte Gosker, interim managing director of the Good Food Institute Asia Pacific, a nonprofit that promotes alternative proteins. “Premium” foods could thus reach a wider market without serious ecological consequences. “It’s an unbeatable combination,” said Gosker.

Avant Meats, a Hong Kong-based start-up that also produces lab-grown fish fillets, has developed a cell-based fish belly, which is not yet on the market. But its chief executive, Carrie Chan, says several restaurant chains have expressed interest, motivated in part by concerns about sustainability and also by the potential for cost management.
Natural fish stomachs come in variations in shape and size – and therefore in price. The cultivated product comes in a ready-to-use, easy-to-portion package.

Hong Kong chef and restaurateur Eddy Leung, who worked with Avant Meats to serve his fish tripe at private tastings, believes its ease of use, without the need for hours of soaking before cooking, will appeal to home cooks. .

He also says the flavor is no different if used in soup, though he’s not sure it’s still suitable for more sophisticated dishes like “poon choi”, which requires continuous sautéing.

Chan compares the fish tripe market to the diamond market and acknowledges that the upper “investment grade” segment, where rarity is an important part of attractiveness, may be immune to lab-grown versions. Their goal is to target the lower, more commodified segment, as companies that manufacture lab-grown diamonds do. “As accessories,” she explains. “Not super expensive accessories, but nice and decent.”

Efforts to replicate the shark fin remain more speculative. New Wave Foods, a US-based alternative seafood protein start-up, announced plans in 2015 to develop a biotech version, but has since focused on plant-based shrimp.

Future Market, a US-based “futuristic food lab,” offers “Faux Fin” soup — but only as a “concept product” intended to illustrate a possible outcome of food technology trends.

Whether cell-based delicacies make it into the mainstream may depend on changes in food culture. Unlike commodity proteins — the focus of many cell-based startups — gourmet foods are prized not just for their culinary qualities, but also because they signal status.

Fuchsia Dunlop, a food writer and cook specializing in Chinese dishes, says wide consumer acceptance will first depend on winning over customers who demand natural fish maw and shark fin for special occasions such as wedding banquets to showcase their hospitality and wealth. .

Regulation can play a role. The Chinese government is trying to encourage more sustainable eating habits, and starting next year, New York will ban force-feeding foie gras. Its production is already banned in countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany, Turkey and Australia.

While some connoisseurs lament its disappearance, others point out that culinary traditions are much more than specific ingredients. Gauthier says philosophy and techniques are what really matter in French cooking. Foie gras used to be just one of the instruments he used; now his instruments are plant-based — and in time, perhaps, cell-based products.

Dunlop has a similar thesis about Chinese cuisine: even if a perfect replica of a cell-based fish maw doesn’t sit well, the cuisine is rich and complex enough to cater to those who shun the natural version. “There are already many other possibilities within the culinary tradition itself,” she says.

Translated by Luiz Roberto M. Gonçalves