Top chefs go the whole (meatless) hog
Michelin-starred chefs are championing vegan food in a bid to make high-end eating more sustainable.
When Pied à Terre, a long-time fixture of Fitzrovia’s fine dining scene, reopened in September, it was not only the Covid safety regulations that were different. What customers wanted to eat had changed too.
“When we came back, we had exponentially more enquiries for vegan food,” says David Moore, owner of the central London Michelin-starred restaurant.
Vegan and vegetarian foods have undergone an image change in recent years. One in five Britons now identify as flexitarian, eating a mainly plant-based diet with the occasional inclusion of animal products. Plant-based foods line supermarket aisles and appear on popular restaurant menus. Now, the gourmet end of the market is getting involved.
“There's a shift, definitely at the higher end, recognising that it [vegan food] is a way forward,” says Moore. For many, the decision to consume fewer animal products is born out of sustainability concerns.
“There is a growing realisation that we can't carry on doing what we've done,” says Moore. “For the food security of our children, things have to change.”
The rise of vegan fine dining
Pied à Terre started a vegan-only delivery service during lockdown. For £45, customers craving that fine dining experience could order a vegan feast box for two, consisting of five restaurant-quality dishes.
The newly reopened Pied à Terre offers vastly reduced menu options. Customers choose from one of only two tasting menus: one “omnivore” and one entirely vegan. Pied à Terre is not the only fine dining establishment to transition to a more plant-based menu. In fact, some have gone the whole (meatless) hog.
Alexis Gauthier, the vegan chef and owner of Gauthier Soho in London, has removed all animal products from his menu. Gauthier, who also operated a plant-based delivery service during lockdown, has been working towards a fully vegan menu for years.
The three-star Eleven Madison Park in New York has reopened with an entirely plant-based offering too. On the restaurant’s website, chef and co-owner Daniel Humm explains the reason for the shift.
“It was becoming ever clearer that the current food system is simply not sustainable,” writes Humm. “After everything we all experienced this past year, we couldn’t open the same restaurant.”
Sustainability sceptics
However, some are sceptical of the impact that plant-based fine dining can have. Restaurant critic Jay Rayner took to Twitter to point out limitations in Eleven Madison’s sustainability aims. There is more to it than the menu, argued Rayner, the carbon footprint of staff and customers must be considered as well.
Indeed, the wealthy customers that high-end restaurants attract are likely to have high carbon footprints. A 2020 UN report found that the top 10 per cent of earners must cut their emissions by around 90 per cent if climate targets are to be met. Frequent flying, multi-car ownership and heating large homes contribute to the footprint of this so-called “polluter elite”. Sustainability may not be at the top of such customers’ agendas.
Others say the restaurants’ commitment to sustainable menus is incomplete. Dry-aged duck and butter-poached lobster are among dishes offered at Humm’s London restaurant, Davies and Brook. Foie gras remains on the non-vegan tasting menu at Pied à Terre.
Shelling out hundreds for luxurious and laboriously created dishes is hardly a sustainable, or accessible, eating model. Yet, fine dining does have a role to play in forging more sustainable eating habits.
Setting an example
“What happens in fine dining is important,” says Dan Crossley, chief executive of the UK’s Food Ethics Council. “People look up to them [Michelin-starred chefs] and ultimately copy or follow what they do, so they have this potentially very powerful influence.”
As experts in their trade, high-end chefs have the space, ability and platform to try something new, says Crossley. While boosting the culinary profile of plant-based food is significant, there are many other ways that top restaurants can promote sustainability.
A pared-back menu can enable restaurants to reduce food waste. Fewer options mean fewer ingredients, allowing restaurants to develop stronger relationships with suppliers and work with them to improve how ingredients are produced.
Top restaurants also have the power to make people excited about food and sustainability, by telling customers how meals reach their plates. “It’s about involving people on the journey,” says Crossley, “rather than dictating or somehow restricting choice.”
The transition to a more sustainable form of fine dining is beginning. Although fully or partially plant-based menus are not the whole story, swapping lobster and beef for peas and radishes is a significant step.
Back at Pied à Terre, plant-based dining is going from strength to strength. On some nights, there are just as many diners savouring plant-based dishes as tucking into plates of meat.
“When I look around on a Saturday night, I just think ‘Wow’,” says Moore. “I'm so pleased, so thrilled that I've made the kitchen do this. It’s going to become increasingly popular.”
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