Veganism has got serious. Not only are new vegan foods now available in shops, but dedicated menus and teas are popping up in unexpected places and luxury restaurants.
Not that it’s an easy transition: the temperatures between traditionalists and the vegan pioneers are running high. The five-star Claridge’s hotel in Mayfair in London recently lost its chef after it rejected his vision for an all-vegan menu at his restaurant, the Davies and Brook. Chef Daniel Humm said he had decided to leave after having talks with the hotel’s management about transforming the kitchen to serve only plant-based dishes.
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It would have been a big change. Davies and Brook serves, for instance, a £125-a-head four-course menu that includes caviar and foie gras. One hotel staffer told the Daily Mail that the bosses were concerned that "if they turn the restaurant vegan, they will upset thousands of regular guests".
Nonetheless, Humm has already reinvented his New York restaurant, the three-Michelin-starred Eleven Madison Park, as a vegan fine-dining experience, with a message on its website saying the modern food system was "simply not sustainable". His new menu includes melon and smoked daikon, fried pepper with Swiss chard, courgetti with lemongrass and tofu, and vegan caviar made from tonburi, a type of seed.
It is now the first fully vegan restaurant with three Michelin stars, and The Guardian reports that there are 12 meat-free restaurants with at least one Michelin star.
"The future for me is plant-based," says Humm.
"It has never been more clear that the world is changing, and we have to change with it."
Clearly several SA chefs agree on this new trend. Locally, Chantel Dartnall has been the high priestess of plant-based cooking at Restaurant Mosaic near Pretoria.
For years, Dartnall and Mosaic won countless local and overseas awards. However, the restaurant closed in March last year. Since then, Dartnall and her family have bought a chateau in France, a stone’s throw from the medieval village of Vitre, and will be opening the new Restaurant Mosaic there — a loss to SA’s food scene.
Nobody’s perfect
Lexi’s Healthy Eatery was among the first plant-based restaurants locally, and it now has five outlets. The "mostly vegan, whole-food restaurant" runs with the slogan "eat more plants", and co-owner Lexi Monzeglio has noticed a growing interest in this way of eating.
Monzeglio opened her first store in Sandton in 2018. She says eating plant-based food is often seen as a way of life that is privileged, as such food can be relatively expensive when it comes to specialised meat replacements.
"However, I’ve noticed a huge change in the demographics of people who eat with us," she tells the FM. "When we first opened, customers were definitely not a true reflection of our rainbow nation. But that has changed a lot over the years."
Before Covid, the three Lexi’s locations were doing well and were often packed over lunch and weekends. Since the virus hit, however, the lack of corporate traffic in Sandton, Rosebank and Modderfontein has scaled this back.
Nonetheless, Monzeglio opened new restaurants in Hazelwood in Pretoria and Sea Point in Cape Town during the pandemic, and she says she keeps getting requests to open ones in Durban, Port Elizabeth and even Boksburg.
"There is huge potential, but things are still difficult," she says, referring to the impact of Covid on her fledgling chain.
Fortunately, her plant-based menu also appeals to religious Indian and Jewish customers who adhere to strict eating regulations. "But it was a struggle to break into the African mindset, where meat is so important and often a hero of the meal."
This was also something she worried about in her Pretoria store, with a large Afrikaans clientele, but the appreciation of the plant-based concept "is starting to trickle into all corners and, as it does, the need will grow".
Monzeglio is also expanding her offering. Lexi’s Healthy Eatery now sells a small selection of frozen goods through 25 stores (mainly Spar) in Gauteng, but has not marketed this because it can’t increase production at present.
Monzeglio says she is also looking at opening a cheaper, more accessible plant-based brand next year. "I think there’s definitely a growing market — I can see it happening."
As you might imagine, she herself is vegan, even if she admits "I’m not perfect".
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"I try to live it 90% of the time, but croissants are my weakness, which maybe isn’t a bad thing — there is this fear about veganism being too exclusive and extreme. That I’m an imperfect example, I feel, makes the lifestyle more accessible."
For some, even the terminology is confusing. While "plant-based" and "vegan" are basically the same thing, Monzeglio says there is a crucial difference. The focus of plant-based eating is all about trying to increase the eating of healthy plant-based foods, rather than focusing on being restrictive and absolutist.
"It’s easier to commit to being plant-based than to being vegan and thinking: ‘I can never touch salami again,’ if that’s your favourite thing on earth, you know," she says.
So, for instance, Lexi’s menu has a burger option, and you can add salmon to a meal, or have milk and eggs for breakfast.
"It’s 90% plant based because not everyone is perfect and can fully commit … there’s no judgment here. Bring your boertjie dad and let him eat the beef burger — that’s why it’s there. We just want everyone to eat more plants and be a bit more aware, and hopefully all those small changes can have a huge impact."
The one positive aspect of Covid, Monzeglio says, is that it has led to far more people researching the food system, animal agriculture and sustainability, and to refocus on health. "There are definitely little rumblings [of this] in SA — so let’s hope this is the beginning of a plant-focused revolution."
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