Review: Impossible Foods

I’m a vegetarian, but I do like the taste of meat and the ease with which it delivers densely packed proteins. So I’m always on the lookout for meat alternatives: seitan, tofu, tempeh, and various proprietary products from companies like Quorn, Beyond Meat, Field Roast, Morning Star, and others.

One of the newest entrants to the meat substitute market is Impossible Foods. Founded by biochemist Patrick O. Brown (co-founder of PLOS, a project I have great respect and admiration for), it’s received nearly $200M in funding, and after tasting it, I can see why. I suspect that, unless someone beats them to the market, this company is going to get really big, really soon.

For now, you can’t buy their plant-based burger in any supermarket. The company has adopted the clever marketing strategy of piloting their patty in selected fine restaurants. We tried a three course menu at Jardinière, not ordinarily in my budget, but it was a special occasion with friends.

The menu consisted of

• broccoli salad with impossible “ground beef”
• impossible burger with lettuce, red onion, pickle, chips
• Baked Alaska
• selected wine pairings

And yeah, this meat substitute is the real deal. A little charred on the outside, red and “bloody” on the inside, near-perfect texture, and most importantly, very tasty (easily above average by hamburger standards, owing of course in part to the highly professional preparation). It felt like eating a science experiment that’s worked. One of our friends was an omnivore who acknowledged she’d happily eat this anytime instead of real meat. I don’t think she would have reacted the same way to any of the substitutes currently on the market.

Unless people break out in hives after eating these or there are other weird side effects (none for me so far!), I think they’ll sell a lot of these, easily, once they hit the market.