You've likely heard about the Impossible Burger by now, chef Traci Des Jardins's plant-based creation under the auspices of Impossible Foods that, miraculously, "bleeds" just like real medium-rare beef. SFist's Eve Batey and Caleb Perhsan, a vegetarian and an omnivore respectively, did their own taste-test last week and were both impressed vegetarian Eve a bit moreso, saying "They definitely captured what I recall as the mouthfeel of meat, and it had that char taste (which you never get from veggie burgers)."
Well now you can try one for yourself without committing to a sit-down at Jardinière or Cockscomb, the two restaurants where the burger is currently available. As CBS 5 reports, Impossible Foods will be pulling up a truck to Dolores Park at noon on Sunday to give away burgers for free, while supplies last. And yes, the burger is totally vegan.
They say they'll be there until 4 p.m., but they'll likely run out long before then.
Impossible Foods was funded in part by Google Ventures and Bill Gates, and it's based in Redwood City. As they say on their site, "We’re discovering healthy, sustainable new ingredients from nature. Our brilliant team of curious, creative and collaborative scientists take a fresh look at food and invent new ways to make the meat we crave directly from plants."
The secret of the Impossible Burger, as discussed earlier, is that it contains a plant-based form of heme, which is the ingredient in muscle tissue that gives the characteristic color and taste of meat, and the "bleeding" juices in the burger.
For several years now Gates has been putting money toward the goal of plant-based meat products, including another startup, Beyond Meat, based in Los Angeles. That company's Beyond Burger patties debuted at some Whole Foods earlier this year, and they also ooze fat and "bleed," but from beet juice.
Below, a video Gates made in 2013 on the topic of the future of food and the development plant-based meat products.