Plant-based "meat"

[samhexum]

McDonald’s rolling out McPlant meatless burger at select US restaurants

McDonald’s announced Thursday it will test its meatless McPlant burger — created in partnership with Beyond Meat — at a handful of restaurants across the US next month.

Starting Nov. 3, McDonald’s will roll the alternative-meat patty out in Irving, Texas; Carrollton, Texas; Cedar Falls, Iowa; Jennings, Louisiana; Lake Charles, Louisiana; El Segundo, California; and Manhattan Beach, California.

It will be the first time the burger giant sells a plant-based meat imitator in the US.

The limited test will help the Chicago-based burger giant “understand how offering a burger with a plant-based patty impacts the kitchens in our restaurants,” it said.

The meat-free patty is made from ingredients including peas, rice and potatoes, and it will be served on a sesame seed bun with tomato, lettuce, pickles, onions, mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard and American cheese, the company said.

McDonald’s has been slower to jump on the white-hot plant-based meat trend than its peers.

White Castle, for example, was one of the first nationwide chains to jump onboard with the 2018 rollout of its Impossible Slider, which was created with Beyond Meat rival Impossible Foods.

Burger King has also leaned into the movement, with its Impossible Whopper. The Restaurant Brands International-owned chain is also now testing meatless chicken nuggets.

If the trial is successful and McDonald’s rolls out the McPlant burger more broadly, it could be a boon to Beyond Meat and help it dominate the plant-based meat industry.

Shares of Beyond Meat were last seen trading more than 1 percent higher at $106.36 per share. The stock is down almost 14 percent since Jan. 1.

McDonald’s has tested some plant-based products internationally, but never in the US. It rolled out — and then killed — a plant-based burger in Canada in 2019.

Last year, the company unveiled the McPlant brand. Then, earlier this year, it announced a multiyear partnership with Beyond Meat to support that effort.

Notably, former McDonald’s CEO Don Thompson was an early investor in Beyond Meat and sits on its board.

The McPlant has been tested in a few countries, including Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Austria and the UK, where it recently expanded its testing of the product.

It’s not clear how long the US test will last. The company said, “you’ll have to stay tuned for future McPlant availability updates coming out of our test…”

[lonely_john]

On 12/21/2020 at 10:45 PM, marylander1940 said:

7 billion and counting... we have to grow food faster, cheaper and healthier too.

Only wishful thinking my dear @marylander1940. Only governments can enforce this but there is SO MUCH MONEY involved that it's almost impossible. I sometimes wonder: When it comes to the decline of our food industry, what will be our rock bottom?

[marylander1940]

1 hour ago, lonely_john said:

Only wishful thinking my dear @marylander1940. Only governments can enforce this but there is SO MUCH MONEY involved that it's almost impossible. I sometimes wonder: When it comes to the decline of our food industry, what will be our rock bottom?

Actually government should stop subsidizing bad with corporate welfare and let innovators and the market handle this issue. 

[samhexum]

Cracker Barrel is now serving plant-based sausage. Meat eaters aren't having it.

The new menu item comes with a side of controversy. Cracker Barrel is ruffling the feathers of some carnivorous customers by offering Impossible Sausage as a protein option.

"Discover new meat frontiers," the company said in a Facebook post.

"Experience the out of this world flavor of Impossible™ Sausage Made From Plants next time you Build Your Own Breakfast."

The company's decision warmed the hearts of some vegetarians.

Meat-eaters had some spicier things to say.

Cracker Barrel told USA TODAY in a statement: "We're always exploring opportunities to expand how our guests experience breakfast and provide choices to satisfy every taste bud."

It's impossible
For a carnivore to eat plant
It's just impossible
It's impossible
Or that carnivore will rant
It's just impossible

 

Edited August 6, 2022 by samhexum
just for the hell of it

[samhexum]

https://nypost.com/2023/08/03/steakhouse-brags-about-69-vegan-steak-freaking-unbelievable/

Well done?

A Florida steakhouse chain brags it is the first in the US to serve a plant-based steak.

Charley’s Steak House in Orlando is selling the F U Filet Mignon for $69 (in the mid-range of the chain’s meat prices).

“Freaking unbelievable plant-based by Chunk,” reads the simple description on the online menu.

Chunk Foods is an Israeli food-tech startup aiming “to make delicious, nutritious, plant-based whole cuts that are kind to the environment, and accessible to all.” It’s partially funded by Robert Downey Jr.

While other restaurants have been offering vegan and meat alternatives for years, Charley’s newest Chunk-y menu item has reportedly made it the first steakhouse in the country to serve a plant-based option of the tenderloin cut.

“Chunk is listed on the same menu as other premium cuts of beef thanks to its exquisite culinary performance, great taste and texture, clean ingredient list, and impressive nutritional profile,” Chunk founder and CEO Amos Golan told Veg News.

The team behind Charley’s claimed they had been on the prowl for a viable vegan option and finally found themselves unable to detect the difference between the real beef and the vegan option during a blind taste test of Chunk’s product.

“It fooled us,” Seth Miller — vice president and COO of Talk of the Town Restaurant Group, which runs Charley’s — told Fast Company, explaining that the team had been searching for something to serve vegan and vegetarian guests who join their carnivore friends, but had “just been disappointed” (until now).

Chunk uses only a few ingredients in its “filet,” including fermented soy and wheat, beet juice, coconut oil, fortified iron, and B12 while avoiding additives found in other plant-based options.

A 6-ounce version of the steak has 40 grams of protein and no cholesterol. 

“While the technology is rooted in classic fermentation methods, the end product leverages years of science and technology,” Golan explained to Fast Company.

“One of the biggest challenges in the industry is mimicking the texture, color, and taste of traditional meat, along with controlling the direction and thickness of the fibers and the juiciness of the cut.”

This seems to be a feat Chunk has conquered.

The F U Filet Mignon is prepared alongside other high-end cuts of meat, with a dry spice rub on the wood-fired open flame pit — where the temperature can reach 1,200 degrees.

Waiters serve it in tuxes.

“Since we cook on an open fire, we wanted it to perform very similar to a steak — we didn’t want to bring in something that we would have to create separate execution or different procedural standards for,” Miller explained.

Talk of the Town Restaurant Group plans to eventually offer the cut at its other steakhouses, including Texas Cattle Co. and Vito’s Chop House.

“This partnership provides a solution that aligns with our quality expectations for every item we serve. If it’s not the best, we won’t serve it,” Miller told Veg News.

While the quality of taste is up to diners to decide, the debate on the nutritional value of veganism continues between food experts and activists.

“Freaking unbelievable plant-based by Chunk,” the description on the online menu reads.   “It fooled us,” Seth Miller, vice president and COO of Talk of the Town Restaurant Group, told Fast Company of the plant-based option’s performance during a blind taste test.   Chunk’s product only contains a few ingredients, including fermented soy and wheat, beet juice, coconut oil, fortified iron, and B12.  

[Guest]

Some vegan alternatives, such as the Impossible Burger, are so high in saturated fat, they're worse health-wise overall than burgers made with leaner meat. Of course, the environmental impact (gases produced by steer) is another matter. Some vegan alternatives, such as Chick'n Nuggets, however, are more healthful.

Impossible burgers are really bad, nutritionally. Even if you have only a 4 ounce (113 g) patty, you get a massive 8 g in saturated fat. And that's for a measly 240 calories, not what I'd consider enough for a whole meal. Add some fries or potato chips with that, and you're really stacking on the saturated fat!

Edited August 4, 2023 by Unicorn

[mike carey]

Moderator's Comment

Ladies and gentlemen, since we're in the Cooking Forum now, this is a comment on our framing of what the forum was for, not a warning. The plan was for it to be a place for us to talk about cooking, not about foodstuffs in general, or about restaurants, except to talk about how to cook the foods, or the dishes that a restaurant serves.

Plant-based meats are relatively new (as distinct from substitutes that clearly are not meat), so I'm sure there must be particular recipes out there, or experiences in how cooking these products differs from the real thing, that you can add to the existing discussion!

[samhexum]

On 12/21/2020 at 9:51 PM, samhexum said:

I'm sure I'd prefer meat-based plants, but I've been curious to try some, especially since I've sent for several coupons for free items.

The NY Post's restaurant critic apparently doesn't think there's ANY way to cook faux meat and make it tasty:

• Fake meat is failing because it's gross and unhealthy

Beyond Meat, the No. 2 manufacturer of plant-based meat substitutes, announced this week that it lost $53 million in the second quarter of 2023 as its US revenue fell 40 percent.

The company’s tailspin included the axing of its chief operating officer Doug Ramsey last fall after he bit a man’s nose — not a plant-based organ — in a road rage confrontation.

The news follows meatless-market king Impossible Foods’ plans to chop 20 percent of its workforce on top of cuts it made last year. The belt-tightening moves are meant to keep “costs in line with revenue,” its chief executive said in February.

Although sales remain strong, Impossible has repeatedly delayed an expected initial public offering since 2021, while employees have seen the value of their private shares plummet by 89 percent in the last two years, according to Bloomberg. Neither situation reflects unbridled optimism about long-term growth.

Meanwhile, US beef consumption rebounded to 58.9  pounds per capita in 2022, up from a low of 54 pounds in 2017, according to the USDA.

In New York City, steakhouses, not plant parlors, stand at the top of the restaurant food-chain. 

Any time a steakhouse closes, it’s immediately replaced by another steakhouse, not by a plant factory. For example, Rocco’s from Madison Avenue is taking over the former BLT Steak on East 57th Street.

Eleven Madison Park chef/owner Daniel Humm came to a “mutual” decision with the owners of the new 425 Park Avenue building to back out of opening an all-vegan eatery there. It will instead be a normal, albeit “health-conscious,” restaurant by Jean-Georges Vongerichten.

The hottest new dishes in town this year aren’t the latest spins on tofu but Mischa’s $29 hot dog and Tatiana’s short rib pastrami suya.

Meat is the stealth menu anchor at lots of new and old restaurants that aren’t officially steakhouse — the Lambs Club, Monterey, The Grill and Knickerbocker Bar & Grill.

Americans love beef, and American beef is delicious.

I recently salivated over sweet-and-pungent chili-rubbed boneless ribeye at Michael Lomonaco’s Porter House; musty-and-funky, gorgonzola-cured Texas wagyu ribeye at Andrew Carmellini’s Carne Mare and mind-bending-luscious porterhouse on the bone at David Burke’s Red Horse in White Plains.

And I’m not a big steak eater!

But with specimens  like these around, who wants “heme,” the protein released when soy leghemoglobin is synthesized from genetically modified yeast. The Impossible Burger relies on this tasty, lab-generated ingredient to make a faux burger that actually “bleeds.”

Meanwhile, who really wants to sink their teeth into a Beyond Meat patty, which is made from such tasty ingredients as pea and rice protein, sunflower lecithin and methyl cellulose?

Sure, most — but not all — medical professionals recommend limiting red meat consumption for cardiovascular health, but these frankenfoods aren’t what the doctor ordered.

The giant beef-and-pork hot dog at Mischa is one of many meaty dishes New Yorkers are loving right now. Tamara Beckwith Tatiana’s short rib pastrami suya is one of the best dishes in the past year. Stephen Yang

 

Edited August 11, 2023 by samhexum
for absolutely NO @%!*ING reason at all!