“You know what I could really go for tonight? Some lab-grown meat,” said no one ever. The idea of meat spawned in a test tube sounds downright unappealing to most people, in fact, but it’s already a reality at a restaurant near Tel Aviv called The Chicken.
The house specialty is “cultured chicken,” which is grown in vats, then battered, crumbed, fried, and served on a brioche bun with seasonal greens, roasted cremini mushrooms, red onion relish, and wild mustard and chive aïoli.
Tomer Halevy, the man behind The Chicken, explains that the meat comes from cells taken from a select few “source” chickens, which are then replicated in a lab. It takes two to three days to grow enough “meat” for a single burger.
Apart from eliminating the need for the wholesale slaughter of birds for human consumption, the tissue engineering techniques behind the production of cultured meat would generate 96% fewer greenhouse gas emissions than conventionally produced meat, according to Science Daily.
Although the restaurant is currently closed to the public due to COVID restrictions, it is currently accepting applications for tables against the advent of its eventual opening.
