When did you last taste something for the very first time? In my case, it was during dinner at Tippling Club last month. Chef-owner Ryan Clift’s Dinner Prix Fixe menu featured the new meat Forged Parfait, a cell-cultured meat product made with Japanese quail cells.
Developed by Sydney-based food company Vow, it has a light-as-air mousse texture and a rich umami flavour—like liver paté and whipped butter all at once. When I’d finished my meal, I had more questions than answers.
To understand this unusual creation, I spoke to George Peppou, CEO and co-founder of Vow, a Sydney-based cultured meat company.
His first venture into the food industry was as a chef working full time and studying biochemistry simultaneously. He developed a taste for fine dining while working in some of Australia’s most prestigious restaurants. Along the way, he realised that to improve sustainability in the food system, he needed to build new businesses instead of simply fixing the existing ones.
“This led me to start GrowLab, an accelerator focused on food and agricultural tech. But I kept returning to the challenge of reducing the massive resources required for traditional meat production. As a result, Vow was founded,” he says.
As Peppou explains, cultured meat like Forged is real meat grown from animal cells. “We take a small sample of cells from an animal, this time a Japanese quail, and grow only the parts we want to eat. It’s forged, not farmed.”
Vow’s first product, Forged Parfait, contains 60 percent cultured Japanese quail. Also included are butter, eschalots (an onion related to the garlic family that grows in clusters), tapioca starch, and port wine. The process involves three steps: culturing Japanese quail cells, growing them in bioreactors like those used in breweries, and blending them with other ingredients.
Unlike plant-based meat alternatives, Forged by Vow doesn’t replace existing foods. As Peppou’s vision unfolds, he aims to create a world where food has endless possibilities.
“Cell culturing allows us to develop products with unique flavours and textures that are superior to traditional meat.”
