beyond meat: sneak peek

if you follow the vegan news, you’ve probably heard the internet murmurs about beyond meat (aka savage river farms) - a new revolutionary plant-based chicken made from soy and pea powder that’s poised to shake up the industry. it has received press from the likes of NPR and mark bittman, and unlike the other faux meats available at the moment, this stuff tastes real enough to fool omnivores. well lucky me, i got to try it before it hit the market, and i can safely say: BELIEVE THE HYPE!

my beyond meat tasting occurred several months ago at madeleine bistro, since their very own chef david anderson has been working with the maryland based company. (of course beyond meat was smart enough to seek the know-how of dave, one of the best vegan chefs in the country!)

i tried the beyond meat chicken both grilled and breaded, and wow. wow. wow. it was one of those times when (even though i was sitting in an entirely vegan restaurant), i had to stop after each bite and check, “are you sure this isn’t real?” unlike gardein, the current king fake chicken brand, this stuff didn’t have a “producty” taste. does that even make sense? my tongue couldn’t detect any of the science that went into making this stuff—just flavors of the seasoning it was cooked with.

while i loved beyond meat grilled, the breaded “chicken” fingers are what really sold me. seriously, feed a basket of these things to any meat eater and they wouldn’t know the difference. dave’s batter was masterful and inside the beyond meat was soft and moist, even breaking into shreds like the real stuff. craziness!!

i’ve been excited about lots of vegan brands in the past, but nothing has ever come so close to the taste of animal products as this has. now i know lots of you are probably thinking, “gross. aren’t we vegans supposed to be repelled by the taste of meat?” well, i grew up eating meat, and knowing that this was cruelty-free, i had none of the gross feelings that i associate with eating animal flesh—instead i was just impressed and amazed! if we ever want real devoted meat eaters to cut back and make a dent in the factory farming problem, we’re going to have to come up with a pretty compelling product to compete with the tastes that they’re used to, and that’s exactly what beyond meat has done.

so where can you buy beyond meat? nowhere. yet. the company has attracted the investments from some high power vegan executives though, and it should be hitting the bay area whole foods markets pretty soon. i know that’s a bummer for us down here in LA, but if this stuff is a hit in SF, i’m sure it will make it’s way down the coast soon enough. for more info you can join the beyond meat mailing list and also follow vegansaurus. if you aren’t aware of vegansaurus (are you living under a rock?!), it’s an amazing bay area based vegan blog that always gets the scoop. i know they’ll be first in line when beyond meat hits stores up there.

save the chickens!

beyondmeat.com