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According to the head chef, the change is because too many people felt “excluded” at a plant-based restaurant:
“I very much believed in the all-in approach, but I didn’t realize that we would exclude people,” he said. “I have some anxiety that people are going to say, ‘Oh, he’s a hypocrite,’ but I know that the best way to continue to champion plant-based cooking is to let everyone participate around the table.”
Logically, there’s no reason for people to feel excluded, because everyone can eat plants. But I understand food is not logical. Some carnists are extremely sensitive to even implicit criticism of meat consumption coughbecausetheyknowitswrongcough and get hostile and defensive whenever someone doesn’t serve meat at a meal.
(It’s like the old joke goes. How do you know someone eats meat? Don’t worry, just mention veganism and they’ll tell you.)
And that’s especially true here in the year of our Lord 2025, with the rise of the redcaps, who are obsessed with political correctness and virtue signaling, and believe that plant-based foods are a direct attack on their politics, culture, masculinity, and way of life. Even if an American conservative wanted to try a plant-based restaurant, I think they’d be afraid to go in for fear another conservative would see them and accuse them of political disloyalty.
At the same time, I know very well how competitive the restaurant industry is and how slim the margins are. I’d rather see a functional, mostly plant-based restaurant that stays in business than a pure vegan restaurant that goes out of business and “proves” plant-based food is unprofitable.
I think the solution has to be a change in culture. We (Americans) need to normalize eating plant-based foods at home. We need to talk up the health aspects and the economic aspects of more plant-based diets. We need to serve our friends and family good, delicious plant-based food, and (unfortunately) focus on where we have common ground, health and economics, and leave the hyperpolarized ethical debate for later.
Because, I think, we’re not going to get collective action against factory farming of animals and animal exploitation until a critical mass of people are already eating plant-based diets - people who won’t be afraid of policies that nake meat more expensive, because they’ve already made the individual choice to remove meat from their diets, and so those policies won’t affect them.
And we build that critical mass one meal at a time.
If there’s one positive aspect to RFK and MAHA, it’s that traditionally left-wing dietary concerns like the dangers of ultraprocessed foods are being shared with the American right from a source and in language that they trust. Plant-based foods are objectively healthier than animal products, especially red meat. There’s an opportunity there to break plant-based diets out of the left-wing political box they’ve been stuck in, if enough gurus and influencers and people with right-wing friends and family share enough plant-based meals and talk enough about things like health where we can find common ground.
Anyway, that’s my rant, thank you for coming to my TED talk.
Sad.
According to the head chef, the change is because too many people felt “excluded” at a plant-based restaurant:
Logically, there’s no reason for people to feel excluded, because everyone can eat plants. But I understand food is not logical. Some carnists are extremely sensitive to even implicit criticism of meat consumption coughbecausetheyknowitswrongcough and get hostile and defensive whenever someone doesn’t serve meat at a meal.
(It’s like the old joke goes. How do you know someone eats meat? Don’t worry, just mention veganism and they’ll tell you.)
And that’s especially true here in the year of our Lord 2025, with the rise of the redcaps, who are obsessed with political correctness and virtue signaling, and believe that plant-based foods are a direct attack on their politics, culture, masculinity, and way of life. Even if an American conservative wanted to try a plant-based restaurant, I think they’d be afraid to go in for fear another conservative would see them and accuse them of political disloyalty.
At the same time, I know very well how competitive the restaurant industry is and how slim the margins are. I’d rather see a functional, mostly plant-based restaurant that stays in business than a pure vegan restaurant that goes out of business and “proves” plant-based food is unprofitable.
I think the solution has to be a change in culture. We (Americans) need to normalize eating plant-based foods at home. We need to talk up the health aspects and the economic aspects of more plant-based diets. We need to serve our friends and family good, delicious plant-based food, and (unfortunately) focus on where we have common ground, health and economics, and leave the hyperpolarized ethical debate for later.
Because, I think, we’re not going to get collective action against factory farming of animals and animal exploitation until a critical mass of people are already eating plant-based diets - people who won’t be afraid of policies that nake meat more expensive, because they’ve already made the individual choice to remove meat from their diets, and so those policies won’t affect them.
And we build that critical mass one meal at a time.
If there’s one positive aspect to RFK and MAHA, it’s that traditionally left-wing dietary concerns like the dangers of ultraprocessed foods are being shared with the American right from a source and in language that they trust. Plant-based foods are objectively healthier than animal products, especially red meat. There’s an opportunity there to break plant-based diets out of the left-wing political box they’ve been stuck in, if enough gurus and influencers and people with right-wing friends and family share enough plant-based meals and talk enough about things like health where we can find common ground.
Anyway, that’s my rant, thank you for coming to my TED talk.