Restaurant Café Rouge has reported a 44 per cent increase in demand for its vegan dishes over the last month.
Last month, the chain – which owns 78 outlets across the UK – added the new, plant-based menu. The range includes Soupe de Saison and Beetroot Tatin for starter, Vegetable Parmentier and Moroccan Vegetable Tagine for main, and a choice of sorbets for dessert.
The French-inspired restaurant added the vegan choices to the menu, despite the fact that the cuisine traditionally centred around meat, cheese and butter.
The menu can be found on the al carte menu.
However, The Caterer (thecaterer.com) recently reported that it is essential for food outlets to include a vegan option, regarding the increase of consumers choosing to follow the lifestyle.
Reporter Angela Frewin commented: “Formerly a niche market, free-from and vegan dishes are no longer an optional extra but a necessity for operators.”
The report continues, “The bare statistics – that there are more than a million vegetarians, 542,000 vegans, 49 per cent of Britons reducing meat consumption, 10 per cent having a diagnosed food allergy or intolerance and 15 per cent suspecting they do – underline why chefs and suppliers are scrambling onto what Mintel pithily dubs the ‘banned wagon’.”