Vegetarian restaurant success

MONEY FROM NO MEAT

Expanding demand for vegetarian food has taken some caterers by surprise, despite the first signs of a boom in the 1960's. Yet many others have grasped the opportunity to make a killing at the cash register instead of the slaughter house, writes David Aherne, The Vegetarian Gourmet.

Caterers, from the humble mobile cafe to silver service restaurants, are discovering just how lucrative the expanding vegetarian market can be as they begin to appreciate the higher profit mark-ups possible on meat free products. Yet many places still treat vegetarians as a nuisance that should be discouraged. This is particularly noticeable at dinners, luncheons and banquets where it is not uncommon to find that the meat eaters are served first, usually directly onto their plates with the vegetables following, before any vegetarians get a look in. Not for them the silver service and a choice of how much they would like. More usually, their meal is brought ready plated with the question... 'Are you the vegetarian?' And often after everyone else has started eating. Treating vegetarians in this way means that neither the guest or the caterer wins. Whether cheap or expensive, a meal out should be an enjoyable experience not a battle of wits.

TRUST
Caterers should bear in mind that the vegetarian consumer is relying on the restaurant's proprietor to respect their principles and not offer them anything containing or derived from the three 'F's - flesh, fish and fowl. This trust is totally destroyed when, at the end of a meal, the customer is offered a dessert obviously held together with gelatine or glazed with aspic and left wondering 'What else have I eaten?'
The former chain, Penta Hotels, a division of Lufthansa, provided a few pointers in the provision of alternative diets. They always offered a good choice for vegetarians - ricotta parcels, quorn kebabs and vegetable lasagne for instance. In 1992, Barry Reece, head chef at the Gatwick Penta told me, 'With Vegetarian eaters making up between 8% and 10% of our clientele, we would be stupid not to encourage them. We can also cater for vegans and most religious dietry requirements. Because we are building up a reputation for good vegetarian food, demand for vegetarian menus from our banqueting department is high. At big functions I always try to make the vegetarian meals look similar to the other courses, so the vegetarians won't feel out of place.' The Swallow Hotels group have a vegetarian menu with a range of starters, a soup and a choice of at least eight main courses. They will also often offer an adaptation of one of their other items to suit the vegetarian diet. Unfortunately most of the lavish desserts on the 'Swallow' sweet trolley are made with gelatine or other animal derived ingredients, however they usually have strawberries and cream or other fresh fruit and will normally produce crepes suzette at the table as an alternative.

Non-vegetarian chips.
It used to be true that nothing at McDonalds outlets in Great Britain was suitable for vegetarians and McCain even had to set up a special production line because at first, McDonalds insisted that their chips all had to blanched in lard. As a result of customer pressure, they had to change and now sell a very good vege-burger in Britain. In contrast, the Grubbs hamburger chain, which operates in South East England, have offered their own quarter pound 100% vegetarian burger at the same price as their meat equivalent since they opened their first branch in Brighton in 1978. At that time no other chain offered a vegetarian alternative. Tim Davies, the owner, claims that sales of their vege-burger are gradually overhauling those of beefburgers. He developed the vege-burger with Greg Sams, Co-founder of Realeat, who launched the first frozen vege-burger into the British retail market. In the first year vege-burger sales represented only 8& of Grubbs' overall sales, but now more that one in three burgers sold throughout the chain is a vege'. More recently, Wimpy, Burger King and other retailers have jumped onto the vegetarian bandwagon, but Davies believes that vegetarians will still be treated as second class citizens in our predomiately meat orientated restaurants, for at least another 20 years, but that their growing numbers will eventually dictate what all restaurants serve. 'If we stopped selling vege-burgers now, we'd lose a lot of our meat eating customers as well, because so many come as mixed groups. The clear message is that by offering good quality vegetarian dishes, restaurants not only attract vegetarian clientele but also those who accompany them.
First published in February 1993 issue of 'Hotel and Catering Business'. Updated 2003
Copyright © David Aherne 1992.

Footnote added 2002!

I recently attended a dinner at a four star London hotel, where my vegetarian meal requirement was known two weeks in advance. I was very disappointed to be given Melon twice to replace both the Soup and Fish courses. My main course came plated from the kitchen, a very small selection of uninteresting, under cooked, unsalted vegetables surrounding three very thin sticks of Asparagus, whilst the other guests had something beautifully served in a filo-pastry case and their vegetables properly served at the table. How simple it would have been to have filled one of the cases with mushrooms in a creamy sauce. It came as no surprise to find they had no deserts without gelatine and no vegetarian cheese. I politely declined the offer of yet another slice of melon and bought a Burger King Vege-Wopper at Victoria Station to eat on the train.

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