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https://scmp.com/magazines/style/travel-food/article/3001618/stop-salivating-singapore-diners-can-now-taste-real Leisure
Stop salivating, Singapore diners can now taste the ‘real thing’ from Impossible Foods
- Singapore restaurants were among the first in the world to ask Impossible Foods for its plant-based ‘beef’ patty
Adam Penney of Potato Head Singapore was one of the first chefs in Singapore to email Impossible Foods about its plant-based patty because he was ‘intrigued’ by the ‘incredible’ concept. Photo: Impossible Foods
The meatless meat patties from US-based producer Impossible Foods have just landed in Singapore, but local businesses have been salivating over them for years.
Impossible Foods senior vice-president Nick Halla said eateries and consumers from Singapore were among the first in the world to show interest in the company’s plant-based “beef” patty, which it spent eight years developing.
Impossible Foods was founded by Pat Brown, who hired Halla as the company’s first employee in 2011.
For the first few years of its existence, the company kept “relatively quiet” as it researched its plant-based patty, Halla said. But within the first week of “talking about what [it] was doing”, emails from interested parties in Singapore started rolling in, particularly from hotels.
Halla said these emails started before the patty had debuted in the United States two years ago.
“Some of the first-ever reach-outs we had were from Singapore – businesses and consumers were approaching us about the product,” he added.
One of these emails was from Adam Penney, the chef behind burger joint Potato Head Singapore. Penney, who has worked under Michelin-starred chef Gordon Ramsay, told Business Insider that he emailed Impossible Foods because their concept “sounded incredible” and he was “intrigued” to try the patties.
Today, Potato Head Singapore is one of the eight restaurants in the city offering dishes made using Impossible Foods’ patties, which mimic the taste and texture of 80/20 ground beef (beef with 80 per cent lean meat and 20 per cent fat).
One of the first chefs in Singapore to email Impossible Foods about its plant-based patty was chef Adam Penney of burger joint Potato Head Singapore. Photo: Impossible Foods
The brand launched in Singapore on Thursday, March 7, after its entry into Hong Kong last year. It expects to expand “very quickly” in Singapore, Halla said, revealing that many city eateries had been waiting for it to arrive.
The company plans to announce a slew of partnerships with “influential” hotels next, as well as add “dozens” of new eateries to its client list every month, and to end the year with at least 50 restaurant partners.
Halla said that Singapore has been “extremely receptive” and “highly accepting” of the product.
He added that Singaporeans and local businesses understood the long-term importance of the brand’s meatless patties (which, it says, are far less polluting to produce than meat) in creating a sustainable food source for future generations.
“I think Singapore is a very forward-thinking nation,” he added. “The conversations that we’ve had here are all positive.”
This article originally appeared on Business Insider.