The First Two Restaurants Serving Cultivated Meat in the U.S.

Picture this: You’re at your favorite steakhouse for a special occasion. Yes, you are environmentally conscious and know that red meat is one of the worst foods for the environment – but this is a celebration dinner and you only eat red meat a few times a month. On the menu, you see “Cultivated Filet Mignon – Produced without Animals”. Would you order it?

This could be the standard for restaurant menus in the next few years, thanks to a recent announcement from the FDA that two cultivated meat companies can now sell their products in restaurants in the United States. This approval was given to Upside Foods and Good Meat, which both produce cultivated chicken products. Upside Foods is serving its cultivated chicken at Dominique Crenn’s Bar Crenn in San Francisco, while Good Meat will soon serve its cultivated chicken at China Chilcano, a restaurant by José Andrés in Washington D.C.

If you’ve gotten this far and don’t quite understand what cultivated meat is, here’s a quick breakdown. Cultivated meat, also known as cell-based or lab-grown meat, is produced by extracting animal cells (from any desired animal) and then cultivating them in a bioreactor to develop into bioidentical animal tissue. Animals do not need to be slaughtered in this process, and only a small sample is needed. Therefore, this approach provides bioidentical meat products without the need for traditional animal farming, potentially reducing environmental impacts and addressing ethical concerns.

There have been two main barriers to cultivated meat becoming more widely available. First, it had yet to be given approval in the United States, until last month. Prior to this, cultivated meat had only been given approval for commercial sale in Singapore. This makes the United States the second country in the world to allow commercial sale of cultivated meat.

Secondly, cultivated meat is difficult to scale. It has been incredibly pricey to develop the appropriate facilities, acquire bioreactors, build out highly trained and educated teams, and conduct years of R&D.

Despite these barriers, several companies have conducted in-person tastings to showcase their cultivated products with the public. This has been a loophole for serving cultivated meat and seafood; because it is not being sold, it is not against the law. At Santé Magazine, we were able to try cultivated caviar in December 2022 from a California-based startup called Optimized Foods. 

Several companies in the U.S. have been scaling up in preparation for being granted regulatory approval and the ability to sell commercially. For example, Upside Foods opened a 53,000 square foot production facility in Emeryville, California in 2021 that is capable of producing 50,000 pounds of finished product per year.

Upside Foods’ cultivated chicken breast

Upside Foods has made history by becoming the first cultivated meat company in the United States to have its product on a restaurant menu. According to the company: 

“We’re starting with restaurants because it will allow us to gather feedback from chefs and consumers. We have a partnership with three-Michelin star Chef Dominique Crenn, and UPSIDE’s cultivated chicken is currently available there. Looking ahead, we plan to partner with additional chefs and restaurants in the U.S., and eventually sell our products in grocery stores and markets worldwide. We want them to be available everywhere meat is sold, including retail and food service channels.”

Chicken is not the only cultivated product that consumers will be able to order from restaurants. A California-based company called Wildtype Foods produces cultivated salmon at its San Francisco-based production plant, and expects to receive regulatory approval soon. According to the company:

“Wildtype will introduce its sushi-grade, cultivated salmon to US restaurants upon completing its consultation with FDA. Its salmon, which combines cultivated salmon cells with a plant-based scaffold, offers a year-round, sustainable source of contaminant-free pacific salmon. Wildtype salmon, which will debut as a regular menu item in a number of US restaurants, offers consumers a new choice beyond wild and farmed fish with a delicate flavor and unrivaled purity.”

At the time of this article’s publication, cultivated meat is not readily available on restaurant menus across the country. However, if you’re located in San Francisco or Washington D.C., you have a unique opportunity to dine on cultivated chicken. While many critics say that this product is not commercially viable, we have reached the breaking point that it clearly is. If cultivated meat pops up on your favorite restaurant’s menu, will you choose to order it?