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Vegan foie gras: cashew nuts and turmeric as a substitute for foie gras
Photo: Hello Plant Foods
SPIEGEL:
Mr. Fernandez, you wanted to sell 5,000 portions of vegan foie gras in Spain before Christmas - in the end you had to produce several weeks later and got rid of 30,000 portions.
what happened there?
Fernández:
I really didn't expect this success.
We only sold the glasses in vegan supermarkets and did not advertise at all.
But even so, everything was gone within twelve hours.
We had to re-produce at breakneck speed until the end of the year.
Inquiries even came from the USA, Germany, Taiwan and Brazil.
We are now negotiating with investors, and some of Europe's largest supermarket chains have approached us.
It's all pretty crazy.
But obviously there is a lot of interest in vegan delicacies.
I explain it like this: people want to enjoy something exclusive without torturing animals.
SPIEGEL:
Reports about you say that you worked on the right recipe for a year and changed it a total of 800 times.
Why did you go to so much trouble for such a rare specialty?
Fernández:
When I do something, I do it properly.
I'm not a trained chef, our company is a young start-up, not a five-star restaurant.
This is precisely why it was important that our product was convincing.
If you want to change something as special as foie gras, you should know how big the responsibility is.
Spain is the second largest buyer worldwide.
We couldn't afford to serve disappointment as an alternative.
We kept juxtaposing and comparing the original and our version.
Until it fits.
Just because something is vegan doesn't mean it can't be elaborate.
SPIEGEL:
How do you produce foie gras without animals?
Fernández:
Our foie gras consists of ground cashew nuts, lots of coconut oil, some beetroot extract, lentil flour, spices and a sip of cognac.
All this ensures that our version not only tastes as similar as possible to the original, but also looks like it.
Foie gras really is a very greasy, special affair.
You have to keep it that way and reproduce it as well as possible with spices, otherwise it won't taste good.
SPIEGEL:
Foie gras is actually the epitome of French cuisine.
Have you received many letters of protest from your neighboring country?
Fernández:
So far, no Frenchman has complained to us.
Maybe because we are Spaniards - and we are allowed a little more joie de vivre.
SPIEGEL:
Are you sure you actually did something against animal cruelty?
Or maybe you just made sure that young people now consume sustainably while the rest of the family carries on as before?
Fernández:
It's not our job to re-educate anyone.
Our target group are also people who already like foie gras, but also know what it involves.
These people also see pictures of geese and then perhaps have a bad conscience.
There are many of them.
Our idea is to create foods that look familiar but are made without cruelty to animals or pollution.
SPIEGEL:
Spain is actually known for chorizo and jamón.
In no other EU country is so much meat eaten.
Do you think it should all go away now?
Fernández:
I may be vegan, but I'm definitely not a radical activist.
My approach is to offer something so appealing that you don't need the original anymore.
And I think that's going down well in Spain.
At its core, our culture has been based on people coming together since ancient times.
We meet, we eat with friends and family.
I don't want to ban anyone from grilling.
But maybe we should think about what we eat.
If everything works out, we'll soon be selling meat-free bacon, which can be fried and used just like the animal version.
In my view, real change is only just beginning.
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