From forbes.com
Vegan cuisine has been growing in popularity for more than a decade. Around the world, from food trucks and fast-food-style spots to high-end establishments in places like New York, Paris, Washington, D.C., and Vienna, plant-based restaurants are making their mark on the culinary world every day.
But despite this growing popularity, pushing vegan cuisine to the general dining public remains a very uphill battle. I, myself, used to look down my nose at the idea of going out and eating a strictly plant-based meal; now, some of my favourite restaurants and most memorable dining experiences are plant-based.
According to chefs and restaurant owners around the country, people who pass on plant-based dining are missing out on one of the most exciting, healthy and flavourful experiences that they can have.
“A lot of the cooking we’ve seen in well-established restaurants is just the same cuisine made with the same techniques over and over again,” says Jaime Secor, a career chef and co-owner of Edgy Vegy, a vegan food truck in Buffalo, New York, in a phone interview.
“Plant-based establishments are more experimental; they take influence from other cultures and use different ingredients, many of which have never been applied to vegetables before, and that opens up a whole world of new creations and exciting possibilities.”
For the average restaurant guest, one constant hurdle to those possibilities is a lack of education.
The More You Try, The More You Know
“We did an event one time where we were handing out samples of tempura cauliflower,” says Sara Secor, Jaime’s sister and business partner, in a phone interview.
“And even though it was free and delicious, some people would just call it rabbit food and say it wasn’t for them.”
The belief that vegan food isn’t “real food” is a standard view among many diners I have waited on in my career. A 2023 Gallup poll found that only 1% of U.S. adults identify as vegan and only 4% as vegetarian. Global meat consumption has more than doubled over the last 20 years, reaching 320 million tons in 2018, driven by our increasingly busy lifestyles and desire for easy-to-make food options. Even the growing cost of meat has yet to affect the U.S. population’s love of ordering it off a menu.
Basically, if it’s not meat, many people believe it’s not worth their time. Sara and Jaime say that getting them out of that mentality just takes a little work and patience.
“Buffalo is a chicken wing and potatoes kind of city, so when we started, many people didn’t even know what tofu was,” says Jaime.
“Now they love plant-based food.”
Sara and Jaime cultivated that love by rolling out amazing and interesting dishes like sweet potatoes tossed in honey miso butter and topped with a gochujang drizzle (a savoury, sweet, and spicy fermented Korean chili paste), brussels sprouts fried and tossed in a vegan Vietnamese nước chấm-style sweet, sour and spicy “fish sauce”, or a roasted spiced butternut squash sandwich on house made herb focaccia with pickled grapes, maple gochujang mayo, caramelized onions and arugula.
“It was really about getting people to the window and getting them to try that one thing that will not just change their minds, but blow their minds,” says Sara.
And any chef will tell you that, at the end of the day, whether it’s meat, fish, or vegetables, wowing people first comes down to flavor.
Finger-Licking Good
“I always ask people if they ate chicken or steak that’s just cooked plain, would they enjoy it?” says Romeo Regalli, chef and co-owner of Ras Plant Based in Brooklyn, New York, in a phone interview.
“No matter what you’re cooking and eating, the reason you like it is because it’s been properly spiced, marinated and prepared.”
A James Beard Award Best Chef finalist, Regalli, who co-owns and operates Ras with his wife, Milka, says that the key to success is creating a menu that regularly challenges the expectations of what people think can be done with a vegetable. For him, that meant utilizing the Ethiopian dishes and flavors of his childhood in unexpected ways.
“We take sambusa’s (crispy and flaky pastries), traditionally filled with ground beef, and we instead use something called kitfo, a dehydrated pea crumble, and you can’t taste the difference,” says Regalli.
“Or we use berbere (ber-ber-ay), a traditional, complex, aromatic and spicy blend of 30 different spices, put it in a comfort-food style macaroni and cheese, and they work perfectly together.”
Fusion-style dishes like Ras’s cauliflower florets tossed in berbere-spiced batter, or Edgy Vedgy’s marinated tofu Bahn Mi with pickled carrots, edamame pâté, and chili crisp aioli are what set them apart, draw in even the most wary of diners and show them just how good plant-based food can be.
“As people get more familiar with who we are and what we offer, and understand that it is just delicious quality food, then they’re more willing to try new and different things,” says Jaime Secor.
When it comes to vegan dining, creating a willing customer also depends on a chef’s commitment to providing not just flavour but texture.
The Meat of the Matter
Today, people are often looking for a plant-based meal that mimics the experience of eating a good burger, a tasty chicken sandwich or a savoury sirloin steak. And while there are popular name brands out there that offer several tasty plant-based meats, more and more chefs are challenging themselves to develop their own products from scratch that are whole-foods-based, healthier and deliciously victual.
“All plant-based meats have their place, and they’re all good in their own way,” says Joe Egender, co-owner of Maciel’s Plant-Based Butcher Shop in Los Angeles, California.
“But in the last five or six years, there’s been an explosion of creativity among chefs and owners to produce high-quality products made with real ingredients, real proteins, that aren’t overly-processed.”
Egender and his wife, Maciel Bañales Luna, the namesake, chef and co-owner of their butcher shop, jumped into the deep end of this movement during the 2020 pandemic, and now create delicious plant-based meats that they say are nearly indistinguishable from their carnivorous inspirations. Their success took time, research and a lot of trial and error.
“When we started, I was testing different kinds of beans, spices, tofu, jackfruit, reduced seitan, learning how they worked and behaved together and taking notes on the best cooking methods and cooking times for each to make sure I got the final product just right,” says Luna, in a phone interview.
“Once I did that, then I’d have all this new knowledge I could apply to the next idea, and the next.”
Then, to make doubly sure that they got the texture, taste, smell and look of everything down pat, Egender, a native of Kansas City, where barbeque brisket, burnt ends and strip steak are arguably the three major food groups, says that they turned to every family member and friend that they could find to make doubly sure they were as good, if not better, than the real thing.
“We did taste tests with family and friends, and friends of friends, in New York, Los Angeles and Kansas City, and they all loved it,” says Egender.
“And when people in KC, especially, say that your vegan meat is excellent, you know you’re on the right path.”
Don’t Think, Experiment
That experimentation, which began with a vegan Christmas turkey in their own home, grew into a menu for their shop that today includes chorizo, salami, pastrami, mesquite turkey, steak, bacon, and more. Their vegan meats are in everything from a French take on a Philly cheese steak to a classic Reuben, quesadilla or BBQ ribs.
To this day, whenever they have a new idea, it goes through a triage of approval before it makes it to the butcher’s block.
“We never wanted our shop to make food for just vegans or vegetarians; we just wanted to make good, tasty food for everyone,” says Luna.
“So, every meat or sandwich that we put out has been tested first by our whole staff and us to make sure it is safe for everybody.”
Ravi DeRossi, the founder and CEO of Overthrow Hospitality, which oversees eight premier plant-based restaurants in New York, says this constant testing of dishes is the key to a vegan restaurant’s success.
“You have to lean into your vegetables and cook them a million different ways, until they are the best versions of themselves that they could ever be, and then build every dish around that,” says DeRossi.
Whether at Al-Andalus, their Arab-influenced tapas bar, Soda Club, the handmade pasta and pinsa (old Roman-style pizza) spot, Cadence, their vegan soul food restaurant, or their flagship location, Avant Garden, Derossi says that he and Overthrow hospitality have created a variety of successful and award-winning menus from that exact kind of due diligence.
“It’s why three of the eight vegan restaurants currently on the Michelin Guide are ours,” says DeRossi.
The growing interest in and enjoyment of quality vegan cuisine is also tied to the public’s increased awareness of just how much healthier it can be for them.
Food Is Medicine, Medicine Is Food
Today, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine/Morning Consult reports that half of U.S. adults say they know eating a plant-based diet can improve their health and help prevent chronic diseases.
“People are turning the corner on vegan food, its benefits and how much it can help alleviate some severe conditions,” says Dr. Tionna L. Jenkins, a public health and policy expert, in a phone interview.
A recent study found that a vegan diet can reduce breast cancer by 31% in young people and 26% in older vegans, as well as reduce the risk of lymphoma and prostate cancer. Another study found that replacing animal-based foods with plant-based foods could reduce the risk of colorectal cancers or dying from cancer. When coupled with regular exercise and stress reduction, a vegan diet may also reduce the symptoms of mild cognitive impairment and early Alzheimer’s disease.
“If you eat plant-based foods, you can improve your digestion, reduce inflammation, manage weight loss long term, and reduce your risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease, autoimmune diseases, high blood pressure, and type 2 diabetes,” says Jenkins.
“Immediate reductions in some of these issues can be seen even if people invest just 20% of their eating habits in a vegan diet.”
Romeo Regali says he witnessed firsthand how much a vegan diet can change a life, and that the experience was part of the inspiration for his restaurants’ exclusively plant-based menu.
“In 2017, my dad was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and they gave him a three-year life expectancy,” says Regali.
“I became his personal chef for six months while he was doing his chemo, cooking plant-based food that we grew up on for him, and now he is cancer-free.”
By making healthy, delicious food that pleases everyone, regardless of dietary preference, chefs and restaurateurs are changing the way people think about vegan dining everywhere.
“Ten to twenty years ago, the majority of vegan food was terrible, and it was even worse thirty years ago, and that experience often gets stuck in people’s brains,” says DeRossi.
“But today 85% of our clientele are non-vegan, and that’s because we’re always just trying to be excellent restaurants that serve inherently good food.”
Cadence’s southern-fried lasagna, with soy and mushroom bolognese, herbed tofu ricotta, and tomato sauce, Avant Gardens signature Hen of the Woods, with mushroom purée, kohlrabi, and pickled hon shimeji or Soda Club’s carbonara pinsa of apple, smoked mushrooms, fried artichokes, and arugula, are the kinds of thoughtful and savory dishes that he says keep people coming in again and again.
“Half of our reviews online all say, ‘I’m not vegan, but this was amazing,’” says DeRossi.
“In general, people are giving vegan food another chance, and it’s because they are finally finding the right restaurants.”
The Economic Times found that 59% of American adults always, sometimes, or usually eat vegetarian meals (including vegan options), while 30% said they always, sometimes, or typically eat vegan meals. In 2025, roughly 25.8 million people worldwide participated in Veganuary, a global campaign to try living a plant-based lifestyle for January and beyond.
“There isn’t this solid line anymore between vegans, vegetarians and meat eaters,” says Egender.
“The overwhelming response we run into today is, ‘if it’s good, I will eat it.’”
So, the next time you are thinking about going out to eat, think about eating vegan. Because thanks to chefs and owners like Sara and Jaime Secor, Romeo Regali, Joe Egender, Maciel Bañales Luna and Ravi DeRossi, plant-based food is just getting better and better.
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