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The Independent
a day ago
- Health
- The Independent
I spoke to the man who wrote the book on fermentation – here is his golden rule for gut health
Gut health has become something of a golden goose in health circles recently. With the world turning to prebiotics and probiotics to placate stomach aches (and many other ailments), fermented goods such as kimchi, kefir and kombucha are now the order of the day. Few know more about this topic than Drain Drain – the man many Michelin-starred restaurants have on speed dial for all their fermentation needs. He has quite literally written the book on the subject Adventures in Fermentation, out on 12 June. Drain's route to some of the world's top kitchens was far from conventional. It began with a chemistry degree in Bristol, followed by 'a few years in the dark arts [finance]' and then a PhD at the University of Oxford in materials science – a field which, as the name suggests, explores the properties, composition and structure of materials. It was only when he had completed this that a career in food came into the picture. 'I'd always loved food and cooked a lot, and maybe dreamt of becoming a chef one day,' Drain tells me. 'So I moved back in with my parents in Birmingham and realised there was a place for me as this kind of boffin who understood the science behind the food we eat, why things taste good and how you can make them taste better using science.' This innovative approach quickly turned heads, and it wasn't long before he was working with a raft of top restaurants including esteemed Copenhagen joint Noma. 'Over the last 10 years I've become this sort of secret weapon of the world's Michelin-starred restaurants ,' Drain says. 'I'm this guy they call up, then I go in and set up research and development labs. I typically work with ingredients from close by the restaurant, teach the chefs how to ferment, and we create these beautiful tasting liquids, pastes and fermented goodies.' In the process of experimenting according to scientific principles, he as settled on a phrase he believes encapsulates a health-promoting approach to nutrition: eat your CAP. which stands for 'colourful array of plant-based foods', with this method advocating for a diet rich in wholefoods from across the colour spectrum. This formula, he believes, is effective for improving your health, and the many benefits it holds, from increased gut microbiome diversity to improved mental health and immune system function. What is fermentation and why is it important? Gut health is trendy in 2025, and fermented foods are rightly seen as a central pillar for achieving it – but fermentation is far from a new phenomenon. According to Drain, the earliest evidence of humans dabbling in fermentation dates back about 13,000 years, and much of our modern diet is dependent on the process. 'The key thing to know about fermentation is that it's done by microbes; bacteria, mould and yeast. These things, and bacteria especially, have been around on our planet for billions of years,' he explains. 'They're really ancient, and they're absolutely everywhere. They're on you, in you and on anything you touch – phones are caked in microbes. We really are living on their planet. So, when you know that, the idea that we use them to make some food shouldn't be particularly remarkable or alarming.' However, the earliest examples of fermentation among humans would have been an accident, Drain says. 'Our ancestors would have been picking up a peach that's slightly fermented, and it would have become slightly alcoholic, so they'd have been getting drunk off fermented fruits and thinking, 'Oh, that was interesting'. 'But it was about 13,000 years ago that we know for sure humans started directing ferments and working out, 'If we do this process in this particular cave or under these conditions, we'll end up with something that's either kind of tasty or safe, because fermentation sometimes breaks down toxins. 'You could eat a berry that might otherwise be poisonous – it might have killed your granddad and your uncle, but you realise that if you put it in a particular place and leave it for three days, you don't die when you eat it.' And the benefits don't end there. Fermentation can also make the nutrients in a food more bioavailable. 'For example, the way the nutrients are locked up in a soybean means our guts are not well-designed for getting every single ounce of nutrition out of it. Whereas, if we ferment it first, we can break down some of those macro molecules, as nutritionists would call them, into a form where we can get more nutrients from them.' Just like the fashion world, the fitness space has trends which tend to dominate conversation for a few years. Currently, gut health is front and centre among them, but why is this worthy topic only now earning some well-deserved recognition. 'I think it's a convergence of trends,' Drain says. 'We're seeing this growing awareness of the gut microbiome because the science in that field is becoming more abundant. Then I think there's this desire to push back against ultra-processed foods (UPFs). People want to know what they're eating, and they are looking to eat more wholefoods.' He also believes the Covid pandemic played a role in the rising curiosity around gut health, with lockdown sourdough experiments sparking curiosity in the fermentation process. 'I think that opened a lot of gates to this idea of microbes in the kitchen,' Drain says. 'And as soon as you plant that seed, people realise that if you take protein off the plate for a second, and maybe carbs, basically all of the world's favourite flavours come from fermentation. 'Things like vinegar, miso, soy sauce, any alcohol, cheese, butter, tempeh – even chocolate and coffee are fermented. Our favourite flavours come from fermentation, it's just that we don't realise it because we've got divorced from making our own food.' '[Fermenting is] amazing for your gut microbiome, it helps you eat loads of prebiotic fibres and fibre in general, it's delicious, you can do it at home, it's really cheap and it's kind of fun – it's just a win-win,' Drain adds. What is the 'eat your CAP' approach to gut health and why does it work? If you want to eat a nutritious meal, you could do a lot worse than a colourful plate crammed with wholefood ingredients. But it's not just the usual customers of leafy greens and vibrant yellows that play a key role, Drain says. 'Basically, eat anything that's within the rainbow, then also add in things that are brown and black and white,' he explains. 'Obviously green is important, things like leaves, and red things like red cabbage and berries too. But it also extends all the way down to things like coffee and cocoa, which has an incredible amount of prebiotic ingredients. 'That's the stuff the gut microbes need to be fed in order to do their thing [such as aiding digestion and boosting the immune system].' However, Drain says UPF-heavy modern diets are often lacking in certain nutrients such as fibre. 'Even if you start with a diverse gut microbiome, if you don't feed the microbes the stuff they need, they're going to wither and die. So that's one of my takeaways from the book: eat your CAP. [You should] eat a colourful array of plant-based foods, which essentially means eating lots of different veggies, nuts, legumes and cereals is the way to keep your gut microbes happy.' For further gut health benefits, he also recommends adding fermented foods into your diet on a daily basis. But this doesn't mean you need to start necking kefir like there's no tomorrow, especially if you aren't convinced by the flavour. 'Start small and aim for consistency,' advises Drain. 'You could eat a spoonful of sauerkraut a day, or eat some sauerkraut one day, a little glass of miso broth the next day, a glass of kefir the next day, and some kombucha after that. 'Cycling through these things means it doesn't have to be this huge undertaking, because I know some of the flavour profiles can be a little bit strong for some people.' What are the benefits of using the 'eat your CAP' approach For most people, eating their CAP would result in a more diverse gut microbiome, and the myriad plus-points that come with it. 'There are associations between a more diverse gut microbiome and improved mood and cognition, improved mental health, improved immune function and improved digestion,' Drain says. This is an appealing list. To understand how improved gut microbiome diversity can offer these benefits, it is helpful to know the processes behind it. 'Humans are essentially a tube,' Drain continues. 'You put something in at the top, and other stuff comes out of the bottom. The game is getting as many nutrients from it as possible in the process.' For this reason, humans evolved to make use of microbes and their pre-existing expertise in breaking down proteins into amino acids, breaking down carbohydrates into simple sugars, and other functions. 'Your gut microbiome is this ecosystem of microbes that live in your gut, and everyone's is different,' says Drain. 'They get to live in a nice place that works for them, in the middle of your gut, and we get the benefits of them breaking things down and detoxifying things.' Research, such as this 2023 study from the University of Oxford, seems to agree that improved gut microbiome diversity is associated with better health outcomes, and vice versa. 'People that have some diseases, such as metabolic diseases, might have fewer diverse microbiomes,' explains Drain. 'Eating a multitude of fermented foods – things like kefir, live yoghurt, sauerkraut, kimchi and miso – that contain live microorganisms and might make it all the way down your digestive system into your gut, can help lead to that diversity. So that's one reason to eat lots of live fermented foods.' This is where the word probiotic comes in. You will no doubt have seen this term slapped on the packaging of supermarket stock claiming to be good for your gut, but Drain says it can be 'somewhat abused and misused'. 'It has a very specific scientific meaning, but fundamentally it's talking about live microorganisms that, in a known quantity, can have a positive health impact on the person that consumes them.' But probiotics are not the be-all and end-all for health benefits. Drain also wants to draw people's attention to postbiotics. 'Even if you eat fermented food that's been pasteurised, so there are no live microorganisms or probiotics in it, the remains of those organisms can also have positive health benefits,' he says. 'Sometimes, when you pasteurise something, it might break open the cell and the insides of the microbe can come out. Those molecules can also do really powerful things like trigger immune responses inside a human. 'There's been this obsession with probiotics [in recent years], but actually if you eat pasteurised fermented foods, the molecules that are left over from fermentation can also have amazing health benefits. We use the word postbiotics to describe that. So where, for the last two to four years, it's all been about probiotics, we're now talking a lot more about postbiotics.' Examples of postbiotics include supermarket-bought sauerkraut and kimchi, and there's a reason why their source is important. 'If you make it at home, it will be live and have lots of live microorganisms,' Drain says. 'But if you buy a sauerkraut or kimchi in a supermarket, it might have been pasteurised before it got shipped to extend its shelf life. Similarly, with some kombuchas, but not all, some kefirs, but not all, etc. 'People are passionate about live microorganisms, and they would say, 'Oh, you can't eat pasteurised sauerkraut, it won't do anything'. But actually the new science is saying you can, and these postbiotic elements can have a very profound and positive set of health benefits as well.'
Mint
3 days ago
- Health
- Mint
Does a Michelada Without Beer Still Taste as Sweet?
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- I find myself unhappily on trend. Young people everywhere are increasingly 'on the wagon' — to use the American idiom for sobriety from the 1920s, when the 18th Amendment to the US Constitution banned the production and sale of alcohol. The wagon in the expression was a public- service vehicle loaded with water to tamp down dust and grime on city streets; by extension, it described the clean and sober law-abiding citizens of America. According to some estimates, 39% of Gen Z say they have foresworn alcoholic drinks; about half of them imbibe such beverages only occasionally. Many have taken to non-alcoholic alternatives. I didn't set out to join that youthful bandwagon. Nevertheless, I have been alcohol-free since Jan. 20, 2025. Those of you who recognize that date as US Inauguration Day must get the coincidence out of your head. It just happened to be when I felt I'd had too much wine over the previous three months. Alas, my doctors agreed with me — because of decades of loving wine and champagne, not just those recent three months. And so, I've spent nearly 140 days looking at how to enjoy the brave new world of NA — a market that's gotten a huge boost in sales and creativity precisely because of health-focused Gen Z, a cohort that probably makes up 25% of the world's population. I am a late Boomer, but now I'm medically required to be young at heart. The NA market can be too sprawlingly defined, including everything from bottled water and high-fructose sodas to electrolyte-infused liquids to NA wines and beer. I'm going to look at beverages that someone who likes to sip good vintages would gravitate to, intriguing in their own right or complementary, even transformative, with food. I was in Copenhagen recently where I attended Noma Chef René Redzepi's revived MAD symposium on the future of restaurants.(1) These kinds of events are usually chock-full of discriminating chefs and sommeliers intent on sampling novel or rare wines and spirits. Would I find alcohol-free stuff to quaff to help me avoid all those temptations? I will admit to staring longingly at the wonderful vintages poured out in Copenhagen. I love wine, perhaps even more so now that I can't have it. But there was no shortage of NA wine. Indeed, Denmark is home to Muri, a pioneer in the blending of different fermented juices to create an alternative to wine. Other NA wine purveyors use physical means (often with low heat) to remove alcohol. That usually results in a thin impersonation of wine, with much of the mouthfeel and vibrancy extracted along with the ethanol (which is the predominant form of alcohol produced by the yeast in winemaking). Muri's process stops short of producing alcohol and utilizes several fruits fermented separately and then blended to create distinct potables. But as tasty as Muri can be (and its beverages are delicious), let me declare now that all the non-alcoholic wines I have sampled don't come close to the vivacity of even middling good wine. There are excellent NA sparklings — L'Antidote and L'Antilope by Domaine de Grottes in France's Beaujolais region — but even these are soda pop compared to champagne or even the new generation of English bubblies. Good wine is a liquid time capsule — a memento of earth, grape, water, the seasons and human touch. It moves beyond taste. I may no longer drink a good Savagnin from the Jura, but I can still appreciate its aroma. Nevertheless, the thrill of having something that looks and — at first blush — feels like wine is enough to fool the brain into producing dopamine. A guilty elation takes over, and you think, 'They've made a mistake. They've poured me real wine.' Soon enough, you realize it's an impostor in your glass. You aren't going to be fooled by the second — if you decide to have it. The NA beers I tasted in Copenhagen were more 'hoppy' or overly flavored with things like elderflower to disguise the absence of malted barley. That said, many non-alcoholic brews I've tried here in London are more successful in impersonating their originals. Guinness 0.0% is 99.9% identical in taste to its model (it has a flatter affect as it approaches room temperature). And Estrella Damm has tweaked the vacuum distillation method — the same one many NA winemakers use to remove alcohol — to reintroduce lost flavors. Its FreeDamm is remarkably good lager. Yet, the second-glass — or in this case, second pint — syndrome persists for both the lager and the stout. The buzz you thought you had turns out to be fantasy. Of course, the quest for buzz — that convivial lightheadedness — is the existential issue in the first place for many drinkers. The road to intoxication is broad. So how do you get the consumer to focus on flavor instead of inebriation? It may be cocktails or 'mocktails' — a terribly awkward word. But restaurants can customize drinks for their characteristic cuisine. I had a miraculous NA michelada at Sanchez, chef Rosio Sanchez's wonderful Mexican restaurant in the Vesterbro district of Copenhagen. The super piquant concoction is usually made with beer, but that's been substituted by a NA pilsner from Rothaus, a German brewer. It went perfectly with the food, flowing and metamorphosing with the ingredients and heat. Micheladas — hellishly spicy — aren't for everyone and don't go with everything. But there are other choices. I had a range of kombuchas in Copenhagen (teas fermented with a variety of ingredients, including roses, magnolias and fig leaves) that were startlingly seductive. Those in the know will say that kombuchas contain some alcohol. That is an important concern for those with substance abuse issues. But the alcohol content is often less than a very ripe banana's (0.2% to 0.5% alcohol-by-volume in the fruit, compared with the 12% to 15% with wine).(2) The probiotics of kombucha may be beneficial too. NA alternatives are as costly as regular offerings — or more. Muri has about six different blends available on its websites, each around £25 ($33.75) a bottle. Guinness 0.0% is more expensive than regular Guinness. That's because — while the market is potentially enormous — the new technologies and processes for making the beverages can't scale up yet. The customer base has to grow to make everything more affordable. As for mocktails, restaurants have to find and pay bartenders skilled in fermentation to come up with those kombuchas, which take time to cultivate. If such things concern you, my friend Jenny Sharaf, an artist based in Los Angeles and Copenhagen, has an alternative to consider: the Wa-tini. You can style it like a Martini — dirty with olive juice, or with a twist or an indulgent kiss of NA vermouth — all poured into the classic glass. But one ingredient is key: bitingly cold, clean water. Shaken or stirred? It's all in your head. More From Bloomberg Opinion: (1) The previous MAD symposium was held in 2018. Funding and, eventually, the pandemic put a halt to what had been an annual get-together of the restaurant and food world. The name derives from a play on Danish and English. Mad means 'food' in Danish (pronounced like 'mal' and a close cognate of the word 'meal'). The insanity stems from the free-flowing proceedings at the symposium, which are conducted under a distinctive, four-peaked magenta circus tent. (2) A graver concern with NA beverages is sugar content and how it might affect diabetics or pre-diabetics who usually face much less risk with wine. This column reflects the personal views of the author and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. Howard Chua-Eoan is a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion covering culture and business. He previously served as Bloomberg Opinion's international editor and is a former news director at Time magazine. More stories like this are available on
Forbes
5 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Discover The Story Of New Nordic Cuisine At Norway's National Museum
Local ingredients are at the forefront of New Nordic cuisine. Two decades ago, a group of Scandinavian chefs met in Copenhagen and signed a manifesto that would quietly spark a global culinary revolution. Their mission was to redefine Nordic food culture by embracing seasonal, local ingredients and reviving traditional methods. Today, New Nordic cuisine has become a major culinary movement and one of Scandinavia's most influential cultural exports. This summer, Oslo's National Museum is peeling back the layers of this phenomenon in a major new exhibition: New Nordic. Cuisine, Aesthetics and Place. Running through September 14, the exhibition explores how the movement's philosophy of seasonality and sustainability has spread far beyond the kitchen, impacting the likes of design and architecture too. Among the 500 words on display, visitors will find handmade ceramics used in Michelin-starred restaurants, landscape paintings, sculptural menus, and photographs that reflect on nature, place and identity. When the manifesto was signed in 2004, it outlined ten principles, including purity, freshness, ethics and sustainability. Rather than replicating French haute cuisine, chefs like Claus Meyer and René Redzepi (of Noma fame) called for a culinary identity rooted in Nordic soil, climate and heritage. The movement redefined luxury in a Nordic context. Wild garlic or berries gathered from a nearby forest became just as prized as imported truffles. Pickling and fermentation, once survival techniques, were reimagined as high art. An outdoor pavilion will host interactive opportunities for visitors to the New Nordic Cuisine exhibition at Oslo's National Museum. Even the visual language shifted. Rustic wood, muted ceramics and dishes plated like miniature landscapes took center stage. Norwegian restaurants quickly became part of this wave. Oslo's Maaemo earned three Michelin stars by showcasing hyper-local ingredients with philosophical flair. Kontrast, RE-NAA, and Credo soon earned stars, each interpreting the New Nordic ethos in their own way with menus that change with the weather and interiors that echo the natural world. The National Museum's exhibition captures this intersection of cuisine and creativity. Alongside a langoustine press carved from wood and menus disguised as literary first editions, you'll find photographs, landscape paintings, and craft pieces that reflect the same aesthetic ideals: simplicity, nature, locality. A highlight is a handcrafted menu from the now-closed Ylajali restaurant in Oslo, designed to mimic the first edition of Knut Hamsun's Hunger. Another is ceramicist Sissel Wathne's bone-glazed tableware, created for Credo using reindeer bones. In true New Nordic style, the exhibition is not confined indoors. A specially designed outdoor pavilion on the museum's square will host foraging walks, open-fire cooking demos and fermentation workshops. Constructed from Norwegian spruce with wild plants growing on the roof, the space reflects the movement's principles of sustainability and local rootedness. The pavilion kitchen will host guest chefs and communal events through the summer. Visitors can participate by picking herbs from nearby forests and return to cook with them over a fire. Today, New Nordic Cuisine is studied in culinary schools and emulated in restaurants from Tokyo to Toronto. But its staying power comes not from trendiness, but from its grounding in a sense of place. Its call for seasonal, ethical and local eating resonates in a world packed with processed foods. The exhibition runs until September 14 at the National Museum in Oslo. A version of the show will then travel to the National Nordic Museum in Seattle in late 2025. Oslo is a fitting place for this exhibition given the Norwegian capital city hosts so many restaurants with Michelin stars earned for their innovative approaches. Maaemo stands at the pinnacle with three Michelin stars. Led by Chef Esben Holmboe Bang, Maaemo offers a seasonal tasting menu that emphasizes organic, wild and biodynamic Norwegian produce. Tables must be booked months in advance. Kontrast, holding two Michelin stars, is known for its commitment to sustainability and seasonality, while its name explains its concept of combining colors and tastes. Chef Mikael Svensson crafts dishes that highlight the purity of local ingredients, presented in a minimalist and modern setting. Other Oslo highlights include refined dining in historic surroundings at Statholdergaarden, and the hyper-modern takes on New Nordic cuisine at Bar Amour and Savage.
Telegraph
24-05-2025
- Health
- Telegraph
The pros and cons of lab-grown meat
The miniature mouthfuls in front of me looked like any other small plates at an upmarket restaurant. First, a smoked chicken salad with raisins, pickles and celery on top of a brioche, followed by slices of grilled, glazed chicken breast on a bed of pomme purée, beetroot rings and cauliflower. Each were flavoursome and utterly delectable, perhaps unsurprisingly as they had been dished up especially for me by a chef who once worked for Noma, the Copenhagen gastronomic mecca feted as one of the world's finest restaurants. Yet the experience came with a certain curiosity, and perhaps even a little apprehension, for the chicken was unlike any I had sampled before. Instead of originating from a poultry farm, it had come from cells which had been grown in a giant stainless steel drum called a bioreactor. It was my first experience of tasting lab-grown meat. When I mentioned this to my friends and family, reactions ranged from intrigue to outright disgust. The concept of your future Sunday roast being grown in a bioreactor doesn't appeal to everyone, but successive UK governments have made it clear that this technology isn't going away. Since 2020, the UK has invested more than £75 million of public funding into research projects for various alternative protein sources, including lab-grown meat, to find new ways of meeting the protein needs – the demand for meat is expected to double in the next 25 years – of our growing population. To better understand this vision of the future and what it might mean for our health, I had paid a visit to Good Meat, a Californian startup and one of the world's largest purveyors of lab-grown or cultivated meat (the preferred term used by startups, investors and regulators) in the summer of 2023 to try the 'food' myself. But it all begs the question: when lab-grown meat become more widely available, should we really be consuming our food in this way? And, perhaps most importantly, will it have a positive or a negative effect on our health? So what are the health pros and cons of lab-grown food? The pros 1. It is very similar to the real thing Sampling Good Meat's small plates taught me two things. Firstly, both the taste, smell and appearance of lab-grown meat are almost indistinguishable to the meat we're accustomed to, which shouldn't really be a surprise as unlike veggie burgers and Quorn, it's constructed from genuine animal cells. And it's also only going to get even more realistic. New reports from the University of Tokyo reveal that Japanese scientists have figured out a way of 'growing' chicken nuggets, by generating much larger fillets of lab-grown chicken, several centimetres thick. This has been achieved by using a new technology which mimics blood vessels, enabling chicken cells to be grown in layers of muscle tissue, resulting in a more typical texture. 2. Fewer disease risks The emergence of lab-grown foods could potentially protect us from various harmful contaminants. Another Californian startup, BlueNalu, is producing cultivated seafood and Lauran Madden, the company's chief technology officer, says that producing seafood by culturing and growing cells in production facilities, rather than catching it at sea, can prevent consumers from ingesting chemicals like mercury which can accumulate in fatty fish such as tuna. Likewise, while conventional factory farms force animals to live in close proximity to each other in cramped spaces, facilitating the spread of bacterial and viral pathogens, cultivated meat may protect us from some of these dangerous diseases as it's produced in sterile facilities. Jeremy Hux, an executive at Upside Foods, a start-up looking to commercialise cultivated shredded chicken made from a combination of chicken cells and plant proteins, points to the latest outbreak of bird flu in the US, which has been spreading in poultry farms. Hux also highlights how factory farms rely on the heavy use of antibiotics to try to mitigate the spread of bacterial infections, but this has only led to a burgeoning crisis of antibiotic-resistant superbugs. 3. There is less chance of food poisoning Independent researchers agree that lab-grown foods have the potential to play a role in protecting us from these threats. 'First and foremost, we won't run the risk of food poisoning because cultivated meat, fish or seafood is produced in a clean environment with minimal risk of contamination,' says Eirini Theodosiou, a cellular agriculture researcher at Aston University, who carries out independent research on cultivated meat. 'They're made in an antibiotic-free environment, and there's tight quality control over the end product so you can ensure that things like microplastics don't end up in our bodies.' 4. It could have a higher and healthier nutritional value Because lab-grown meat or fish is created in such a controlled environment, there's also the tantalising possibility of being able to deliberately engineer these foods so that they have heightened nutritional value, or fewer compounds like the nitrates present in processed meat, which have been linked to a heightened risk of chronic illnesses. 'One of the advantages of cultivated meat is the fact that you can feed the chicken or cow cells growing in the bioreactor with certain nutrients that lead to a nutritional profile which is healthier than conventional meat,' says Ramiro Alberio, a developmental biology professor at the University of Nottingham. Theodosiou suggests that a lab-grown steak could contain extra vitamins, omega-3 fatty acids and fibre, through combining meat cells which provide the flavour and texture of steak with additional plant proteins. There is yet to be any independent data demonstrating this, but the possibility has been widely discussed in the past few years. 'In the future, it may even be possible to grow beef with the same fatty acid profile as salmon,' suggests Hux. The cons 1. It could be yet another ultra-processed food There is a risk that lab-grown meat could end up becoming another range of ultra-processed foods, similar to the many plant-based meat alternatives which have emerged in the past decade, with dubious nutritional value. Tim Benton, a professor and food systems expert at the University of Leeds, fears that this eventuality is likely. Because of the current expense of producing lab-grown meat, there are indications that startups are already producing products which are predominantly plant proteins, blended with a tiny proportion of meat cells. For example, a company called Meatly recently launched a new line of dog food containing lab-grown meat, but a closer inspection revealed that its cultivated chicken meat comprised just four per cent of the product. Benton is concerned that cultivated meat startups will end up generating products more akin to burgers and ready meals, with lab-grown animal cells mixed in with less healthy filler ingredients, because of the need to compete on a price basis with conventional meat. 'In theory, [these] alternative meats could be engineered to have different nutritional properties that potentially could have health benefits,' he says. 'But my gut feeling is that this is less likely than highly processed foods with negative health consequences, because this is where the volume market is likely to drive the field.' 2. There could still be contamination While there might be no zoonotic disease risk – where an infectious disease like bird flu has jumped from an animal to humans – Tuck Seng Wong, a professor of nonmanufacturing at the University of Sheffield, explains that with any product made through growing and cultivating living cells, there is always a certain risk of food poisoning through contamination. Prof Wong explains that because animal cells grow much slower compared with bacteria and viruses, it would be possible for lab-grown meat to become contaminated with a pathogen if food safety standards were to slip. 'If the manufacturers weren't careful enough or taking care of the hygiene, bacterial contamination can happen,' he says. However at the same time, Prof Wong points out that this is unlikely to occur as both manufacturers of lab-grown meat and regulators are both well aware of this particular risk. 'I think that the chances of the public being exposed to contamination in this manner is low, because all products will be subject to very rigorous food safety and hygiene standards,' he adds. 3. It is likely to be very expensive and hard to get hold of As you might note from the photos, the portions I sampled were bite-sized, which reflects the vast expense of generating animal protein or fish in a bioreactor. Because of this, the majority of the first lab-grown products to be sold in the UK are likely to be premium ones such as high-end steak or tuna, and available only in select locations such as high-end restaurants and sushi venues. 4. The possibility of unknown long-term risks to our health In 2023, Bloomberg Businessweek published a feature with the provocative title: 'Lab-grown meat has a bigger problem than the lab.' It called into question the fact that a number of companies producing cultivated meat are doing so using so-called immortalised cells, which means they have been modified to proliferate indefinitely, unlike normal cells which cease to divide after a while. However, most people have never consumed immortalised cells, and while they have a long history in medical research, they are technically precancerous. This doesn't mean that consuming lab-grown meat will give you cancer. In fact, independent cancer researchers have insisted that it would be impossible for immortalised animal cells to cause cancer, because they aren't human, and so are not capable of replicating inside the human body. But at the same time, no one can be certain that consuming immortalised cells on a long-term basis is completely safe. 'I think that it's relatively unlikely [that there would be a risk],' says Benton. 'There's no indication that will be a high-risk concern.' Instead, the more realistic question is whether lab-grown meat startups will ever be able to produce it in the quantities required for supermarkets to offer lab-grown and conventional meat side by side. In the decades to come, this may ultimately become a reality. But with many UK consumers still sceptical of this prospect, researchers admit that it may take a while to overcome our inherent aversion to strange, new foods and what benefits they will really have for our health.
Mint
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Mint
Disfrutar versus Noma: A tale of two Michelin meals
What does it mean to be creative? Is it finding beauty in the simplest of things, coaxing it out of everyday objects, or is it an expression of joy and whimsy? If it is true that constraint breeds creativity, few restaurants exemplify that ethic better than Copenhagen's three-star Michelin restaurant, Noma. When I first ate there in 2014, I was blown away. The experience, from start to finish, was out-of-the-box, pushing on boundaries I did not know existed. It became the benchmark against which all other dining experiences were measured. For the entire duration of that meal, my senses were jolted by new flavours, textures and experiences. I was served caramelised milk extruded into thin fettuccine wafers and scallops that had been dried, ground into a powder and recombined with beeswax so it could be served as a mousse. The sea urchin was served on the crispy skin of a duck, and the steak tartare was seasoned with flash-frozen fire ants—the only way they could find to introduce tart acidity into the dish without using a citrus fruit. In those days, Noma strictly adhered to a self-imposed rule to cook only with ingredients sourced roughly 200km from the restaurant. This is why they went to extraordinary lengths to reproduce the taste of lemons, and why, in the sparse winter months, diners were served reindeer moss and roasted celeriac. Also read: A tea lover's reflection on tradition and change It is such constraints that sparked creativity and pushed Noma to the top of the culinary world. Nothing comes easy in the harsh Nordic north, and the effort of coaxing flavours and textures out of whatever was available showcased the region's resilience and gave them a repertoire of skills unmatched in the food industry. Earlier this month, I returned to Noma, well over a decade later. Since my last visit, the restaurant had shut down and resurrected itself in a new avatar, moving to a new location on the outskirts of Copenhagen. Noma 2.0 no longer forages for its food locally, but crafts its menu according to the season, serving produce from the oceans in winter, vegetables in the summer and game from the forests in autumn. I came to this meal with high expectations, but within the first few courses, it was clear that something was off. I guess it all went downhill after the snail course—a delicate morsel served in a bouquet of wasabi leaves. While there was nothing wrong with the dish itself, it would have helped if they had not placed a live snail on the dish for effect. As soon as it saw its brother being eaten, mine hightailed it off my plate and on to the table. Pandemonium ensued as servers and diners alike tried to retrieve the snails so that service could resume. Don't get me wrong, the food was delicious—skilfully prepared and exotically eclectic in assembly. The shrimp in magnolia petals was exquisite, delicately floral and tinged with a hit of ginger. And the calamari, cured in kelp and served with poppy seeds, was worth the price of admission all on its own. That said, the experience as a whole felt performative—as if, having built their reputation on using flash-frozen ants to produce citrus acidity, they now felt compelled to keep performing new feats of even more outrageous creativity. Our next stop was Barcelona, where we had reservations to eat at Disfrutar, currently, the top-ranked restaurant in the world. Located in the very heart of Barcelona, behind an unpretentious storefront that gives little indication of the magic that is being wrought inside, this (thanks to its one year waiting list) is one of the hardest tables to get in the world. As an added treat we learned, just before we boarded the flight for Spain, that we were going to be seated in the R&D kitchen in the basement for the 'Living Table" experience. If Noma distils Nordic austerity, Disfrutar, which translates to 'enjoy" in Spanish, epitomises Catalan exuberance. That joy was expressed in the cheeky smiley face that's part of the restaurant logo, and then again in the attitude of every member of the staff throughout the meal. The first thing we were served was the amuse-bouche, a concoction of passion fruit and rum presented in the form of an eclair that popped in our mouths when we ate it. I was immediately transported back to the mid-2000s when this sort of molecular gastronomy was all the rage. I should not have been surprised. The three chefs behind Disfrutar—Oriol Castro, Eduard Xatruch and Mateu Casañas—previously worked at El Bulli, universally regarded as the most influential establishment in the history of modern gastronomy. Rumour has it that it was Castro, not Ferran Adrià, who was the real wizard of that culinary laboratory, so it should not have been a surprise that a restaurant helmed by him would take such a playful approach. There are about 20 courses on the classic menu at Disfrutar, but we did not have to wait for long before we were served the legendary Caviar Panchino. Deceptively unpretentious in appearance, the Panchino presents as a brown sphere, light and airy to the touch. Bite into it and the crust dissolves in your mouth, revealing an unctuous filling of caviar and cream. How on earth did they manage to fry a bun till it was crisp and still ensure that the caviar didn't cook? We asked and with refreshing openness, they showed us a video of how it was cooked. This candour, I discovered, is part of the Disfrutar DNA. At the end of the year, the restaurant compiles and publishes as a book, all they cooked over the course of the year, releasing the precise recipes with extensive commentary to anyone who cares to ask. This lack of proprietariness around their innovations is refreshing, and in stark contrast to so many of us who go to extraordinary lengths to keep inventions secret. As the meal progressed, we were treated to more and more examples of quixotic brilliance. When I reached to pick up one of the portions, I found myself clutching at air—the real dish was hidden and I had been looking at a reflection. Later, in a not-so-thinly veiled dig at the 'Instagram-ification" of food, the plate on which the food was served was attached to a mirror so that every photograph of the food was also an image of me photographing food. We were also part of the cooking experience. One course was served in an eggshell and topped off with a truffle-flavoured tempura. We were invited to bite off the top of the tempura and pour the liquid egg yolk found inside it on to the mushroom jelly inside the shell. We could then drink the broth with the tempura for crunch. But they had saved the best for last—a grand finale the likes of which I have never experienced before. Once the meal was over and all the plates cleared, the covers were removed to reveal the table below it—one that had been specially fabricated for this moment. As the music swelled to a crescendo, the server explained that this was the living table, a symbolic reflection of the city of Barcelona itself, embodying its creativity and joyful enjoyment. And as he did that, the table itself came to life. Servers synchronised their movements to the music and the narrative, opening little compartments and revealing an assortment of petit fours that had been hiding beneath all the time. The entire presentation took 10 minutes, the music swelling in intensity as more of the table was uncovered until, by the time the music stopped, our dining table had been transformed into a glorious tableau of confectionery that somehow also reimagined the city's grid layout. Also read: India's bars get creative with zero-proof drinks The ability to produce great food under the constraints of time and region is admirable. But a meal is not memorable unless it evokes an emotional response. The Noma kitchen will always shine brightly for its technical brilliance, its mastery over produce and meticulous execution. But I will remember Disfrutar for the smile it put on my face and the standing ovation we spontaneously burst into once the music had died down. Noma showed us what excellence looks like. Disfrutar invited us to join in and co-create our own unforgettable experience. Constraint is all well and good, but a meal isn't great unless it sparks joy.
