Derrick Teal  I  Editor-in-Chief

I’ve never tried foie gras. While I have tried veal and lamb in the past, and I choose not to eat them anymore, foie gras has been beyond a line I don’t feel comfortable crossing. I’m definitely curious as to why it’s considered a delicacy, is it really that good? As it turns out, I may actually be able to try it without the guilt. Vow, an Australian cultivated meat producer, held an event last month with foods featuring foie gras made from quail cells brewed in a bioreactor as the main ingredient.

The angle the company is taking is a fascinating one. Citing the higher-than-usual costs for cultivated meat products, among some of the other challenges, Vow is looking to position cultivated meat products as an upscale offering. I think it’s a good angle that has the potential to benefit not just Vox but the entire cultivated meat industry. The idea of positioning goods as a high-end product to let first adopters cover the initial costs while other players enter the market and bring the overall costs down is a tried-and-true method. It frequently works in the tech space, after all.

Elsewhere in alternative protein, it’s possible to get people to try new flavors by getting away from the “eww” factor. Yes, it’s very scientific name, I know, but I’m reminded of the time I tried escargot. The magazine I worked for at the time was putting on an event at a French restaurant in San Francisco to kick off a tradeshow. A group of us were sitting at a table with a number of appetizers that had apparently been ordered indiscriminately. The other plates had been picked at, but the escargot remained untouched. Nobody was really willing to be the first, including me. That is, I wasn’t willing until I had gotten enough adult beverages into me. I was the first, and last, to go since I ended up eating the plate by myself. So, I think that more people would be willing to try it if they knew that it wasn’t the “real” thing.

However, why does alternative protein have to be an analogue of animal protein? That’s a question Beyond Meat asked earlier as it released Beyond Sun Sausage, which wasn’t designed to replicate pork, beef or poultry. Breaking away from what people already know could help get them out of the compare and contrast attitude many take when trying an alternative protein. Let the R&D departments go crazy with different flavor and texture combinations. And, who knows, maybe it won’t take numerous drinks to get someone to try it. FE