- From a healthy and radical chic food style to the protagonist of both starred kitchens and refrigerated counters at the supermarket with more and more plant-based ready meals. Vegan cuisine, celebrated on November 1st with the Vegan Day ritual, has never been more trendy than this year.
And he opens the tasting menus of the great chefs: in Udine Emanuele Scarello, two Michelin stars with the Italian restaurant "Agli Amici" and one Michelin star for the restaurant in Rovinj in Croatia, presented a menu that opens to the gourmands of Ein Prosit 2021 with tasty vegan proposals. While the Nino Romito Laboratory emphasizes the healthy aspect of food with a line of pastries that have been certified organic and vegan for a year.
Among the best restaurants in the world, Noma in Copenhagen makes veg cuisine a manifesto put into practice by foraging, the collection of herbs, algae, spontaneous essences in the wildest natural environments. Noma's own fermentation laboratory prepares sustainable burgers based on both Danish beef and vegans for Popl, a burger restaurant in vogue for lunch breaks in the Copenhagen industrial space, and the French Luc Debove, pastry chef at Ecole Ducasse and award-winning ice cream maker, now makes 100% desserts with plant-based products starting from dark vegan chocolate.
In Italy the Vivere Vegan project celebrates 20 years, which will take stock of Workd Vegan Day and Earth-based nutrition by tasting sandwiches with Veg Jack fruit and spelled at the Limonaia di Villa Strozzi in Florence. But it is above all the huge investments of celebrities and multinationals in the no meat and cruelty-free food industry that bring vegan cuisine out of the niche of tofu-lovers.
A rising wave, no longer just for animal rights. In Italy vegetarians and vegans are about 9% of consumers. The impression is that in the near future, finding on the shelves a brick of milk deriving from the milking of cattle or a hamburger of Fassona or Chianina will no longer be so automatic. According to the Imagine Observatory, in 2020 the indication "vegan" appears on 3,370 products (4%) and accounts for 2.7% of the total sales of the food perimeter of supermarkets and hypermarkets. A range up 9.5% compared to the previous year.
On Uber Eats in 2021 vegan orders grew by 165% compared to the previous year and the veg burger is the most delivered dish. However, it is difficult to estimate the economic value of a global network of establishments with mostly local and fresh menus. For Deliveroo, the most vegan city in Italy is Verona, followed by Bologna, Reggio Emilia, Rovereto (Trento) and Milan.
Last December Veganuary, a maxi global project for the spread of vegan food which counts one million participants in 192 countries and along the peninsula has received the support of popular brands such as Rosso Pomodoro and America Graffiti, has landed last December in Italy, announces the association Be Animals which is an official partner.
Several stars have become ambassadors of the vegan diet, such as, says The Fork, Joaquin Phoenix and Ariana Grande and again Anna Oxa. The main motivations of those who choose a vegan diet are the protection of animals, the reduction of their environmental impact on plants as well as health reasons: 34% of respondents to the survey consider this diet healthier. The platform for online restaurant reservations, a Tripadvisor brand, underlines that the driving force behind vegetarian cuisine (71%) is attracting users, followed by vegan (17%) and raw food (6%).
The climate and the future of the planet, the main theme of the G20 in Rome, are strongly correlated to the ecological change desired by environmentalists at the table and awarded by the Michelin Guide which now assigns green stars to the most sustainable cuisines.
Among the novelties of Halloween and Vegan Day, the Vegan Gelato Sticks offered by the Milanese agrigelateria Gusto 17 on the Deliveroo platform.