plant-based restaurant – Downtown Magazine

Renowned vegan chef launched the Future Food Institute, an online school specialized in plant-based cuisine, and is opening 15 new restaurants.

I asked chef Matthew Kenney the question he must have heard a million times: How can a plate of vegan raw food compete with a juicy steak? He said, “It’s really easy if you put a brown steak, which is not very pretty, next to a raw vegan tomato lasagna, exploding with colors, first I think is more beautiful and flavorful. But most importantly, after eating a steak you want to go to sleep and after eating a vegan tomato lasagna you can run 10 miles because this food provides the energy you need”. Because of his belief in the power of food in our health and the planet, the chef changed completely his career in cooking and took the vegan term mainstream.

The Food Future Institute

Ten years ago, Matthew spoke in a TEDx Talk about the difficulty in associating the word “chef” with “healthy”. People want to eat better. But the truth is that the vegan option on the menu, with some grilled vegetables, will never catch their attention. Chefs need to know how to create masterpieces with plant-based ingredients and for that, they need to learn new techniques.

That’s why since 2009, he has been teaching chefs from over 30 countries in a school specialized in plant-based cuisine. Blending his knowledge of classical French cuisine with new techniques. In May of this year, Matthew took a step further and launched the Food Future Institute, an online course with classes taught by several chefs specialized in vegan food. The FFI has more than 750 students enrolled and, at least, 500 hundred are international. The cost is $350 and the student has access to the platform for a whole year.

New plant-based restaurants in 2020

In addition to The Food Future Institute, the chef will open 15 new restaurants this year, even in the midst of the global crisis caused by coronavirus pandemic. In New York, he’s opening a new pasta concept on August 14th, called Sestina Pasta Bar, a rooftop restaurant at Alo Yoga Flatiron, called Sutra, and two new locations of Pizzeria Double Zero.

According to Matthew, there’s a growing demand for plant-based food, even in countries that produce a lot of meat: “When we opened in Brazil, which is the largest meat exporter in the world, we had one thousand people dining in our restaurant for the first two days. We were so busy, we had to close for the next couple of days to readjust”. The chef explains that this happens in every place they open a new restaurant, because people are getting more conscious about what they eat and how their food affects the environment.

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Matthew Kenney Q&A: Ladurée Going Vegan

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Could you imagine a world-class, 150-year-old French patisserie going vegan? Through a partnership with Elisabeth and David Holder, presidents of Ladurée USA, plant-based chef and author Matthew Kenney, introduced vegan dishes to this world-renowned brand.

Downtown: When did you decide to specialize in plant-based cuisine?

Matthew Kenney: It was an intuitive decision. I really made a career for myself in the NYC restaurant scene after first entering it, and my restaurants definitely didn’t have a focus on anything related to vegan. This was in the 90’s, so the term “vegan” just wasn’t something anyone, including myself, really recognized. The restaurant industry is a tough one, and I began taking up yoga and meditation to keep me centered amidst it all. The more in touch I became with my body, the more I began returning to my passion about the “source” of food.

It wasn’t until I ate in a hole-in-the-wall vegan restaurant, by complete chance, that something finally clicked. The food was raw vegan, not at all glamorous, but I walked 5 miles around the city afterwards because my body felt so revived. I knew there was an opportunity here; what if I could make food that made people feel this good, but without making it feel like a compromise? So I became determined, right then and there, to create innovative, gourmet vegan food could be as sexy and luxurious as a traditional fine dining experience.

DT: How did your partnership with Ladurée start?

MK: Elisabeth actually reached out to me on Instagram direct message. She and her brother, David, run the company, which has been in their family since the early 90’s. The company itself is 150 years old, and I can imagine the challenges presented when dealing with antiquated practices in a modern day market. Both Elisabeth and her brother are strongly influenced by health and wellness in their personal lives. David has been a vegetarian for over a decade and both stick to vegan standards for the majority of their diets and incorporating that into the Ladurée legacy is really important to them. Our conversations fostered this excitement about how we could pursue this partnership and introduce a plant-based focus within a brand that has a long-standing reputation for its love of dairy and butter.

DT: What are some of the dishes that you created for Ladurée’s special vegan menu?

MK: The Beverly Hills location is the first 100% plant-based restaurant, while we are adding vegan menus to other international locations as a supplement to the regular menu. We have plant-based omelets that taste almost identical to the real thing but with a mung bean base. There is plant-based Croque-Monsieur with nut-based gruyère and tofu ham that is phenomenal. We’ve redone all of the macarons with the same selection of classic flavors, as well as all of the usual French staples: meringuèes, biscuits, croissants, puff pastries, pound cakes. There’s a lot.

DT: What does world-renowned Ladurée going vegan represents to the future of cuisine?

MK: To quote Elisabeth and her incentive to pursue this partnership, it’s a “Green Evolution”. The world is acknowledging the impact that our diets have on the planet and our health, and the surge of plant-based menus and products in today’s market are an indication of that. Following a vegan diet has never been mainstream. It’s conceivable that people are daunted, or maybe just puzzled by, the concept of cutting out animal products, because it seems so obscure and restrictive - when the reality is that it’s not.

If a world-class, 150-year-old French patisserie can serve the exact same menu with the exact same style and chicness, with the only difference being the source of ingredients, we can open the minds of a lot of skeptics. It showcases the potential of plant-based cuisine and allows people to understand that eating this way is not a sacrifice of their favorite foods or flavors. It’s not hard, but actually more appealing in more ways than one.

Laudrée goes Vegan — Vegan dessert at Ladurée

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