World’s First Chicken-Free Liquid Egg Debuts at Eleven Madison Park
The innovative EVERY Egg, which uses egg protein made with precision fermentation, can make egg dishes like omelets which are “indistinguishable” from animal-based eggs.
An omelet made using the EVERY Egg. Credit: The EVERY Co.
Diners have tasted a glimpse of the future of food as the “world’s first liquid egg made without the hen” made its debut at a restaurant in New York last month.
The EVERY Egg is made using precision fermentation to create real animal protein that is equivalent to the key protein found in a hen’s egg. The brewing process, similar to how beer is brewed, combines a special yeast with sugar and water to brew egg protein that’s then crafted into a liquid egg.
And the product has now been unveiled for the first time at NYC’s Eleven Madison Park, a three-star Michelin restaurant considered to be among one of the world’s top dining establishments.
As part of the exclusive dinner served to a group of leading culinary innovators and chefs on December 8, guests sampled multiple courses including omelet and creme brûlée, as well as cocktails (which sometimes use egg white in their recipes).
Scrambled egg on toast using the EVERY Egg. Credit: The EVERY Co.
Executive chef Daniel Humm noted that when his team prepared an omelet using EVERY Egg, the taste and versatility was “indistinguishable” from hen eggs. The product is described as the first to be able to match the culinary versatility of eggs and be able to be used as a 1:1 drop-in across hundreds of culinary applications where eggs are used.
This includes everything from scrambled egg, omelets, and as an ingredient in cakes and sweet treats.
Credit: The EVERY Co.
"By decoupling the egg from the chicken, EVERY Egg is going to change the way we think about one of the most ubiquitous foods on the planet," said Arturo Elizondo, CEO of EVERY, the company behind the EVERY Egg. The product is now available for sampling to foodservice operators and will be available at restaurants later in 2024.
The Silicon Valley-based company spent over nine years of product development to create the EVERY Egg, and has raised over $233 million from investors including Anne Hathaway, AB InBev, and Grupo Bimbo.
Solving the Problems of The Egg Industry
Solutions like the EVERY Egg offer a glimpse at the future of food, one where food production does not have to rely on animal agriculture. Such alternatives could create a kinder and more sustainable global food system, as current meat, dairy, and egg production carries a high environmental impact and requires millions of animals to be farmed and slaughtered every year.
Eleven Madison Park’s Chef Humm has explained that he’s excited about the potential of EVERY Egg to “transform the food landscape”. EVERY say that using precision fermentation instead of animals to produce eggs solves some of the egg industry’s biggest challenges, including animal welfare issues, supply shortages, and price spikes.
And alternative egg-producing methods like precision fermentation could help stop the suffering of millions of hens who are typically kept in poor and unnatural conditions at tightly-packed egg-laying facilities.
Hens on an intensive egg farm. Credit: Amy Jones/Moving Animals.
Unlike chicken meat which comes from “broiler” chickens, who are selectively bred to grow as unnaturally big as fast as possible, eggs are instead sourced from egg-laying hens.
These hens are females who have been bred to produce high volumes of eggs, typically around 300 a year - a stark difference to wild hens who naturally lay only 10 to 15 eggs annually. In the wild, such hens can live 10 to 15 years, but those in the egg industry are slaughtered when their egg production begins to wane, typically at just 12-18 months of age. These hens are typically used as pet food, feed for other factory-farmed animals, or “landfilled” because they have so little meat on them in comparison to broiler chickens.
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