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What is fine dining? For many, a multi-course meal containing meat, fish, or fowl usually comes to mind. Today, fine dining is catching up with the plant-based food trend.
Over the past few years, many upscale restaurants around the world have announced transitions to plant-based menus, according to Eco Watch, while other eateries receiving fine-dining stars from Michelin have been vegan or vegetarian all along.
These stars are highly coveted and how well a restaurant ranks could determine its success. Since the Paris based guide’s introduction in 1900, it has been very unusual for plant-based restaurants to be considered fine dining. Here are three world-renowned restaurants that have made the cut.
Atelier Crenn
This fine-dining restaurant in San Francisco, California took land animals off the menu in 2017. Chef Dominique Crenn followed suit with all the Crenn restaurants shortly afterwards. Diners at this three-star restaurant still partake in seafood that has been sourced from local, sustainable fisheries.
“Meat is insanely complicated — both within the food system and the environment as a whole — and, honestly, it felt easier to just remove it from the menus all together,” Crenn said in a statement to Eco Watch. Because of the commitment to the environment, the eatery also received a Michelin Green Star for sustainable gastronomy in 2020.
Eleven Madison Park
New York City’s Eleven Madison Park announced in 2021 that it’s new menu after the pandemic lockdown was going entirely plant-based. This upscale Michelin three-star restaurant in Manhattan has been one of the most popular American eateries known for its elegant fine-dining.
Chef Daniel Humm made the decision during the lockdown when he became aware of the environmental and social inequalities in global food systems. It became very clear to me that our idea of what luxury is had to change,” Humm told The New York Times shortly after announcing his decision in 2021. “We couldn’t go back to doing what we did before.”
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Geranium
This Danish restaurant in Copenhagen announced in 2021 that it would no longer serve meat from land animals reported Eco Watch. The restaurant’s chef Rasmus Kofoed chose to focus on local seafood and vegetables grown on organic farms. Geranium has still maintained its Michelin three-star rating after the switch.
Kofoed has been eating a plant-based diet for five years so transitioning the restaurant was a natural step for him. “My kitchen at Geranium has long been focused on vegetables, fish and shellfish as the star on the plate, with small quantities of meat,” he said in an Instagram post.
“The menu is a reflection of me, of who I am and how I am evolving as a chef and as a human being. I haven’t been eating meat for the last five years at home, so to no longer use meat on the new menu was a logical decision and a natural progression for Geranium.”
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