Restaurant advice from a vegan
Many restaurants in Barbados could do with some advice on catering to vegetarian and vegan patrons. I know this from experience. As a vegan myself, and one who likes to eat out, I’d like to submit some suggestions.
I don’t pretend to speak for everyone who doesn’t consume animal products. What I offer is the perspective of someone who until quite recently enjoyed ham, jug jug, and stuffing on Christmas Day. I’ve seen the world from both sides, so I understand what is motivating many of the mistakes and misunderstandings in restaurants.
Here are some simple things they can do.
1. Educate your staff.
Nothing makes me more nervous than a waiter who doesn’t know that mayonnaise contains egg. These are the types of places where the chef is liable to scoop out the pig tail and call it a vegetable soup.
Waitstaff that seems knowledgeable gives me confidence that, at a minimum, I’m eating what I think I’m eating.
2. Label your menu.
Vegetarians very rarely have many options to choose from. Save us some time: Make these options obvious. If you have even a handful of vegetarian items, consider creating a separate menu for them.
Nothing shows care like attention.
3. If it’s going to be vegetarian, make it vegan.
To be on the safe side, assume that anyone who orders a vegetarian item will want it completely free of animal products. So either make it vegan to start with, or make it easily veganisable while remaining delicious.
That last bit is important. If the meal depends on that wonderful cheese sauce to pull it off, you haven’t done your job if the vegans have to eat it dry.
4. Salad is not a main course.
Many restaurants add a few salads to their menu and think they’ve ticked the veggie box. I admit, there are some salads chock-full of fruit, nuts, grains, and ground provisions that are worth the trip. But generally speaking, a salad for me is the same as it is for a carnivore: a side dish.
If salad is the only thing I can eat your restaurant, I’m not coming.
5. Make it hot.
Part of the reason, I suppose, is that I come from a culture where food is generally served hot. If you’re only going to have one veggie main course on your menu, it should come from a stovetop.
This doesn’t have to be difficult. Any chef worth their salt can throw together a delicious vegetarian pasta. In a pinch, a veggie burger will work too.
6. “Meaty” is appreciated.
Many vegetarians have a meat-eater’s palate because, like me, they are retired carnivores. So dishes with meaty textures are often welcome. Mushrooms, eggplant, and tofu do that job nicely.
The latest plant-based products specifically designed to resemble and taste like meat, like Beyond Meat, are delicious too.
7. For the love of God, don’t forget about dessert.
Just as a salad isn’t a main course, a fruit salad isn’t a dessert. And a sorbet is no substitute for ice cream.
Research shows that people grade an experience according to the sensations they feel at its peak and at its end. So ruining the end of my meal by forcing me to watch everyone else swallowing profiteroles ruins my whole meal.
I recommend having a single vegan dessert item so delicious that your non-vegan customers will order it regularly. A raw carrot cake with dairy-free ice cream, for instance. You’ll charge more for it, of course, and I’ll gladly pay you for your troubles.
Given the paucity of choices in Barbados, the simple steps above are enough to keep the vegetarian in the group from vetoing your restaurant for dinner.
8. But you’ll be rewarded if you get fancy.
Vegetarian and vegan food can be delicious. Not just delicious for those save-the-planet losers who don’t know any better. Delicious for your dyed-in-the-wool souse-eater. This may sound ridiculous to you — it would have to me, not so long ago, and somewhere, Anthony Bourdain is laughing — but it’s true.
So instead of doing the bare minimum, you might consider jumping in and doing the most. Soursop is good for more than juice; okra for more than cou cou; yams for more than boiling. Coconut jelly can be made to taste like calamari. God knows what can be done with fat porks if someone bothers to try. Breadfruit is a Goliath whose measure we are yet to take. There is a whole world of flavour waiting to be discovered, while most of us are busy eating catch-of-the-day.
Experimentation will pay off.
