A New Food Economy
May 25, 2020From Table to Gable
May 25, 2020
5 stars for “Find Dining”
Culina Gastro-Lab wins first S.T.A.R.,
makes microbial gastronomy an official cuisine
I am sitting in a sunlit dining hall, with the strangest meal any human has had in centuries – and I’m not exaggerating.
It’s a plate of mosasaurus gravadlax, with a side of traditionally fermented kimchi, finished with a guava glaze.
All of the menu items are locally sourced, but none of them are actually “from” here - or now, for that matter.
The mosasaurus has not been around since Jurassic times, but it's served fresh in Culina.
First of all, I didn’t choose my meal – I simply “gathered” it. Culina’s “menu” appears like magic on the table, inviting diners to drag ingredient holograms into a virtual plate. The smart algorithm makes sure everything will come together deliciously, and only after I’d chosen my main, complement and sides did my dish get revealed.
Second of all, all of the menu items are locally sourced, but none of them are actually “from” here, or now, for that matter. Fermentation is not a common way of cooking here in the UK; guava doesn’t grow here, yet the fruit in my dish was picked minutes before serving. And finally, most mind-blowing of all, the mosasaurus has not been around since Jurassic times.
To be more precise, what truly perplexes me is how no actual mosasaurus was harmed in the preparation of my meal. This is not some plant-based approximation of meat, nor is it a genetically modified organism. It is simply protein – the tastiest, flakiest, juiciest protein I’ve ever had the pleasure of eating.
It’s more tender than I expected, with a subtle umami taste I never experienced with pork or beef – and it’s “clean”, grown by cellular agriculture. It makes me think of the sea, with a nostalgia I’m not supposed to know. There is something poignant about simultaneously realizing what we’ve lost to extinction, and what we’ve gained through technology. And this type of cuisine – “microbial gastronomy” – is how we’re going to ensure no other species goes extinct by the hand of man.
Second of all, all of the menu items are locally sourced, but none of them are actually “from” here, or now, for that matter. Fermentation is not a common way of cooking here in the UK; guava doesn’t grow here, yet the fruit in my dish was picked minutes before serving. And finally, most mind-blowing of all, the mosasaurus has not been around since Jurassic times.
To be more precise, what truly perplexes me is how no actual mosasaurus was harmed in the preparation of my meal. This is not some plant-based approximation of meat, nor is it a genetically modified organism. It is simply protein – the tastiest, flakiest, juiciest protein I’ve ever had the pleasure of eating.
It’s more tender than I expected, with a subtle umami taste I never experienced with pork or beef – and it’s “clean”, grown by cellular agriculture. It makes me think of the sea, with a nostalgia I’m not supposed to know. There is something poignant about simultaneously realizing what we’ve lost to extinction, and what we’ve gained through technology. And this type of cuisine – “microbial gastronomy” – is how we’re going to ensure no other species goes extinct by the hand of man.
It’s been five years since a novel virus held the world hostage. Difficult as it was, that same pandemic inadvertently birthed a new way of consuming food. The irony is not lost on anyone. Covid-19 was the result of unsustainable food practices. Factory farming crowded animals together, giving their viruses fertile ground to mix and mutate. Live animal markets did the same. It was only a matter of time before a virus made the jump from animal to human.
But all that is changing. The human response to the limits of the covid-19 lockdown was to evolve in self-sufficiency. Everything on my plate was grown right in this facility, by people living, farming and culturing their own meat. This is Culina, the world’s first Gastro-Lab. Its name, like many of its menu items, feels foreign on the tongue at first. It’s a nod to traditional cooking methods as well as modern clean meat created with the help of microflora. The food served here gives words like “homemade” and “house special” new meanings altogether. What makes it innovative, though, is not just the science behind it, but the new social engines it spurred, in terms of food security.
But all that is changing. The human response to the limits of the covid-19 lockdown was to evolve in self-sufficiency. Everything on my plate was grown right in this facility, by people living, farming and culturing their own meat. This is Culina, the world’s first Gastro-Lab. Its name, like many of its menu items, feels foreign on the tongue at first. It’s a nod to traditional cooking methods as well as modern clean meat created with the help of microflora. The food served here gives words like “homemade” and “house special” new meanings altogether. What makes it innovative, though, is not just the science behind it, but the new social engines it spurred, in terms of food security.
The human response to the limits of the covid-19 lockdown was to evolve in self-sufficiency.
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- Hydroponic system
Culina is not just a restaurant; it’s a revolution. It is with great pride that the National Food Review Board gives it the first ever Sustainable Trade Award for Restaurants (S.T.A.R.), and the credit for making microbial gastronomy an official cuisine.
We hope that this is the beginning of a new wave, wherein restaurants and kitchens everywhere strive to be fully sustainable in providing sustenance.
