Plant-Based Protein Companies Aqua Cultured and Swap Food Enter the Market at Chicago Restaurants

Fish-free tuna? Chicken-less chicken filets? Several new alternative protein companies, Swap Food and Aqua Cultured Food, are trying to break into the market by forging partnerships with Chicago-area restaurants. These companies are taking cues from a model used frequently in the past decade by emerging plant-based and lab-grown alternatives to market to diners by encouraging them to sample professionally prepared restaurant dishes using meat-free protein mimics.

Swap Food, based in the Alsace region of France, can already be found throughout Europe, but chose Chicago for its U.S. debut, seeing opportunities to introduce itself through restaurants in the nation’s spiritual meatpacking capital.

Swap Food uses its own proprietary process called Unisation to transform plant proteins — non-GMO soy and peas — into filets that imitate the structured texture of meat and cook like chicken. The product is composed of just eight ingredients. Available only to food service companies for now, Swap can be found at more than 25 Chicago-area restaurants including vegetarian stalwarts like the Chicago Diner, Spirit Elephant, and Soul Veg City. There are plans to expand throughout the United States and Canada, as well as to grocery retailers eventually. Chefs from a range of restaurants say they like Swap’s versatility and that diners have welcomed plant-based options on menus.

“Customers are looking more and more for foods like Swap,” says Zak Dolezal, chef and owner of Duke’s Alehouse and Kitchen in suburban Crystal Lake. “SWAP Chicken tastes great and performs well in the kitchen so any operator should have no hesitation in adding it to their menu.”

Taking a very different but no less ambitious approach, the team at the Chicago-based Aqua Cultured Foods, is playing the long game by developing partnerships with fine-dining chefs, like Marco Campos of Mama Delia, a Michelin Bib Gourmand restaurant in Wicker Park. The company’s fish-free “tuna” has entirely replaced the conventional tuna on the menu at the contemporary Spanish restaurant. “There are so many ways that you can play with this,” says Campos. “And I think it’s something exceptional that is going to be becoming more and more popular and more accessible because sustainability is going to be the philosophy of a lot of companies and a lot of restaurants in the world. It’s going to have to happen.” Campos has also developed a main dish featuring cubed Aqua tuna that can be ordered vegan with microgreens and crispy potato strings.

AQUA Cultured Food

Using fermentation, Aqua grows plant-based tuna and scallops out of cellulose, which is then cut and marinated. Seasonings impart umami that mimics familiar flavors of seafood. The tuna alternative has been infused with a beet-derived natural color to replicate the deep red of the fish. In addition to reducing consumption of threatened sea life, Aqua products are allergen-friendly and do not contain microplastics and mercury commonly found in tuna. Further, the refrigerated Aqua products have a shelf-life of six weeks as opposed to a window of less than a week for their oceanic counterparts, resulting in less food waste. While Mama Delia is its first collaboration, Aqua aims to expand its partnerships with fine-dining chefs in Chicago before it rolls out nationwide.

As the alternative meat industry is finding its footing and future, these two companies, one based in France and one in the Windy City, show that Chicago can be the ideal launch pad for other burgeoning food brands to gain momentum and grow in an otherwise turbulent market.