Sydney startup Vow is about to serve its cultured quail protein in a Singapore restaurant

Lab-grown animal proteins startup Vow Foods will serve its cell-based meat in a restaurant in Singapore next week.

Its first product is a parfait (a buttery, silken pate made from livers), using cultivated Japanese quail cells, served as part of a A$290 dinner at Mori restaurant at the Mandala Club over the next fortnight.

The parfait will feature in three of seven courses on the Japanese-influenced menu, including a savoury cannoli (an Italian pastry normally filled with custard) topped with caviar, and a turf-and-sky open sandwich called the ‘Hokkaido wagyu sando’ – a milk bun topped with Japanese beef and the Vow product.

And in a surprising twist, there’s even a “vegetarian menu featuring Forged Parfait” available.

‘Hokkaido wagyu sando’ – a milk bun topped with Japanese beef and the Forged parfait.

Vow has been plotting a quail product and Singapore launch, including a concept restaurant, for some years.

The Sydney startup launched a new “luxury food brand” Forged, for its quail product, having spent five years experimenting with lab-grown meat, initially in 2019 using pork and kangaroo cells. Since then it’s produced flesh from a range of animal cells, including rabbit, mice, goat and water buffalo, and even alpaca.

A year ago Vow created global headlines with a stunt involving a ‘meatball’ that included woolly mammoth DNA.

Vow has named its cultured meat product “Quailia”, no doubt riffing on the notion of qualia – an esoteric philosophy of mind based on perceived sensations (synesthesia for example).

Publicity for the launch that said: “We’ve explored hundreds of different species and found that with cultured Japanese quail, we’re able to craft this rare pairing – a rich umami flavour with a weightless, melt-in-your-mouth quality.”

Singapore pioneered approvals for cell-grown meat for human consumption in 2020, then was joined by the US last year and more recently Israel. Australian regulators are continuing through their certification process. Late last year Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) declared the Vow product safe to eat.

FSANZ takes the view that no permissions or requirements in the Food Standards Code for cell-based meats, but their production would be captured within existing standards in the Code and require pre-market approval.

Vow is backed by Australian VCs including Blackbird and Square Peg, as well as Grok, the family fund of Mike Cannon-Brookes. It raised $7.7 million in a seed round in January 2021, then a record $73.5 million Series A in November 2022.

Vow cofounder and CEO George Peppou said in a Medium post that he was “feeling a lot of things: relieved, proud, and excited” after Singapore approved the sale of Vow products.

Vow’s Forged parfait in a savoury cannoli topped with caviar.

“We are the third company in the world to sell cultured meat — a huge feat given this is the goal of more than 150 companies in our industry,” he wrote.

“We believe the adoption of cultured meat should mirror electric vehicles; starting as a premium commodity, and moving down market as the technology matures.

“Shamelessly copying Tesla, Forged is our Roadster.”

Peppou – whose ambition for Vow is to make it “the biggest food company in history” – argues that the mistake most plant-based and cultured meat companies make is trying to replace like with like.

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