MINNEAPOLIS - It’s called the Impossible Burger by Impossible Foods, a company founded in 2011. Its sole mission is to make the global food system more sustainable by making meat and dairy foods directly from plants.
“Tastes, sizzles, smells exactly like ground beef. It's a product for meat lovers. It is for people who have eaten burgers their whole life and they just want to continue enjoying that without the massive strain on the environment that cattle production causes,” explained Nathan Gerdes of Hell’s Kitchen.
The downtown Minneapolis restaurant is the first in Minnesota to carry the Impossible Burger.
“We are selling about 50 to 70 a day.”
And it’s all by word of mouth, as the burger isn’t even on the menu yet.
Steve Meyer is co-owner of Hell’s Kitchen and has been a chef for 36 years.
“I am a meat eater. When I first tried it, I was blown away,” said Meyer.
So what’s in it?
“It’s potatoes, wheat protein, coconut oil. They have a product in the burger called heme. You can sort of think of it as hemoglobin. It's found in blood in animals, but it is almost found in every plant on earth. And it's what makes it sort of taste and satisfy the same way meat does,” explained Gerdes.
Tasty, but is it nutritious?
“It is zero cholesterol, so that's a big plus. You're going to have similar levels of fat, carbs, more levels of protein which people love and has more raw nutrients… iron and various nutrients.”
Meyer says it takes about four or five minutes to cook. He suggests cooking the burger to medium-well.
For more information about the burger go to impossiblefoods.com.