So, Daniel Humm, chef and owner of Eleven Madison Park in New York City, has decided to start serving dead animals again.
His restaurant is a fine-dining landmark, once named the best restaurant in the world by an organization arrogant enough to do that. Back in 2021 when Humm reopened it following the COVID closures, he did so with a meatless menu.
At the time, Humm cited moral reasons, mostly having to do with sustainability, but also creative ones, something other chefs have remarked upon when cooking meatless meals: If you can’t rely on luscious meat and fat to make your food taste good, you actually might have to flex some different artistic muscles.
But now financial and other concerns have pushed him to change his mind, and as of Oct. 14 customers who purchase his $365-per-person tasting menu can have meat if they want to.
“We will offer a plant-based menu, of course,” Humm said in his announcement about the change, “but also select animal products for certain dishes — fish, meat, and yes, our honey-lavender-glazed duck.”
He told The New York Times that private events, an essential source of revenue for most fine-dining restaurants, were challenging to book if meat wasn’t an option.
“It’s hard to get 30 people for a corporate dinner to come to a plant-based restaurant,” he told writer Kim Severson.
Also, if you want to sell wine, you’re better off selling meat, Humm said.
But he also said he was making the decision for the sake of inclusivity.
“Eating together is the essence of who we are, and I’ve learned that to truly champion plant-based cooking, I need to create an environment where everyone feels welcome around the table,” he said in his announcement.
I don’t doubt Humm’s sincerity, but I don’t know many people who would feel welcome around a table where the cost of entry starts at $365, before tip.
The reaction from vegans was swift and angry, of course, accusing the chef of hypocrisy and cynicism for introducing a vegan menu only to reverse course.
I would have been disappointed if that weren’t their reaction — or the reaction of some of them: There aren’t many vegans, but even the ones I know have moderately different opinions on stuff. In fact, I think it’s the role of vegans to help direct our moral compass, just as it is of every group on the fringes of our society. They say what they want to say, we listen or we don’t, but they help us define who we are. They help us point our moral compasses even if we might be motivated to point away from them.
To be honest, I was expecting there to be more declarations that this is the end of veganism.
I did get some slightly weird if creative pitches from publicists, one about “the return to carnivore-forward dining,” as though that had ever gone away.
On the other hand, a number of vegan restaurants are going away.
Last year, VegNews reported on a litany of vegan restaurant closures across the country, with Los Angeles having 21% fewer vegan restaurants than before COVID and New York City’s vegan restaurant census down by 23%.
Canadian vegan concept Planta filed for bankruptcy protection in May, following Kevin Hart’s vegan concept, Hart House, closing all four of its restaurants last September.
But this isn’t the end of veganism, because, statistically, veganism isn’t really a thing.
A 2023 Gallup poll put the number of American vegans at around 1%, which is where it has been my entire adult life. By comparison, between 4% and 7% of Americans are on the keto diet, depending on what data you believe.
Despite all of the investment from venture capitallists who thought that meat analogs — which is what chain restaurant chefs call the plant-based substitutes — would take over the world, they haven’t. Since Bareburger, a small casual-dining chain based in New York City, started serving them in 2017, many other chains followed suit, including big ones like Burger King, which still offers its Impossible Whopper. But most quietly removed them from the menu after initial enthusiasm by customers to try them apparently tapered off: They were worth trying once, but not worth going back for.
I say “apparently” because restaurateurs were uncharacteristically cagey about how the items were selling, at least on the record. Many operators whispered to me that they didn’t sell well, and others declared their dislike of them.
In retail, plant-based meat substitute sales, like Impossible Burger and Beyond Meat, fell by 7.5% in the year to April 20, according to AgFunderNews.
Besides, it’s meat eaters who are mostly targeted by the purveyors of meat analogs. They correctly assumed that few vegans would be interested (they don’t want highly processed food of any sort), and also knew that the vegan market is too small anyway.
Then there are the “flexitarians,” who sometimes are cool with meatless meals.
For what it’s worth, I personally hate the term “flexitarian” with unnecessary passion, because isn’t that just a term for normal people?
Have beans and rice and don’t worry about it.
Humm did tell Severson that guests made comments like “I wish I could bring my husband, but he would never come.” Hence his argument for inclusivity. But a growing number of Americans, especially younger ones, are eager to try a diverse diet and don’t worry about whether meat is involved or not. I’d tell you exactly how many people say they want to eat less meat or are open to having meatless meals, but the data is shaky and I don’t want to lie to you or waste your time.
We do know that younger Americans are often more health-conscious than their elders, that weight-loss drugs are inclining their users to eat less and lighter meals, and that chefs are getting more creative with their meatless options.
Suffice it to say that vegans are a vocal but small demographic and the number of meat-free restaurants are shrinking, but meatless meals aren’t going anywhere.
Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected]
