When there’s only space for one meat-free option on the menu, chefs often now ditch dairy for vegan alternatives. Is this the end of veggie dining?
The recent explosion in vegan food has not been without pushback. Mainly from bolshily indignant meat-eaters who take it as a personal affront. But could a far more peaceable group, vegetarians, also be finding all that vegan energy a bit, well, irritating?
Anecdotally, their beef (now seitan) is that the current zeitgeisty cool surrounding plant-based food is increasingly pushing vegetarian options off menus. Vegetarians are asking: who moved my cheese? They are seeing their halloumi burgers, sour cream-dressed burritos or blue cheese and mushroom wellingtons removed in favour of vegan meat-free dishes. There is low-level grumbling at this new dairy-free landscape, talk of being “screwed” by vegans and, as one Guardian colleague describes it, “a little silent war” developing between the rival groups.
