From the first vegan IPO to the launch of everything from vegan eggs and meatless steaks, to oat milk becoming everyone's favourite latte creamer, the future of plant-based has never looked brighter
Being a herbivore is in vogue. Everywhere you look on social media, someone is touting the health, environmental and social benefits of a plant-based diet. This is, of course, a good thing. We've never needed to change how and what we eat more and adopting a plant-based diet is key to reducing your carbon footprint. The UN's August 2019 climate report urged world leaders to push for a global reduction in meat consumption to safeguard planetary resources. Yet despite the growing evidence supporting these claims, Hongkongers are now eating more meat and dairy than ever.
According to research done by Green Monday, Hong Kong's ratio of vegetarian restaurants to omni ones is low. The city has over 15,000 restaurants but fewer than 300 are vegetarian or vegan—a mere 2 percent. When it comes to practicing plant-based chefs, you'd be hard pressed to find more than a handful. This makes Peggy Chan a unique figure in Hong Kong's gastronomic scene.
See also: After Grassroots Pantry, Peggy Chan Opens New Restaurant Nectar In Sheung Wan
Ever since the opening of Grassroots Pantry in a tiny cul de sac in Sai Ying Pun, and now with her new haute cuisine-leaning Nectar on Hollywood Road, Chan has been flying the sustainable, plant-based dining flag almost on her own for over seven years and since day one, she has used her role as founder-chef to tell a story about organic agriculture, sustainable food systems and zero waste cooking .
I recently sat down with Peggy to talk about the future of plant-based dining, where her culinary inspiration comes from and who inspires her.
Though at first reluctant to talk about the future, Chan believes in the coming years, the plant-based movement will become far less niche. "My mind is not into thinking about what's the next big thing," she says. “But what I do think about is normalising plant-based in the dining arena, whether it's a fast casual restaurant or a fine dining restaurant, or being able to say that 70% of the menu is completely plant-based."
This normalising requires a huge effort from chefs, who are the forefront of the food conversation as the first point of contact with consumers. But are up and coming chefs up to the task?
Chan is vocal about the lack of education and training when it comes to solving the major issues in our global food system today, from soil depletion to food waste to broader concerns around climate change and food security. "[Culinary school] curriculums are not up to date to reflect the current situation in the world. How do we get the next generation to solve certain issues that we're facing if they don't even know about the reality?"