Impossible Foods‘ Impossible Burger has received a lot of press lately for attempting to do the “impossible:” creating a burger that that looks, feels and tastes like meat but is made entirely from plants.
As you can see, they have done a good job replicating the look of an actual beef patty. But that’s really the easy part. They also claim to have the texture, mouth feel and taste of the real thing. Oh, and it even bleeds!
To attain this realism, Impossible Foods use a secret blend of ingredients that includes things like potato protein, coconut oil, honeydew and a molecule known as heme. Unless you’re a science geek you’ve probably never heard of the last one, so here’s the Biology 101 version: it’s a basic building block of living things that’s found in abundance in meat. Impossible Foods derives theirs from legumes and it’s what give the burger its magical meat like properties.
The company has raised over $100 million and has the backing of Bill Gates so clearly some people think they’ve done a pretty good job. The burger is currently only available at Momofuku Nishi during lunch and happy hour for $12. I recently popped in to see to give it a try. Here’s my verdict:
Initial Take: The burger is done up in classic American style with lettuce, tomato, pickles and special sauce on a Martin’s potato roll. I added cheese because I don’t care what burgers without cheese taste like. From looks alone there’s no way I could tell this wasn’t a beef burger.
Feel: Veggie burgers tend to be drier than their fatty beef counterparts. This one is very moist for a patty made out of plants, though still a little on the drier side for meat. Other than that the mouth feel is pretty indistinguishable. It even picks up a nice crispy char on the outside. Sadly I was unable to get mine to bleed, but to be fair I’ve never seen a McDonald’s (or even Shake Shack) burger bleed either.
Taste: At Nishi at least, the burger was enjoyable and does a good job of mimicking a classic well-done fast food style burger. I tried some of the meat on its own and it more or less has the taste of mid-quality patty. That said, well done meat tends not to have a ton of beefy flavor, and this was no different.
Overall: I’m guessing in a blind taste test very few people could distinguish the Impossible Burger from a beef patty prepared in the same manner. But compare it to a thick cut premium patty cooked medium rare at say Minetta Tavern and they’ve still got a long way to go. That’s okay though. Replacing fast food burgers with something healthier and more environmentally friendly would be enough of a feat on its own. I would absolutely order their burger any day over whatever is coming between the buns at Mickey Ds. I hope to have the option some day soon.
Rating: 
The Impossible Burger From Impossible Foods
@
Momofuku Nishi
232 Eighth Avenue
New York, NY
