Why Not Call a Vegan 'Scallop' What it Really is?
Today on our Instagram page we shared a picture of a beautiful plate created by our talented chef-graduate, Samina. The dish is a recipe from our Vegan Chef Diploma - Vegan ‘scallops’ with aioli and micro greens. It’s an amazing recipe with king oyster mushrooms that have the exact texture of the non-vegan version. We pair them with garlicky mayonnaise made with walnut oil. Dee-lightful!
Vegan ‘scallops’ with aioli and micro greens
On the post we received a great question from one of our followers -
“In vegan food why do we use non-vegan words to describe the dish? Like calling these mushrooms ‘scallops’, another example is cauliflower ‘wings’?”
Vegan Cheese Board
I researched and wrote about this many years ago for a Japanese food company. I spent a lot of time diving deep into this. Food behaviour is fascinating. Understanding it can help vegan chefs, food brands, private chefs . . . anyone in the industry in fact. By extension that understanding helps the vegan movement as we can help more people to go vegan and stay vegan.
Throughout my time researching and writing on this subject I analysed my own food behaviour. But I quickly found that that wasn’t enough. I had to also look at the food behaviour of the people around me. That included my friends and family, most of whom were born in the UK and the children of immigrants, and also my private chef clients, who were born all over the world. Seeing the plethora of different attitudes and behaviours in food was truly eye opening. And this, I believe, is key to a greater understanding of this topic.
‘Fish’ Cake with caperberries, celeriac chips and mushy pea sauce
‘Fish’ cakes with celeriac crisps
Our relationship with food is complex and unique to all of us. How I think and feel about food is not the way you think and feel about food. Yes, there are commonalities between certain people but there are also great differences. For example, I, someone who has been vegan for over 26 years, do not get grossed out by non-vegan food. I ethically completely and utterly disagree with it but, I’m not grossed out by it. Whereas, for other vegans, non-vegan food totally grosses them out.
In order for us to understand or, at least, recognise and accept other peoples food behaviour, we have to employ our empathy. We have to accept that the way we see things isn’t the way that all people see things. If you are vegan you have probably exercised that muscle a few times before.
Aubergine ‘Bacon’ Buttie
My favourite “mock” food recipes
Homemade Cheese On Toast
BLT
Red Pepper Sausage Rolls
Vegan Steak Tagliata
Smoked 'Salmon'
So let’s dig into why mock-foods are labelled by their non-vegan name. Well, there are a few core reasons -
It’s convenient. We can easily swap out the non vegan part of a meal for the vegan option so we know what to serve it with. That’s a huge convenience when you’re eating with others who aren’t vegan, as a whole separate meal doesn’t need to be cooked. Even more so if the person who cooks isn’t you. We see this situation often in the UK, even more so when people go vegan in their teenage years, as they are eating alongside their non-vegan (and unfortunately sometimes unsupportive) family. Vegans can often be thought of as ‘difficult’ or ‘particular’ with the food they will eat. The convenient mock-foods really helps with that aspect and the relationships it can affect. And don’t we all know that the hardest part of going vegan isn’t that you miss bacon? It’s OTHER PEOPLE!!!!
It’s easy for restaurateurs and food brands to use the non-vegan terms. ‘Vegan Scallops’ will sell better than ‘King Oyster Mushrooms’. Think of the difference between a ‘vegan burger’ and a ‘mushroom oat patty’, the first option is more appealing to most as they have a frame of reference. There is no education that needs to happen in order for people to know what it is they are buying.
We want to show the v-curious they won’t miss out by going vegan, not even with scallops! For some people they need to observe all of their favourite meals, snacks and drinks in vegan form BEFORE they try being vegan. They like the food they eat, they may also have an emotional or cultural connection to it. Some dishes may remind them of their grandmother or be a meal they always cook on their birthday. This is an aspect of food behaviour I never had and only really appreciated once I became a private chef. For these people I had to manage changes to their diet in a thoughtful way. I would learn about the dishes they loved and work out how to make vegan versions of them that were very similar to the non-vegan version.
Some people don’t like to eat anything that sounds too ‘out there’. They have a palate that doesn't like huge changes, they like what they are used to. If they see they can have the ‘vegan version of X’, it sounds like the dish, it looks like the dish and so it’s probably gonna taste like the dish, well hell, they’re gonna give vegan a go. This was a food behaviour I could totally relate to. I was such a picky eater; veggies had to be cut a certain size, there were so many foods I didn’t like and particularly textures I found unpleasant. I remember the first time I ate couscous (this was back in ‘95 when I was quite unaware of many foods from other countries and cultures). I found the texture so unusual and so different to what I was used to. At home I ate vegan sausages, burgers etc but when I moved out of home, to go to uni, I explored Indian cuisine. I would often eat food at my best friend's house, leftovers from the night before; lots of different curries and chapatis lighter than air. Indian food was my route into widening my knowledge of different ingredients and ways of cooking. Through that pathway I went on to explore Middle Eastern food and south East Asian food. Because of the geographical locations of these places in relation to India there are links between the cuisines. So moving from Indian food to Middle Eastern and South East Asian cuisine was not a massive leap but rather a series of baby steps. There is a thread that runs around our globe that we can trace through each nation's cuisine. A connectedness through the types of ingredients, techniques and recipes.
We should reserve the right to continue calling vegan food by non-vegan names to protect it from those that want to take it away from us. Every couple of years the meat and dairy industry attempts to make it illegal to use words such as ‘burger’, ‘sausages’, ‘milk’ etc. Sometimes they have been successful, sometimes they have not. Their arguments are incredibly flawed and ridiculous. Their actions constitute bullying rather than a genuine concern that their customers will accidentally buy a vegan product.
I hope that my words have helped you to think about our food behaviour and start considering the nuances in vegan cuisine. This type of thoughtful dialogue can only serve to further the vegan movement.