Beginning with the first “laboratory hamburger” in 2013, the food industry has been focusing its technological and commercial efforts on mass production of synthetic substitutes for familiar meat products: hamburgers, steaks, sausages, chicken wings, cured meats, and so on. But why should the synthetic meat products we will consume in the future appear in the shapes and methods traditionally reserved for meat? Why should the technological developments that enable growing artificial meat from cell cultures not lead also to new culinary practices and new forms of production and presentation?

These questions guided Koert van Mensvoort and Hendrik-Jan Grievink when they founded  the “Next Nature Network” and then extended their investigation into this field in 2014 with the publication of the “In-Vitro Meat Cookbook”. Here are several suggestions from the book, generously shared by its authors:

Meat paper origami

 

Colored meat balls

Steak knitted from meat strands

 

Colored meat paste

Liquid meat cocktail