Dive Brief:
- Award-winning chef, restaurateur, author and TV personality Marcus Samuelsson is joining cultivated meat maker Aleph Farms as an investor, culinary advisor and U.S. launch partner. Samuelsson will serve the Israeli company’s Aleph Cuts steaks in the U.S. when they receive regulatory approval.
- Samuelsson will advise the company in a culinary capacity, including helping with product development and go-to-market strategy. The amount he invested is undisclosed.
- Other cultivated meat companies have made similar partnerships with well-known chefs.
Dive Insight:
While no company’s cultivated meat has received approval from both the FDA and the USDA to be served in the United States, Aleph Farms is the latest to partner with an acclaimed chef to introduce it to consumers when it can.
Samuelsson, who has several restaurants in the United States — mostly in the New York City area — will be able to showcase Aleph Farms’ cultivated steaks as a premium meat, giving them an elevated profile among consumers.
But Samuelsson is more than a James Beard Award-winning chef and restaurant operator. He’s also a well-known TV personality, hosting the PBS show “No Passport Required” about the diversity of people and traditions that make up the American culinary landscape. He’s currently on Netflix’s “Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend.” He’s been a judge on “Chopped,” “Top Chef Family Style” and “The Taste,” and is a frequent guest on national television shows.
In a statement, Samuelsson said that he was attracted to Aleph Farms’ deeper mission of making sustainable food to feed the planet through cultivated meat.
“Right now, it’s a pioneering movement and one that I think will only grow to be more important and increasingly commonplace in our lives,” he said. “What once felt futuristic — like electric cars — soon becomes familiar. This is a game changing moment in the industry to invest in the future, and I’m excited to partner with an innovative company like Aleph Farms.”
Samuelsson’s blend of haute cuisine and media savvy have the potential to considerably advance the perception and cause of cultivated meat among people in the United States. His endorsement of the space alone may lead consumers to trust cultivated meat and want to try the products. But he also has several platforms available to him to tell the story of cultivated meat to TV viewers interested in food.
Samuelsson is the third acclaimed chef in the United States to partner with a cultivated meat company in this way. Dominique Crenn will be serving Upside Foods’ cultivated chicken at her three-Michelin-starred restaurant Atelier Crenn restaurant in San Francisco once it receives approval from the USDA. And José Andrés has committed to serving Eat Just’s Good Meat chicken at one of his Washington, D.C.-area restaurants.
Crenn and Andrés are likely to be adding cultivated meat to their menus before Samuelsson does. Upside Foods and Eat Just have both received a safety approval for their chicken from the FDA, meaning they can serve their cultivated meat when the USDA grants approval to their facilities and meat procedures. Aleph Farms has not received any approval from the U.S. government, and the company doesn’t expect to get there until 2024 at the earliest.
