Scallops with cultured caviar to start, followed by a stem cell pork shoulder, and a delicious beef-berry tart for dessert – oh and B52 meat cocktails afterwards. If this whets your appetite then Bistro In Vitro might just be the place for you. On the back of the creation of the first lab-grown hamburger in 2013, scientists, artists and chefs have come together to create a menu of culinary experimentation to delight the senses as well as the environment.

In vitro works by taking animal cells and culturing them in cylindrical bioreactors, normally used by the pharmaceutical industry to manufacture medication. The project sees in vitro meat as offering a sustainable and animal friendly alternative to how we eat. The restaurant may be fictitious but the project offers a tangible, virtual space to play with the idea of food in the future. Though the restaurant’s menu may not be for everyone, with a world population heading for nine billion, and the current way of producing and consuming meat fast becoming unsustainable, in vitro meat could provide a viable, and tasty, alternative for the future. Food for thought indeed.