A French restaurant in London, which once held a Michelin star, is to go fully vegan, it’s chef-owner has announced.
Gauthier in Soho, owned by Alexis Gauthier, has famously offered a vegan tasting menu since 2016 after Gaultier himself decided to go vegan and a vegetarian tasting menu since 1997. Gaultier has even created a vegan ‘foie gras.’
Now, as Metro reports, Gaultier plans to turn the whole menu vegan over the next 18 months to two years – to give his customers time to adapt.
“I can cook what I’ve been taught for next 25 years and make money, but do I really want to carry on ignoring what’s happening?” he says.
He’ll only be focusing on new plant-based dishes from now on he says, and reports that thus far he hasn’t experienced any backlash from his regulars, many of whom he says are now choosing plant-based dishes without thinking about it.
‘It is my belief that people eat these things because they are programmed after years of having no other option which is as delicious,” he says. “The really exciting thing is when you give people a wonderful dinner which has no animal in it, and they tell you they are just as satisfied.
This comes on the back of chef Jason Atherton saying fine dining chefs should be doing more to accommodate vegans, something he has done at his flagship Pollen Street Social restaurant with the introduction of a vegan menu.
