$80 Million Veggie Burger Finally Hits the Market |Cooking With Amanda

Thursday, July 28, 2016

$80 Million Veggie Burger Finally Hits the Market

The burger that costs $80 million to develop is now finally available for you to consume.

Yes, $80 million to develop.

That is not a typo.

It's called The Impossible Burger.

A biochemist spent five years and all that cash scientifically coming up with what he says is a totally plant-based burger that looks, tastes and smells JUST like the real thing.

And you can now buy one in New York City for just 12 dollars!

It's on sale at Davig Chang's restaurant, Momofuku.

The revolutionary burger is made with wheat, potato protein, coconut oil and heme, a chemical compound in animal muscle that the scientists synthesized.

It actually has the same number of calories as ground beef, but a little more protein and a slightly less fat.

Making it, however, uses an eighth of the greenhouse gas, a quarter of the water and less than 1/20th of the land needed for ground beef.

But how does it taste?

Here is what The New York Post wrote as a review:

The crumbly, thin patty - once I peeled it free from a potato bun, romaine lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, cheese-like substance and sticky "special sauce" they wouldn't identify - had a slightly gristly texture, meh mouth feel and scarcely more bogus-beef quality than that of common veggie burgers made from grains and legumes.

The negative take concluded as follows:

[Creator Patrick O. Brown] summed up his creation, by saying "it's a waste of time if it's not delicious." It's a waste then. Hey, maybe another five years and $80 million more will do the trick.

Ouch.