By C.J. Hirschfield
A classic dry
martini, a retro wedge salad with bleu cheese, and a burger. That’s what I
enjoyed for dinner after a tough day last week. Something old, something new.
The “new” was that my burger was the highly-touted “Impossible Burger,” the
disruptive vegan patty that will soon be manufactured by Impossible Foods in East Oakland,
providing up to 80 new jobs. I enjoyed my meal at KronnerBurger on Piedmont Ave.;
the burger is also on the menu at Umami Burger in Uptown.
Impossible Burger had
been in the news last week. The New York Times reported that the Food and Drug
Administration, which had been asked by Impossible Burger to confirm that the
patty’s secret sauce was safe for human consumption, had “expressed concern.”
The sauce is made from soy leghemoglobin – “heme” for short – which is found naturally
in soybean plant roots and created in the company’s laboratory.
