Vegan Fine Dining? How Will UPTOWN Meet Standards?

One might think that running an all vegan restaurant would be highly lucrative. However, being an all vegan restaurant is no longer itself a niche concept. The food quality, service etc. are some of the fundamental aspects some these restaurants miss time and again. We interviewed Daphne Cheng, a renowned vegan chef from New York, with an ambitious plan of opening a chain of vegan restaurants in China and other countries in the far-east. Is her plan, what the vegan scene in Shanghai waiting for?

Daphne Cheng

Shanghai WOW!: What inspired you to make your culinary profession tailored around vegan food? 

I became interested in cooking when I turned vegetarian. I loved to eat but I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago; born and raised there. The city I lived in was all about meat, potatoes & cheese in the cuisine. There weren't many options for good food for vegetarians. That's when I started to cook for myself and I realized that I really enjoyed it.

Shanghai WOW!: What is the vegan scene liking in Chicago?

These days, it is better. But back then there weren't many options.

Shanghai WOW!: Why and when did you go vegetarian?

I went vegetarian when I was 12. I saw a video of a slaughter house & read a lot about the environmental impact of the animal agriculture industry. When I was around 15, I read Dr. Campbell's book "The China Study". 

Shanghai WOW!: Why did you choose to be in Shanghai out of all the cities in the far east? 

I feel that China has a demand for healthy food, but the market does not have delicious and good for you. There are also many misconceptions about vegan food. The common one is that you need meat for being healthy or you will die! We want to specifically educate the Chinese population about the harms of consuming animal products. The country's population is growing and as they become more affluent, meat consumption is also growing. This unquestionably causes more environmental damage. In the developed nations, meat consumption is already going down. In New York, I worked towards a similar goal of getting people to try vegan food by making it more appealing to them. But the concept is already popular and the market for vegan products is saturated. For me to make a real impact, I felt China would be the right destination. I felt most comfortable with Shanghai as the city is very like New York.

Shanghai WOW!: There are several vegan restaurants and places that offer vegan options in Shanghai. The vegan community generally classifies it in different tiers in terms of pricing. Where would your restaurants fall?

We are opening a restaurant called Uptown and within it would be a fine dining table called 'Daphne''. With the fine dining, we want to show that vegan dining can be serious, respectable and advanced. Obviously, it would not be accessible to everyone so, we have ''Uptown', which is more of a casual setting and accessible. On an average, you can expect to pay around 200 to 300 RMB per head at Uptown.

Zucchini Ribbon

Shanghai WOW!: What is your 5-year goal with Uptown restaurant?

We are hoping to open 100 restaurants all over China and internationally in 3 years. China would probably have around 20 branches in all of the major cities. However, there would be only one Daphne and would be in Shanghai. It is not easy to scale up fine dining, so, it would be only Uptown that will see expansion.

Shanghai WOW!: Veganism, the movement, is suffering from the wrong association with elitism - that the food at the restaurants are expensive and not budget friendly. With a vegan fine dining restaurant, are you not adding to that stereotype? How would your restaurants counter this?

Traditionally, vegan food is known as peasant food. Cooking at home is the most affordable choice for those who are budget conscious. For the movement, our point is that we want to make the food as appealing as possible to bring attention to a vegan lifestyle. A restaurant can offer the cheapest food possible but if it is not appealing, it will not spread awareness at the scale we can. However, in the future we would be doing kiosks where you can find affordable vegan food. It is not something we would be introducing right away. Meat eating in the Chinese culture is a status symbol, which we want to change.

Vegan Xialongbao

Shanghai WOW!: The famous chef, Enrique Olivera made comments that fine dining focuses on aesthetics than taste, and is the biggest offender in food waste. How will your restaurant counter that? Do you have special prep methods?

That may be true for French cooking. But there is a new wave of chefs, including me, who are very conscious about food wastage, like Dan Barber. He did a pop-up series centered around food waste for example. Our menu is designed to use the vegetables with minimum wastage. Ordinarily restaurants throw away mushroom stems, but we find a way to use that too. We care a lot about the environment, so we would not compromise and waste food for sake of making it look pretty. Our mindset is not built that way. We are strictly plant based for this purpose too, and we would also never use honey or bee pollen. The sugar we use will be imported white sugar that's not processed with bone char. But mostly we useeither coconut sugar or palm sugar. We try our best to not use white sugar processed with bone char. So, we are vegan as far as is possible and practicable. 

Shanghai WOW!: Fine dining also focuses a lot of the right lighting and space requirements. That has a carbon foot print of its own. Is your restaurant going to be solar power charged?

All our lighting and cooking equipment are energy efficient. Our cooking will be done on induction cooker. We are creating the space for our fine dining restaurant be, which would be on the top floor. From a sustainability standpoint, induction is far better that gas, especially when you consider the lack of wasted heat. Induction can deliver roughly 80 to 90 percent of its electromagnetic energy to the food in a pan, compared to gas, which converts a mere 38 percent of its energy. So, even though we have a fine dining restaurant, we will not be compromising on the environmental aspects

Shanghai WOW!: What is your advice to those aspiring to be vegan or start a vegan venture?

Be very open minded and be willing to try new things. It is a stereotype that it is hard to eat vegan, but that is simply not true. You can go to any restaurant and order plant based food. The Chinese eat a lot of vegetables than Americans for sure. We are very excited to be part of the Shanghai Vegan community and are looking forward to welcoming you to try our menu options to get your feedback.

Fruit dessert

In conclusion: It is a bit surprising that we did not hear much about their competitor analysis – there are over 2 dozens of vegan restaurants in the city and 100s of places offering vegan options. Also, if they choose to import ingredients like white sugar for example, it will increase the menu’s carbon footprint.

But here, is what stood out throughout the entire interview: the founder is vegan. This is critical as vegan businesses, whether they acknowledge it or not, are part of the movement. She is a bold and does not shy from saying she gave up meat because she watched a slaughterhouse video – very refreshing to hear. Empathy for animals is not considered sexy enough as opposed to “we are vegan for health and environment” slogan. Uptown restaurants and Daphne are going to be different cause it has a vegan leader. It will never be just about the money, it will be about the movement.

Contributing Author: 

Eve Samyuktha is an engineer [polymer research] in the automotive sector and also founder and spokesperson of the community platform, “Vegans of Shanghai”. She has been a vegan for the past four years. She is passionate about the vegan movement. Interested in learning about veganism? Follow wechat ID: veganeve

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