Crenn Bar will no longer serve Upside Foods' lab-grown chicken, but the renowned American chef will continue to promote it at events. Other chefs are interested, but the market may not be ready from both demand and supply standpoints.
The News
It was just last summer when a radiant Dominique Crenn announced the agreement with Upside Foods to serve, first in the world, its cultivated chicken not at Atelier, her three-star restaurant, but at Bar Crenn, which has been vegetarian since 2018. Today, that controversial meat can no longer be ordered in any restaurant in the United States, but things may soon change.
"After the incredible run of serving our flagship cultivated chicken at Bar Crenn, we've wrapped up our dinner series and are taking our chicken on the road! We're so proud of the story we've written with Chef Dominique Crenn: first cultivated chicken sale in the U.S.; unbeatable taste and quality. Together we've set the North Star for cultivated meat, and the future is delicious. So, what's next? We'll be working with Chef Crenn and others to serve our chicken at events starting next month! We're also hard at work on our next-generation products at scale, still awaiting regulatory approval," the company wrote on LinkedIn, thrilled about "this first step on the long road to changing the world."
The offering, as reported by Robb Report, was indeed limited: just 16 portions of approximately 30 grams each per month, fried in a tempura batter infused with a Yucatan spice called recado negro, and served with burnt chili aioli, flowers, and herbs grown on the chef's Blue Belle Farm. But as announced, the collaboration is not over; rather, it will take the form of events with other chefs interested in the subject, while research continues on large-scale products, still awaiting approval from federal agencies.
José Andrés has already announced plans to sell Good Meat's cultivated chicken at one of his restaurants in Washington, and Marcus Samuelsson has invested in a company looking to produce cultivated lamb chops, intending to serve them at one of his restaurants after government approval.
