Slacker’s Syllabus: Fake Meat
Fake meat may seem modern, but it’s actually not. The first known plant-based meat product, called Nuttose, dropped in 1896. Kellogg wanted Americans to stop eating so many heavy foods, so they made a “meatless meat” out of peanuts — which was described as a “cheesy mass” that could be sliced, stewed, and hashed.
There wasn’t a lot of innovation in the fake meat market until the 1980s, when Oregon chef Paul Wenner ground up some leftover vegetables and turned them into a “Gardenburger.”
It was so popular that Wenner quit the restaurant biz and started selling Gardenburgers out of a van.
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