"For the best chefs, their key challenge is to ensure that ethical cuisine is also the tastiest cuisine".

If you consider that we are still trying to realize an idea that was first imagined and expressed in 1940 – namely cultivated meat – I am curious which food-related idea is being imagined somewhere right now, and perhaps already expressed, but is still only a pipe dream. Or in the case of food: a “plate dream”. But will there still be plates when it becomes a reality?

If you were brought up not to take obvious things for granted, as I was, you will know where plates come from and why they might disappear.

Will we need table or plate?

The food futurists of today envision a future of functional, personal nutrition in the form of pills, powders or drinks. These will be custom made, adapted to our needs, without overconsumption, harmful substances or waste. Is this still a long way from our dinner table? And by the way, does that mean tables too are on their last legs? This may not be what we want right now, but it is undeniably a solution to many of our problems.

Leaving aside these futuristic ideas, an army of creative, scientific food thinkers has arisen, who are combining old techniques with new possibilities to transform the largest industry in the world, i.e. the food industry, into “Kind Earth Tech” to fill our plates.

Tomorrows food pioneers

The food pioneers of tomorrow include Peter Rowe, who creates proteins from thin air, Giuseppe Scionti, who has discovered how to print food, David Bowman, who cultivates the specific flavour of “fat”, Vitorio Santo, who literally gives you goosebumps (or in fact chicken skin), Sandhya Sriram, who is transforming the polluting farmed shrimp industry, Ryan Bethencourt, who has developed plant-based dog food, Leonard Lehrer, Andrew Spicer and David Ramjohn who are helping to rediscover algae, Didier Toubia and Neta Lavon, who are creating fresh meat in space, Jan Klerken, who is investigating the limitless possibilities of mushrooms, Yuki Hanyu, who teaches children to cultivate meat at home, Illtud Dunsford, who is transforming bioreactors, essential to the food revolution, Miyoko Shinner, who gave Hollywood better butter while fighting for justice, Josh Tetrick, who has created scrambled eggs from green beans, and Lori Goff, who has transformed brewing waste into food-safe packaging.

These are just a handful of today's food pioneers, who are ready to transform the future of our food in the near future. In doing so, they will also transform our living environment – by improving it. If you then consider that “you are what you eat”, I hope this will awake a desire to taste, eat and welcome the products currently being created by these pioneers in new culinary cultures or taste experiences.

My favourite fantasy dish

One of my favourite fantasy dishes is a cell-based, 3D printed surf and turf that I would find in the 37˚ section of the supermarket, served with broccoli from the vertical farming kitchen greenhouse and cream sauce from Brad Vanstone's Willicroft farm.

If I indulge my fantasy, I can imagine an extremely tasty future, and not simply because I see how we can create better products for people, animals and the planet. I have been fortunate enough to have been the guest of chefs such as Thomas Bowman, who wants to give us dishes full of taste, aroma, texture and umami. For these chefs, the key challenge is to ensure that ethical cuisine is also the tastiest cuisine.

The Optimist 2020, Ira van Eelen

This article is a translation from "THE OPTIMIST" article October 2020.

Many thanks to Chris Meghan