Plant-based chef extraordinaire Derek Sarno gets more than a bee in his bonnet wherever he experiences banal, lip service attention to vegan dishes at commercial venues.
For those unfamiliar with his work, Sarno runs a highly popular YouTube channel with his four-legged sidekick ‘commentator’, Frankie. He is also the globally recognised co-founder of Wicked Kitchen who, according to his website, has a calling to create innovative and bold-flavoured vegan cuisine for meat eaters.
In a recent post, he explained that he was invited to a weekend-long affair where doctors raved about the nutritional benefits of plant-based eating, and various chefs presented a range of culinary delights and traded recipes.
Essentially, it was all about explaining how to put more plant-based dishes into commercial menus.
“So, go figure, to my surprise, when we break for lunch, and only 10 per cent of it was actually plant-based vegan,” he said.
“The rest were all animal products or had animal products in them as if they didn’t know what they were doing. Or, they did it on purpose because they were being sponsored by some animal-based brand.”
To add insult to injury, the event was staged by a culinary school he had previously held in high regard, but the lunchtime vegan options were treated as an “afterthought,” he said.
“I was literally beside myself,” he told his followers.
Sarno said he wasn’t prepared to name the school, but the lunch dishes they delivered were “sad—no seasoning, nothing more than steamed vegetables, some quinoa—the typical rabbit food; everybody thinks that’s what vegan is.”
“I didn’t want to eat any of it. It was all thrown together to check a box. Does that sound familiar? If you look today, many cafeterias are checking a box – airports and airlines are checking a box.
All in the mind
Sarno says the problem is a matter of mindset related to the idea of creating a vegan alternative.
“A vegan alternative is exactly what’s holding everybody back – the idea of just making something vegan instead of creating amazing, delicious food first that just happens to be vegan is what’s holding people back.
He conceded there were “a couple of airlines” that were putting out some nice vegan meals but many restaurants were still “just checking a box.”
So what’s the cause of the problem?
“It was the mindset of the chefs making the food that made the difference. The idea of just having to check a box and make something vegan.”
Sarno of course, holds himself to a very high standard. For him, top-quality plant-based dishes are NEVER a question of compromise.
“It was one of the first things I learned about myself when I first started going vegan because there was no way I was going to compromise (a) on my technique of cooking, (b) on flavour, and (c) if I was going to feed anybody, damn well, right, it’s going to be amazing!
“Just imagine treating every vegetable, grain, and ingredient with the respect and creativity you would with any animal product. That’s the difference. The food I make doesn’t match the animal product; it exceeds it. It’s much better.
“It’s all about building the flavours. You don’t have to make it as complex as I’ll make it. You can do super simple, you could use frozen vege, you could use just water. You don’t have to use, so many seasonings, you don’t have to use as much salt. You don’t have to use oil.
“You make it, however you want. The technique I’m using is just layering flavours. Every single ingredient is just another rung on the ladder that makes that flavour pop, and by the time I sit down to eat, it’s going to be so freaking good.
“That’s the mindset. It’s the mindset I wish a lot more companies would take up. And I certainly wish a lot more of these culinary schools would start putting at the top of the menu, not at the bottom.
“It’s the animal products that should be served as a condiment because you shouldn’t have to use them. If you can make plant-based vegan food as amazing as it can be, why bother with the animals?”
