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“食品工程”的力量

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不惊人的鸡蛋是世界上最完美的食品之一。鸡蛋不仅是便宜、丰富且美味的蛋白质来源，而且可以变化多端，能够在大量的食品中发挥多达22种不同的烹饪功能。

 

在制作蛋糕时，鸡蛋能锁住面糊中的空气，制造出轻盈而蓬松的质地。在做蛋黄酱时，蛋黄能稳定油酸乳状液。在做肉饼时，鸡蛋将不同的原料黏合在一起。在制作奶黄时，鸡蛋能使液体凝固成胶状。

 

鸡蛋只有一个缺点。旧金山食品科技初创企业Hampton Creek Foods的创始人蒂特里克(Josh Tetrick)说，它们的效率极为低下。

 

随着新兴经济体鸡蛋需求的飙升，生产鸡蛋成了集约农业中增长最快的领域。蒂特里克指出，全球每年生产的鸡蛋为1.8万亿个，而其中鸡饲料就占到鸡蛋成本的70%。鸡饲料大多为大豆和玉米，生长过程中需要大量土地、水和矿物燃料。

 

蒂特里克认为他能制造出比鸡蛋更好的食品。他已从科技行业规模最大的几家风投公司那里获得了融资，打算将这些资金用来做一件在大多数爱好鸡蛋的美食家（包括我自己在内）看来是亵渎神明也是不可能的事情，那就是用来自植物的蛋白质取代鸡蛋。

 

实际上，说取代还是低估了Hampton Creek的目标。该公司希望"超越"鸡蛋，不用鸡蛋做出口感更好、没有胆固醇、保存时间更长、从生态方面更加可持续和更人道的食品，而且这些食品的价格要比用鸡蛋做出来的食品便宜得多。

 

这是一个宏伟的目标，蒂特里克也承认，他的公司还没有接近实现这一目标。不过，Hampton Creek已经做足了功课，充分展示了你可以称之为"食品工程"的力量。

 

为了制造出不含鸡蛋的产品，该公司由生物化学家、食品科学家和软件工程师组成的团队正在模仿最初用于制药公司和科技行业的研发程序。如果他们的计划能成功（我的味蕾暗示他们或许会成功），Hampton Creek或许将向世人展示软件和生物科技行业的创新科技将如何改变众多其他行业。

 

说说Hampton Creek将在2月份推向市场的曲奇饼吧。我在一次盲试中能够尝出蒂特里克做的曲奇和用鸡蛋做的曲奇之间的不同之处。

 

加入了鸡蛋的曲奇略为粗糙一些。不过，我更喜欢不加鸡蛋的曲奇的味道和质感。这些曲奇不是太甜，略带咸味，而且咀嚼起来的脆软程度正好合适。

 

而且曲奇可以说是面团的附带产品。由于面团中不含鸡蛋，你甚至都没必要去烘焙面团。实际上，Hampton Creek的产品叫做"吃面团"( Eat the Dough)。这种产品装在纸盒中，盒盖上附有勺子，和你从冰淇淋店买的冰淇淋类似。

 

蒂特里克在亚拉巴马州伯明翰长大，经常吃"鸡翅和脆骨"。他现在是素食主义者。虽然动物福利是他创办Hampton Creek的动力之一，但他为了公司谨慎地淡化这一目标。他说，动物福利在市场上是个日薄西山的主题。

 

对于蒂特里克来说，创造更好的鸡蛋替代品还有众多实际的理由。借用科技行业常说的一句话，鸡蛋无法规模化。

 

他说，鸡蛋的生产需要太多的资源才能无限增长。他已经说服了几位科技行业明星加入他的使命。Hampton Creek的投资者包括科斯拉创投(Khosla Ventures)、比尔•盖茨(Bill Gates)和彼得•蒂尔(Peter Thiel)的创达基金(Founders Fund)。

 

Hampton Creek总计已经筹资600万美元，蒂特里克相信其最终能凭借这笔资金在各方面淘汰鸡蛋，包括价格。目前，Hampton Creek的鸡蛋替代品价格约为每磅39美分，约为一磅去壳蛋价格的一半。

 

他说，我们希望将价格压到极低，以至考虑其他任何产品都是愚蠢的。

 

Hampton Creek怎样才能实现这一点？该公司生化研发主任约什•克莱恩(Josh Klein)将其取代鸡蛋的策略比作药品公司可能用于对抗疾病的过程。实验室每天筛选数十种新的植物种类，寻找可能与鸡蛋相似的用途。他们利用数据库，将不同植物混合配对，创造新的不含鸡蛋的食品。然后他们制造出原型、品尝并重复这个过程。

 

在某种程度上，Hampton Creek是将食品当成了软件，从不同种类的植物那里借用了不同的代码。

 

这是一种思考食物的新奇数学方式——它令那些拒绝"加工食品"的人感到挫败，但或许最终会实现为地球上的所有人提供可持续、美味、健康、负担得起的食品的梦想。

 

到目前为止，实验结果很不错。Hampton Creek发现了一种特殊的具有极强乳化效力的黄色豆子，该公司声称，用这种豆子制造的蛋黄酱在品尝测试中打败了领先品牌的产品。

 

我发现这种酱的口感极为柔滑，而且比起带有蛋腥味的市售蛋黄酱，Hampton Creek制造的蛋黄酱的口味较为清淡，不那么冲。

 

蒂特里克说，如果大批生产的话，不含蛋的蛋黄酱可以比传统蛋黄酱便宜10%。在价格驱动下，美国各地很多Whole Foods门店都在自制食品（比如土豆沙拉）中改用了Hampton Creek的蛋黄酱。但Hampton Creek的蛋黄酱零售价格不算便宜：在大多数Whole Foods门店的售价为每罐3.5或4.49美元。这与用鸡蛋制作的蛋黄酱差不多，但蒂特里克说，Hampton Creek还有大幅降价的空间。

 

该公司的下一个目标是制造一种可以做成炒鸡蛋的不含蛋液体。目前，这一产品尚处于原型阶段。Hampton Creek的一位科学家为我炒了一盘，我觉得这种仿制的炒鸡蛋有点韧性，吃起来疙疙瘩瘩的，更像是蓬松的可丽饼，而不像鸡蛋。

 

但蒂特里克说，他认为公司用不了多久就能创造出完美的无蛋炒鸡蛋。他说，鸡蛋很不错，但已经没有改进余地。换句话说，要胜过它是轻而易举的。

 

The ordinary chicken egg is one the world's most perfect foods. Eggs are a cheap, abundant, delicious source of protein. They're also extremely flexible, capable of performing as many as 22 different culinary functions in a wide array of foods.

In cakes, eggs trap gasses in the batter, creating a light, airy texture. In mayonnaise, egg yolks stabilize an emulsion of oil and an acid. In a meatloaf, they bind disparate ingredients together. In a custard, they thicken liquids to form a gel.

There's only one problem with eggs. 'They are fantastically inefficient, ' said Josh Tetrick, the founder of a San Francisco food-technology startup called Hampton Creek Foods, only he uses an F-word other than 'fantastically.'

Egg production is the fastest-growing segment of intensiveagriculture as demand skyrockets in emerging economies. Mr. Tetrick points out that 1.8 trillion eggs are laid globally each year, and chicken feed--much of it soy and corn, which require vast amounts of land, water, and fossil fuels to grow--accounts for 70% of the cost of an egg.

Mr. Tetrick thinks he can do better. He has secured financing from some of the tech industry's largest venture backers to do what most egg-loving foodies, myself included, consider both sacrilegious and impossible: He wants to replace the chicken egg with plant-based protein sources.

Actually, that's underselling the goal: Hampton Creek wants to 'surpass' the egg, to make eggless foods that taste better, are free of cholesterol, last longer on the shelf, are more ecologically sustainable and humane, and are far cheaper than their eggy counterparts.

This is a gargantuan goal, and Mr. Tetrick concedes that the company isn't close to achieving it. But Hampton Creek is far enough along to illustrate the power of what you might call 'food engineering.'

To create its eggless products, the company's battalion of biochemists, food scientists, and software engineers are modeling their efforts on processes first used in drug companies and the tech industry. If their plan works--and my taste buds suggest it might--Hampton Creek may show how the software and biotech industries' innovation techniques might alter sectors far beyond.

Take Hampton Creek's cookie dough, which will go on sale in February. In a blind test, I was able to tell the difference between Mr. Tetrick's cookies and those containing eggs.

The eggy ones were slightly browner. Yet I preferred the eggless cookie's taste and texture. They weren't too sweet, were slightly salty, and achieved just the right balance between crunchy and chewy.

And the cookies are almost a side-benefit of the dough. Because the dough has no eggs, you don't even have to botherbaking it. Indeed, Hampton Creek's product is called Eat the Dough. It comes in a carton with a spoon set in the lid, like something you'd buy from the ice-cream man.

Mr. Tetrick grew up in Birmingham, Ala., on a diet of 'chicken wings and gristle.' He's now a vegan and, while animal welfare was part of his motivation for founding Hampton Creek, he has been careful to play down that goal for his company . 'That's a losing proposition in the marketplace,' he said.

For Mr. Tetrick there are many more hard-nosed reasons for creating a better egg substitute. To borrow a favorite tech-industry slight, eggs can't scale.
He argues that they require too many resources for their production to grow indefinitely. And he has persuaded several tech luminaries to join his mission. Hampton Creek's investors include Khosla Ventures, Bill Gates, and Peter Thiel's Founders Fund.

Altogether, Hampton Creek has raised $6 million, with which Mr. Tetrick believes it can eventually render eggs 'obsolete' across every dimension, including price. At the moment, Hampton Creek's egg replacement costs about 39 cents a pound, about half the price of a pound of liquid eggs.

'We want to drive the price through the floor so radically that it would be silly to consider anything else,' he said.

How can Hampton Creek do that? Josh Klein, its director of biochemistry R&D, likens the company's egg-replacing strategy to the process a drug company might use to fight disease. Every day, the lab screens dozens of new plant species in search of applications that might be similar to those of eggs. Armed with the database, they mix and match plants to create new, eggless foods. Then, they prototype, taste, and repeat.

In a way, Hampton Creek is treating food like software, borrowing various bits of code from different kinds of plants.

It's a novel, mathematical way to think about food--one that confounds the sensibilities of those who reject 'processed foods' but may ultimately realize the dream of providing sustainable, tasty, healthy and affordable food for the entire planet.

So far the results are quite good. Hampton Creek discovered a specific kind of yellow pea that has fantastic powers of emulsion, leading to a mayonnaise that the firm claims beats leading brands in taste tests.

I found the textureexquisitelycreamy and, compared with eggy store-bought mayo, Hampton Creek's mayo had a cleaner, less aggressiveflavor profile.

Mr. Tetrick says that, in large quantities, he can make eggless mayo 10% cheaper than conventional egg mayo. Driven by price, many Whole Foods stores across the country have switched to Hampton Creek's mayo in their store-prepared foods (like the potato salad). But at retail, Hampton Creek's mayo isn't very cheap: It sells for $3.50 or $4.49 a jar at most Whole Foods stores. That's about the same price as egg-based mayo, but Mr. Tetrick says that Hampton Creek has room to cut its prices substantially.

The company's next goal is to make an eggless liquid that, when fried, turns into scrambled eggs. Right now, the product is in the prototype stage. One of Hampton Creek's scientists cooked up a plate for me, and I found the fake scrambleslightly rubbery and grainy, more like a spongy crepe than an egg.

But Mr. Tetrick says he believes that it won't be long till the company creates the perfect eggless scramble. 'The chicken is great, but it isn't getting any better,' he said. In other words, it's a sitting duck.



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