Are vegans ruining restaurants for vegetarians?
Many vegetarians appear to think so …
How many people do you think are vegan these days? 10%? 12%, maybe judging by the space vegan products occupy on the supermarket shelves?
Well, it’s 2% in the UK according to Waitrose’s recent Food & Drink Report comparing it to the 70% who are still meat eaters, 15% who regard themselves as ‘flexitarian’ and 7% who say they’re vegetarians
And yet veganism represents a much higher proportion of our conversations about food
It turns out there’s a bit of a kickback however. Not, as you might imagine, from meat eaters but from vegetarians who feel they’re being sidelined.
There was a huge response to a comment on X (formerly Twitter) from the British TV and radio personality Jay Rayner this week when he said he’d been approached by a vegetarian reader complaining that there was too much vegan food on menus.
Other indignant vegetarians who didn’t want to be deprived of dairy products or forced into eating synthetic meat piled in.
“My main issue with it is that vegan cheese, mayonnaise and breads are awful, and 'vegan alternatives' are hyper processed. It's lazy.” said one commenter, @flyco100
“An example is the removal of the veggie bean burger for Burger King, replaced by a fake chicken burger” said @DavieROCK. “As a veggie, I don't eat meat cos I don't like the smell , texture or taste. I don't want fake meat. I imagine many agree.”
Given the current trading climate though it’s harder than ever for restaurants to cater for all dietary preferences though few go as far as Tom Fahey, a restaurateur on the Isle of Wight, who responded to Jay’s post.
“We have abandoned vegan options for this reason. It’s a cult that ruins menus for everyone. Now we call every table before visiting, identify vegans and create a unique menu for them. You’d be surprised how few there now are. It’s very very niche.”
My stepdaughter, who has been vegan in her time, has come to a similar conclusion at the charity café she runs in Hastings. She used to make a regular vegan alternative to the daily dish she offers her clients but has given it up.
“There wasn’t enough demand in spite of lots of publicity and interest on vegan sites” she told me. “I ended up throwing loads of food away. I tend to go for vegan options now which I know I can sell to everyone like soups and cakes.”
A number of vegan restaurants have ceased trading in neighbouring Brighton, she added.
So how have we ended up in this situation? It’s partly because the media seizes on anything that represents an incipient trend and makes it mainstream.
The more nuanced message that people are cutting down on meat for all sorts of reasons - their health, the cost, their concern about eating cheap factory-farmed meat, gets lost in the noise.
As a flexitarian (as I wrote here) I enjoy vegan food especially in Indian, and Japanese restaurants but I can absolutely see why vegetarians feel aggrieved. But also why small restaurants, which can only afford to put on one plant-based dish, might make it vegan (though maybe they should follow Tom’s example?)
It’s an issue that’s not going to go away so what do you think? Do you reckon vegan dishes are over-represented on menus and in cookbooks these days? If you’re vegan how do you feel about the dishes you get offered? How comfortable are you about products that aim to replicate meat?
This is one of my occasional free posts but if you would like access to all my content, including my recipe and restaurant recommendations and moneysaving wine tips you can sign up for as little as £5.
Completely agree. I also find that as a coeliac, increasingly shelf space/menu choices that previously were gluten free are being replaced by vegan options which aren't gluten free. Just looked up the stats, and 1% of the population is coeliac compared to the 2% that is vegan, so perhaps I shouldn't complain too loudly! But it does make me feel that gluten free was treated as a trend for a while that has now been replaced by vegan.
I/we
eat all of the food groups, with a high emphasis of masses of vegetables & pulses, everything is home made here, thankfully.
The heavily processed ‘vegan meat’ products look and sound dreadful. My late Mother was vegetarian, bordering on vegan and I had no issues in producing super vegetable & pulse filled meals, pies & soups as she certainly had no desire to have a ‘meat’ substitute.
The ingredients on these products film of additives makes my head spin!
I honestly do not think they represent a balanced diet, vegetarian, flexitarian & vegan can be catered for without resorting to this heavily processed diet.