Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Food & Drink

Top Chef’s Tom Colicchio Joins With Meati to Fight Food Insecurity

By
A Meati whole-cut steak shaped from fermented mycelium, an alternative meat product.
A Meati whole-cut steak shaped from fermented mycelium, an alternative meat product. Meati

This week, previous Top Chef judge Tom Colicchio officially joined the alternative meat revolution.

“I’m so thrilled to be part of the team bringing this incredible new food to the world, and can’t wait to start sharing it,”  Colicchio posted to his Instagram account. 

Recommended Videos

Meati is a new whole-food protein coming in 2022. Meati creates whole-cut meat alternatives using fermented mycelium — the vegetative part of a fungus, consisting of a mass of branching, thread-like hyphae; essentially, white threads. Available in whole cuts like chicken breast and steak, Meati asserts that these vegan cuts are delicious, and they’ve already got several celebrated food brokers to back this claim including the aforementioned Colicchio. The chef is on board because he’s all about Meati’s taste and potential to make food production greener and protein-packed food products available to all people.

Related

“As a chef, I have a keen eye for seeking out new ingredients and innovations that deliver on quality and taste, and I’m equally as passionate about finding products with the potential to deliver whole nutrition in an equitable and sustainable way,” Colicchio said in a press release. “Meati excels in both of these categories as they bring their disruptive product to market.”

Nutrient-dense and sustainably made from mushroom root, Meati aims to deliver a global impact with a product at once accessible and delicious. Constructed from the root structure of mushrooms, Meati delivers 25 grams of protein and more than one-third of the suggested daily fiber per every 4.5-ounce serving. The company can manufacture the meat equivalent of 4,500 cows every 24 hours with less than 1% of the water and land use of conventional industrial meat production. 

Meati founders Justin Whiteley and Tyler Huggins met as Ph.D. students at Colorado University in Boulder, their mutual interest in mycelium’s power drawing them together like a fungal colony. At first, the pair harnessed mycelial roots’ chemical composition to build a more compostable battery before pivoting to fungal foodstuffs that would lead to Meati. In order to encourage a new nutritional ecosystem through the low-impact production of nutrient-dense food that is better for people and for the planet, Whiteley and Huggins went about bringing on big investors.

Related Guides

Colicchio joins Meati just following the close of the nascent company’s competitive, $50 million Series B funding drive. Meati’s existing team includes former Whole Foods Market CEO Walter Robb and former Patagonia CEO Rose Marcario. These investor-advisors will help Meati in a rapid production scale ahead of launching to a national market in 2022. 

In anticipation of this release, Meati’s granted Colicchio ten product bundles to send to friends and followers months before it’s available in stores. Interested in scoring a chance to try the first-taste bundle ahead of its 2022 launch? Enter by Friday, Nov. 20 for a chance to win and you could be one of the first people to try Meati.

Read More: Tilit Workwear Presents Chef Tom Colicchio-approved Aprons

Editors' Recommendations

Matthew Denis
Matthew Denis
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Matt Denis is an on-the-go remote multimedia reporter, exploring arts, culture, and the existential in the Pacific Northwest…
What, exactly, is a flat white? All about the tasty coffee drink
All about the flat white, a delicious coffee drink
flat white coffee

Espresso lovers who travel overseas may find a new world of coffee shop menu options not commonly seen in U.S. coffee chains. One drink popular in Australia, the flat white, has made its way to many U.S. coffee shops, including Starbucks. Yet most Americans do not actually know what this drink consists of. The flat white is a delicious, smooth, and velvety espresso drink that you might just be missing out on. Here's what you need to know about the flat white.
What is a flat white?

You can think of a flat white as a hybrid between a standard latte and a cappuccino. A classic latte is made with a shot of espresso, steamed milk, and foam on top. In contrast, a flat white is a smaller drink than a latte and is made with a double shot of espresso with micro-foamed milk on top. On the other hand, a flat white is larger than a cappuccino, which is made with a more equal ratio of espresso, steamed milk, and milk froth.

Read more
12 amazing types of pasta (and when you should actually be using them)
Swap your spaghetti for bucatini and thank us later.
Various dried pastas

One stroll down your local grocer's pasta aisle, and you'll be quickly, startlingly reminded of just how many pasta shapes there are. According to Italy Magazine, there are an estimated 350 different types of pasta, and about four times that many names for them. Needless to say, we'd love to cover them all, but an article addressing each and every pasta shape might prove a bit excessive.

The world of Italian pasta is an extensive one that would take months to dissect properly. We could spend days on gnocchi alone, and months on the beautiful madness that is stuffed pastas. Ravioli, tortellini, lasagna, and cannelloni are each individually deserving of their own articles. As it is, though, in the American market, there seems to be a bit of confusion around some of the more common dried pasta shapes and how they're best used. We've chosen a dozen of our very favorite, most commonly found pasta shapes to discuss here.
Bucatini

Read more
The ultimate guide to Lebanese cuisine, a rich and distinct food culture
After you read this, you'll be excited to cook this cuisine at home
Middle Eastern, Arabic, or Mediterranean dinner table with grilled lamb kebab, chicken skewers with roasted vegetables and appetizers variety serving on rustic outdoor table

The food culture of Lebanon is rich and resonant, reflecting both its Mediterranean setting and deep anthropological history.
Even those who have never trekked to Beirut — let alone their local Middle Eastern eatery — are likely familiar with a few of the staples. Lebanon, once a major part of the Ottoman Empire, is the birthplace of earthy dishes like baba ganoush and sweet treats such as baklava.

With its admiration for seasonality and a mix of breads and produce almost always accompanied by beverages, Lebanese cuisine is like the Italy of the Arab world. Whether you're munching at a cafe in Tripoli or just thumbing though a good cookbook at home, this kind of food is not only delicious and distinctive, but it welcomes an unhurried pace over the duration of many, many enjoyable courses.
The history of Lebanese cuisine

Read more