Vegan Chef Matthew Kenney Says Veganism Will Soon Become The Norm

The internet can be pretty unforgiving at times, and no one feels the brunt quite like vegans, who are routinely bashed for their food choices (aka pushing them on people). However, according to top vegan chef, Matthew Kenney, pretty soon veganism is going to be the norm (aka carnivores may be the ones getting the bad rap now).

Matthew Kenney, who has just opened a 100 percent plant-based restaurant Alibi, in Sydney’s Ovolo hotel, says the future of food is vegan. While his menu boasts of burgers, pizza, lasagne and tacos, not a single animal product has been used in his dishes. Pizza is made with cashew mozzarella, a cheeseburger with mushroom and sunflower cheddar and tacos with green herbs and pepita.

“We were doing cutting-edge food many years ago but no hotel, landlord or building owner wanted a vegan restaurant because they thought it would fail,” Kenney said. “But once we start to serve this food in a mainstream environment­ that’s beautiful and sexy, it’s a gamechanger for the plant-based world.”

“I believed in it 15 years ago,” he said. “It’s one thing that can slow down the damage we’re doing to our planet. “But as a chef, my role is to make them come to it because it’s the best tasting food. How do we compete with a steakhouse or a seafood restaurant? By making our food sexier.”

In fact, Australia is the third fastest growing vegan market in the world with the number of vegetarians having risen from 1.7 million to 2.1 million in just four years. Time will tell if veganism is just a fad or if it will truly become the norm.