Pecking order! Diners at California’s Michelin-starred restaurant will be served lab-grown CHICKEN for the first time tonight as part of a $150 tasting course

Many foodies refuse to order chicken for its “lack of originality” – but that won’t be a problem tonight for diners at an upscale California restaurant.

San Francisco’s Michelin-starred Bar Crenn will serve lab-raised poultry as part of its sold-out $150-per-head tasting course.

One of the six courses consists of man-made chicken “coated in a recedo negro tempura batter, drizzled with roasted chile aioli and garnished with edible flowers.”

Cultured meat is made by taking a sample of cells from livestock such as chickens and cows and growing them in a laboratory.

Its sale became legal last month, and the Bar Crenn will become only the second restaurant to serve it in the US after tonight.

Bar Crenn is a restaurant owned by French chef Dominique Crenn, 58, who is known for being the only woman in the US to earn three Michelin stars

The artificial meat on tonight’s menu is made by UPSIDE Foods, one of two USDA-approved cultured meat manufacturers.

Amy Chen, chief operating officer at UPSIDE Foods, told Food & Wine, “It was important to be able to show the chicken and recognize that this is a very cut piece of chicken.”

‘(The recipe) really fit into that broader story about sustainability and craft and stewardship. Everything is just exquisite.’

The cruelty-free meat alternative is created by taking a sample of stem cells, the building blocks of muscles and other organs, from an animal.

The cells are placed in petri dishes containing amino acids and carbohydrates to help the muscle cells multiply and grow.

Once enough muscle fibers have grown, the result is a protein that resembles real meat.

Bar Crenn is a restaurant owned by French chef Dominique Crenn, 58, who is known for being the only woman in the US to earn three Michelin stars.

Ms Crenn, who starred in the cooking show Iron Chef, created dishes using UPSIDE’s alternative chicken after taking meat off her menu in 2018.

Going forward, the restaurant will offer meat from the labs on the first weekend of each month as part of its six-course tasting menu.

In January, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) declared engineered animal products safe for human consumption.

So far, Singapore is the only other country to have approved lab-grown meat for sale.

The European Union, Israel and other countries are working on regulatory frameworks for cultured meat, but have not yet approved a product for human consumption.

Cultured meat could be coming to an upscale restaurant near you this year. Pictured: UPSIDE Foods founder Uma Valeti watches one of the lab-grown meat growers

Workers imagined operating machinery in the factory where chicken breasts are grown

Pictured above is a chicken breast raised in a vat by UPSIDE Meats, in Emeryville, California

Serving the food in restaurants could turn the tide for the popularity of technical meat.

For example, a 2022 study published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology found that 35 percent of meat eaters and 55 percent of vegetarians would be too disgusted to try cultured meat.

Last month, China Chilcano in Washington, D.C. became the first restaurant to sell GOOD Meat’s chicken from the US and Singapore in a dish called “Anticuchos de Poll.”

The restaurant, run by Chef Jose Andres, served their first GOOD Meat dish exclusively to the family of the late Willem van Eelen, who was considered the ‘godfather of cultured meat’.

Mr Andres told Reuters he wants to sell cultured meat because of its environmental benefits.

“We can see from what’s happening all around us, in every country around the world, that our planet is in crisis,” he said.

After receiving USDA approval for sale in June, UPSIDE Foods posted on its Instagram account, “This is a historic, world-changing moment and brings our vision of a more human, sustainable future one giant bite closer to reality.”