Comment on Vegan fine dining had a moment. Now it’s over.
lvxferre@mander.xyz 1 week ago
I’m not vegan, but this sounds like an extremely arsehole move. It’s bait-and-switch: the business ditches its customer base to chase a wider one, that won’t give too much of a fuck about it.
I saw the carrot tartare video linked in the article. If that’s representative of what they serve in the restaurant, well… I get why they need to bait-and-switch, I bet vegans eat there exactly once and then forget about the place, as they prepare the same dishes at home. Fine dining should offer you a repeatable but memorable experience, that you’d have a really hard (and really laborious) time replicating at home. You get this by investing on the diversity of good flavours, making it taste extremely decadent, with fine plating and all whistles and bells; not through weird party tricks like “you mix it yourself”.
ranting/ideas-guying over the tartare
The carrots in the video look raw. Ideally they should be steamed until half-cooked, so they’re softer. Grind some sun-dried tomatoes with the carrots, you want the umami. Small diced onions and/or shallots are not optional. Instead of smoked even-more-carrot, use smoked paprika. Chives are nice, but parsley and chives would be even better. I have no idea what those brown things are supposed to be, my brain doesn’t register them as toasted bread or crackers, they look like something else. Just toast some baguette dammit. Mix some aquafaba, coconut oil and EVOO for a mayo-like sauce, good tartare needs to be rich, spread it liberally on the toasted baguettes and then add the carrot tartare over it, perhaps even use it for a swirl on the plate for that posh look. Note this is more of a snack than an actual meal, it’s fine to serve it as entrée, but the main meal should be heartier.
Also, props to the journalist for not butchering Letícia Dias’ name.