Should chefs and restaurants be catering to the wider vegan community?

Since last year, veganism has become the fastest growing lifestyle movement in Britain but do restaurants cater to this niche market enough?

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The Staff Canteen spoke to several specialist vegan and vegetarian chefs to find out more about this new wave of diners and if they think more chefs should be serving more vegan-friendly dishes.

The rise of veganism in the UK

Between 2006 and 2016, there was a 360% rise in the number of vegans in the UK. Dominika Piasecka, spokesperson for The Vegan Society, told The Staff Canteen: “We are certain the numbers will only increase, and possibly even double by 2020 with the current rapid rise."

Chefs on vegan menus

Jean-Paul De Ronne, head chef at The Anchor Inn Seatown based in Dorset said: “The choice is still not as broad as for vegetarians, pescetarians and omnivores”.

In Jean-Paul’s experience, 3-8 percent of the dining public is vegan, 'a significant number for any business to turn away'.

Award-winning vegetarian chef, author and development chef, Eddie Shepherd agrees.

“I think it can be beneficial to a restaurant to have vegan or vegetarian options that they feel are good quality and fitting with the rest of the menu, and it certainly widens the audience for the restaurant.”

“It makes clear commercial sense," said Dominika. “They would be opening a potential market up to not only half a million vegans, but also to a million more vegetarians, the huge number of meat and dairy reducers, the lactose intolerant, and others who simply enjoy vegan food from time to time.”

Dominika’s advice to chefs and restaurants who want to cater for vegans is to veganise.

“It would be great to see more vegan equivalents of mains such as spaghetti, " Dominika told us.

The challenges of creating vegan menus

But chefs like Eddie are concerned about the deliciousness of the dish.

“I have never tasted a good vegan ‘cheese’ that actually tastes comparable to dairy cheese so I just wouldn’t use it," he told The Staff Canteen. Instead, Eddie prefers to work with naturally vegan options like dark chocolate or fruit.

Jean-Paul, on the other hand, has a different approach to veganising, seeing it as a challenge. “It is a chefs’ necessity to be able to create dishes constantly, to be able to exceed previous knowledge and become more experienced and capable.”

“The challenge is extremely rewarding," he continues. “As it requires thinking outside the usual box, and you never know, you may end up finding some amazing elements that will work wonders as an accompaniment to a centrepiece of meat."

When going vegan, Jean-Paul makes sure the impact of the dish is not lost in the process of veganising for the non-vegan guests’ sake.

His kitchen aims to have local vegetables, agar agar, xanthan, arrowroot, tofu, coconut milk or block, and a wide range of homemade pickles, and cured and fermented fruits and vegetables to compliment his dishes.

Why should chefs and restaurants cater for vegans?

For such care and service, Jean-Paul has been receiving lots of positive and thankful feedback from his vegan diners.

Dominika said: “Vegans compose a very loyal and dedicated customer base, and when catered for well, they are very likely to come back and support vegan options that restaurants are proud of."

Supporting such a rapidly expanding lifestyle movement can only be beneficial for any business. Therefore, catering for vegans is not only rewarding for the vegan diners, but also for the chefs and restaurants, too.

Would you ‘veganise’ your menu? Perhaps you have and you’ve seen an increase in trade.

Let us know your thoughts by commenting below or you can send us a message on our Facebook page or send us a tweet at @canteentweets

By Thao Ly Nguyen