Burnt Hands Perspective
This is a raw and unfiltered look into the state of the restaurant industry as a whole, powered by longtime friends Chef/Owner Antonio Caruana and former bartender turned News Anchor/TV Host Kristen Crowley.
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Burnt Hands Perspective
Restaurant Reality Check for Vegans, Vegetarians, and Gluten-Free Diners: A Chef's Perspective
We woke up and chose violence today with this episode, BHP Fam! Let's get real...
Ever wonder why your server grimaces slightly when you mention you're gluten-free or vegan? In this candid, no-holds-barred episode, we pull back the curtain on one of the restaurant industry's most challenging topics: accommodating specialized diets like veganism, vegetarianism, and gluten-free requirements.
The numbers tell a fascinating story. True vegans represent just 1% of the population. Celiac disease affects another 1%. Yet somehow, these small percentages drive massive menu changes and kitchen accommodations across the restaurant landscape. We break down the statistics and explain why catering to these specialized diets creates significant operational challenges during busy service, essentially requiring chefs to become "personal chefs" for individual diners while simultaneously serving hundreds of others.
We explore why many self-diagnosed food sensitivities might actually stem from poor-quality ingredients rather than the foods themselves. Many Americans who can't tolerate domestic wheat products find they can happily consume European breads and pastas without issue. Similarly, many processed vegan alternatives contain more additives and chemicals than the single-ingredient animal products they replace.
This isn't about dismissing legitimate dietary needs or ethical choices. It's about setting realistic expectations in the restaurant-customer relationship. Just as you wouldn't expect a sushi restaurant to serve the perfect ribeye, not every restaurant concept can accommodate every dietary preference.
For diners with specialized needs, we offer practical advice: research menus before dining out, communicate with restaurants in advance, and understand that some concepts simply aren't designed for certain dietary restrictions. And for those who have self-diagnosed food sensitivities, we suggest exploring higher-quality ingredients before eliminating entire food groups from your diet, or go through the proper testing to verify your issues. If it doesn't sit well in your gut... don't eat it.
Listen in for an unfiltered look at food service from the chef's perspective, and gain insights that might forever change how you order your next meal.
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What do we got today?
Speaker 2:So this is going to be a fun one.
Speaker 1:It is. It's all fun.
Speaker 2:It's always fun Well they're all fun, but this is polarizing because we're going to talk about vegans, vegetarians and gluten-free oh yeah, so we're going to piss off what?
Speaker 1:How much? We're going to piss off 1% of the world.
Speaker 2:This is the thing People like to pretend that it's such a big deal. We've talked about this, about the pussification and that people like tailor their menus to fit vegan and gluten-free, and all these things when the actual population of people who are that way is so small. So why is your 90 of your menu dedicated to less than 10 of the population?
Speaker 1:yeah, this is it. That's the problem. So let's talk about some numbers here. Let's. Let's start with vegan. Okay, let's start with this. Um again, no disrespect to you. If you're a vegan, it is what it is, but there's an issue here. I have with it because it's first of all, it's something that everyone else has to deal with yeah and and it sucks because nobody has. Everybody has a right to do what they want to do yes, right, and if it's ethical, more power to you.
Speaker 2:Whatever it is, bring your bullshit to other people's restaurants thinking they should cater to you when you're here's the problem?
Speaker 1:there is not, unless you're in a major city yes with major foot traffic and major um differences in culture, like more, more diverse.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because usually diversity more more vegan or vegetarian style restaurant. More it's more because it's more concentrated, more concentrated more liberal idea, the ideology stuff like that, yeah.
Speaker 1:So the bottom line is this when you look at the statistics of being a V because we do all this, when I, when I, go into the restaurant world and make the statistics, we have to freaking see what genres. We have to look at what's going on per capita in the, in the areas national, where we, at one percent of so technically, we'll break down the numbers first and then we'll go into each one of them.
Speaker 2:So technically, it was as high as three percent identified as vegan, but that number has dropped that was at the height of the. That was a height and the average overall. So if we're looking at a long-term average of running numbers, it's about three percent. One percent is the actual right now in this year, I think yeah when it fell back.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 2025, it's down to 1%, but say around 3% was the max 3%.
Speaker 1:Now that goes for vegan. So if you're talking about a vegan-friendly menu in a restaurant catering to 1% of the community out of 99%, that's not. We're going to go with the vegan thing. That's cool. If someone's vegan, good for you. However, stop being mad at me because I'm not going to do it. I have no interest in it. Okay? Being a vegan is a complete life choice. It's a choice. No doctor ever said, yeah, you need to go vegan. If they did, that's a point zillionth of a percent.
Speaker 2:If they are a doctor who actually understands, like skeletal muscle and actual physiology, they will never tell you that.
Speaker 1:Right. Well, I can't really say anything about all that, but I know I have a doctor friend who told me one thing and one thing only You'll never see a healthy one. They keep them in business, right, yeah, but I can't count on all that. Look, that's an opinion, right, being a vegan is an opinion too. It's very hard for a restaurant owner or a chef who's not a vegan to satisfy that genre of people. And when they come in and they get mad because you don't have options or give you a two-star review because you don't have options we don't, that's not.
Speaker 2:But so clarify for people what that means in your kitchen, what?
Speaker 1:you have to do. It means I have to source everything out specifically for that.
Speaker 2:And it can't be used in other dishes the way you want out specifically for that, and it can't be used in other dishes the way you want Correct, and not only that, but you have to educate yourself in things I'm not really interested in learning.
Speaker 1:I'm not interested in learning about the whole vegan thing. I'm not. I'm not interested in it. Yeah, now does that make me a bad chef? No, it makes me one who's not a vegan. That's it.
Speaker 2:I'm just not into it.
Speaker 1:Go there. If your area doesn't have one, there's a reason If there's not a fucking vegan-only restaurant within 50 miles of your location there's a reason?
Speaker 2:Well, it's not making money.
Speaker 1:It's not making money Unless you're going to support them every day they can't sustain that off of your one belief. Right. So being a vegan in a restaurant is hard for the restaurateur, it's hard for the chef and it's hard for the staff. Though we would like to accommodate everybody, we can't just accommodate every little choice you make in life. You know, I'm saying, and it's hard, gluten-free is hard enough, um we're gonna get to that in a minute, you know that's another thing, you know, uh, being a vegetarian, that's a little more feasible, so vegetarian.
Speaker 2:The percentage on on is about six percent now it used to be like 10 yeah, so it actually has dropped over the last years and I think a lot of that has to do with more knowledge online about overall health and what's in certain meats and quality meats and going for regenerative farming and farming practices for animals. Like people are a little more comfortable eating them because mostly is an ethical thing. I mean even vegetarian sure.
Speaker 1:so the other thing is we have you have, when it comes to vegetarian, that percentage dropped as well, as because when vegetarian was a thing at the height of it all 20 years ago, 30 years ago, gmos and everything that created the vegetables weren't as dominant either. So now even vegetarians are getting a shady deal because even the vegetables and shit are so GM out and processed anyway that are they really getting the benefits of it? Now? The nutrition that would come from vegetables that were keeping people healthy aren't really there anymore in the vegetables. So it's hard to remain vegetarian only right now, unless you're learning to live or can afford a completely organic or farm-to-table situation, quality, which really isn't there. So being a vegetarian nowadays is even less nutrition than you would think, because the vegetables themselves right now don't even have the nutrients in them that you need.
Speaker 2:Which is ironic. There is an ironic thing to that that the highest country with vegetarians is in India. But you do have a lot of quality products, like you actually get fresh produce and stuff.
Speaker 1:So theirs is like almost like 70 80 percent right, but they're doing some great stuff with vegetarian anyway.
Speaker 2:I mean they do good yeah, they actually make it taste good but, vegetarian, at least you get a little bit of leeway where you are still consuming like you can have baked.
Speaker 1:You know certain baked goods, dairy, you know, like that kind of thing right and there's a lot of vegetarian dishes that are actually really good, and I don't always eat just meat. It doesn't mean I'm a vegetarian, but sometimes I want a vegetable-based dish or a pasta with vegetables in the spring or something like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's good.
Speaker 1:So it doesn't mean that everything has to be that, but when it comes to the vegan thing, no-transcript, who knows what.
Speaker 2:If they were touched in any kind of animal.
Speaker 1:It's a pain in the ass. It really is. If you had a reason to be vegan, meaning it's religious one thing, or if you have a health concern that really has to force you into it, I have no problem accommodating that. But it's really hard for someone to walk into your place and ask can the chef make something for a vegan?
Speaker 2:No, you should look at the menu before you go. You should study the menu and you should say I can have this salad or I can have this vegetable, and maybe you get it.
Speaker 1:you know, not done in butter, whatever Like, whatever the case may be, read the damn menu before you go and the other thing is this I hear other chefs say if you're a good chef, you should be able to make anything. It shouldn't be a problem. Yeah, I am a good chef and I can make it. I absolutely can make some delicious vegan food, no question.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But I don't want to, because what I'm doing here right now for everybody else in my restaurant on 150 covers right now times and consistency.
Speaker 2:You have to stop everything you're doing.
Speaker 1:I have to stop what I'm doing, to go make you a special dish. Are you going to pay me extra to be your personal chef now? No, you're not, that's the whole point. Now I have to stop doing what I'm doing for everyone else, to be your personal chef for the next 30 minutes.
Speaker 2:I can't touch anything else.
Speaker 1:You can't touch anything else but you have to go through it, then you have to go through it, then you have to go through your head and make sure you have the ingredients. It's a lot to it, you know.
Speaker 2:All right, so that's a good one. So vegetarian, and we do see a lot of people kind of go back and forth between pescatarian and vegetarian, because they will, you know, and that's easier in a restaurant.
Speaker 1:Yeah, pescatarian is not a problem.
Speaker 2:Pescatarian is easy, but vegetarian yeah. So the numbers, I mean it hasn't been that high. I mean it's gone down as low as 4% of the US identifying. Now these surveys may not be 100% accurate.
Speaker 1:The reason why we're saying this everybody is not because we're mad at anybody like that, but the percentage is so small. It needs attention For the amount of shit we go through for such a small percentage. One or two people can come in in a night and just go crazy because we can't accommodate them.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But you don't understand how much you're asking out of somebody or some place that doesn't do it. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you can be mad all you want. This is going to be your educational process. So moving on from those two and we'll probably go back to them anyways is going on to gluten-free. So we discussed gluten-free a little bit, I think in season one. Like we had a topic that kind of skated around it and we talked about it a little bit. Um, so, technically, let's clarify gluten-free and gluten sensitivity, because there are two different things.
Speaker 1:Celiac and gluten sensitivity are two different things.
Speaker 2:Gluten intolerance is a difference.
Speaker 1:Um, gluten-free is is a term that was and I say this all the time. Someone doesn't want to fart on their first date or something. They think not having gluten is going to be the answer to all their problems, or bloating or inflammation, or you know, I ate pasta the other day. No, you're eating shit pasta, man. That's the problem. It doesn't mean it's the gluten. You know you really got to. You're taking away a lot by not knowing enough. You know, and what I mean is you're taking away a lot by not knowing enough, and what I mean is you're taking away some of the best things in life. If you get a high-grade semolina flour-based pasta here made here that we make in-house, you're probably going to find that your gluten intolerance doesn't exist. We don't use cheap, shit American flour and I love America, but I hate to admit that I don't want shitty flour. They make flour in mass productions because flour goes in everything.
Speaker 2:It has pesticides.
Speaker 1:So they have to make wheat, they have to make everything happen fast, to continue on with that. I mean, there's flour in fucking things that aren't even edible. It's a used product, you know.
Speaker 2:They use it as a fill. Yeah, so this is.
Speaker 1:They use it as a fill, yeah, so this is.
Speaker 2:Let's break down the note because people are going to bitch about this. So the gluten-free thing, we know. If you're gluten-free, it's the same as doing CrossFit you have to tell everybody. We get it Like we understand, but let's go through the actual numbers, because this is where numbers don't lie and you can pretend all you want to, but this is where it comes down to. So this is actually foundation, national institute for health and beyond celiac. So these are actual medical organizations that do these tests and know what it actually is. So celiac disease is affects one percent of the population.
Speaker 2:I know one person who truly has this I know one person, yes so, out of the thousands and thousands of people I know, I know one person who has truly been diagnosed as celiac. So stop saying you're celiac if you've never been properly diagnosed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're really putting something. So being celiac is a miserable thing.
Speaker 2:It is literally like anaphylactic type response sick doubling Like it's. You touch it, you are going down. So if you're not that person, you are not celiac. So that's 1% of the population. Then we move on to non-celiac gluten sensitivity, which most people feel they are Right. So this goes about 6% and that's probably based on product.
Speaker 1:People feeling yucky. Yeah, just like it affects your stomach, you do get inflammation and there's some truth to that because, like I just said, there are some products out there that are being made with such garbage. In this country that is allowed. That's the problem.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's one of the things that you have to kind of trial and error. But also gluten overload is a thing. So if you're eating it every day and you're not allowing it to cycle out of your body every three to four days, you are going to build up an intolerance and you are going to have a reaction. I've done the same thing with chicken. Any food you consume or over consume can cause issues in your body. So that's actually you know, when you're looking at your diet, spacing out things, it makes a difference. So then there are there's the other categories. There's two other categories which you may not have known. So we have celiac disease, non celiac gluten sensitivity. Then we have people limiting gluten for other reasons. So they say it's beyond diagnosed conditions, self perceivedperceived health benefits and weight management, and they say it's about 10% of the population limits just for medical reasons.
Speaker 1:And that's a big jump From 1%, who really can't have gluten, to the 10%. That means that's a huge jump. That's a huge jump. Now we're getting to where it starts affecting the restaurateurs.
Speaker 2:Yes, and now this next one is where it really affects them, because there is a fourth category, but wait, there's more. But wait, there's more Self-reported gluten-free diet, so that's the one that's the one.
Speaker 1:We're talking about people. They've never had a blood test.
Speaker 2:They've never had a bed to an actual doctor, not just something online where you're going to some functional medicine person, a doctor who properly diagnoses gluten allergies and intolerances. So that is actually 20% of the population. That's huge 20%. Yeah, so I mean, that's a big.
Speaker 1:A hundred people walk in here, 20 of them could have it.
Speaker 2:Could We'll say that they are gluten free and let me tell you something they absolutely do. They do yeah, yep.
Speaker 1:When you come in this place andian restaurant we have gluten free. Yes, we do it. You do because we really want to make sure that the gluten intolerant people who really can't have it, are taken care of and they can come to a nice place and eat. That's not their fault right, yeah it's not a choice like being a vegan, where you're making that option. It's only a choice in the 20 percent yeah. So it's hard for us, as a restaurateur chef, to fucking goddamn decipher the two, so we have to go with it yeah because we don't know how serious it is for you.
Speaker 2:But it's up to you when you take a risk, when you have 10 to 15 people.
Speaker 1:This happens all the time. On a friday, saturday night, 10 to 15 people scattered throughout the dining room at the same time have gluten-free on their fucking menu. That means we have to cook everything gluten-free. We have to cook everything in different water. We have to cook different pasta. We have to make sure everything doesn't touch. So if two people at a table are having the same thing, instead of making the same thing twice, we have to make it two different ways. It's just a lot to it, just so you can not feel the way you think you feel. Yeah, but go to a nice restaurant who has quality product and try the pasta. You're taking it away from yourself and you shouldn't. It's not all bad.
Speaker 2:No, well, that's the thing we always hear people when they travel. Oh, I went to, you know, europe, and I was able to eat pasta and pizza there and not feel like shit, of course, because of the ingredients, exactly, and I'm using the same ingredients so all the pasta stuff that we use here is all from the european standard yeah it all comes from the, the european standard of food, uh, their versions of the FDA here, which doesn't even compare.
Speaker 1:So over there they have a lot of regulations, they have a lot of standard, they have a lot of tradition that they don't let, they don't let stray right. Yeah, so here how fast can you get fucking weed on a table is all we give a shit about. And how fast can you shove it in your face in a Geno's pizza roll? Or how fast can you take a Pop-Tart and shove it up your ass?
Speaker 2:They don't care what's in it. Faster absorption.
Speaker 1:It's fast, right, just inject it. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:It's also just the rest of your shitty diet. It's probably not the one thing you ate. It's a culmination of all the things you ate.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and we're going to get slack for this, because people are like well, I don't give a shit, because you know what.
Speaker 1:It's hard to not say it, like when customers come in, we want to make sure everyone's happy, but when it interferes with everyone else's happiness it's a pain in the ass. You know what I'm saying? That's my take on that. The whole vegan thing and all that. It's your choice. Much respect to you. Keep it, do your thing with it, but don't get mad when every restaurant kind of winces when they don't have a vegan menu. We don't have one, I don't have one. That's just the way it is. I'm not a vegan chef, just like I'm not a sushi chef, and I'm just like I'm not a pancake cook.
Speaker 2:You're not trying to pretend to. Yeah, you know what I mean. It is what it is. I mean I'm not going to. But again, cutting your menu or accommodating your menu for that small of a percentage hurts your bottom line, and restaurants can't do that, like they can't say, okay, we're going to give real estate to this like this product when it's only going to have a return?
Speaker 1:processed foods processed foods processed foods I can promise you right now I look into it. This is not me having a guess, man, this is real. I've looked into all of it. How can I make myself a vegan chef? To satisfy that thing? You have to go through the research and you have to weigh out. Is it worth it, Is it not worth it? That thing you have to go through the research and you have to weigh out. Is it worth it, is it not worth it? What does it take? It's all processed. There's no such thing as a vegan meat.
Speaker 2:It's not healthier, no, no, it's crap, it's garbage.
Speaker 1:So if you're going to sit here and eat a vegan burger, it's all processed.
Speaker 2:Don't even get me started on the beef it's stamped out in factories, warehouses.
Speaker 1:There's no portobello cow rocking around that we've murdered or slaughtered. It doesn't happen. So in order to get mushrooms and tofu and soy and all that shit, you have to put it in a damn process, you have to stamp it, you have to have chemicals in there to bind it, you have to have preservatives in it. All these things have to happen to make this happen. It's more processed than some of the garbage we're eating. So if you're not eating a damn cucumber off of the garbage we're eating, so if you're not eating a damn cucumber off of the damn vine, it's more than likely processed, just like everything else. You're not saving the world.
Speaker 2:You're not changing it, you're not washed with something or have something sprayed on it or whatever it may be. And we've had the whole debate on the burgers before because the doctor I work with, who is a doctor who does protein as her main research I mean she's researched protein and protein synthesis and all the skeletal muscle shit for decades and she actually at a time was vegetarian and so she's full red meat supporter at this point, cause she went up and down with the research, cause again looked at the numbers, like if you have a burger that has 22 ingredients and then you have a burger that has one ingredient, which one is better for you?
Speaker 1:Exactly how? How can it not be?
Speaker 2:it's your body is going to process it more naturally than trying to fight all these like things in it it's just, you may think it's healthier and but again, it should be an ethical choice, not a nutritional choice for most people I mean, I don't think it's either or the two. I think it's a trend or or jumping on the bandwagon.
Speaker 1:I think it's yeah, I think it's yeah, I think it's just being in that mindset of that zen you want to be in, and that's cool man. Whatever, you know what I mean. If you don't want to kill animals, then that's cool man. I eat the shit out of them, I don't give a shit, all of it.
Speaker 1:If there ain't a part of an animal I probably won't eat. There are some island and gave me a basket full of fruit and an endless supply of pigs or something. I'm going there, you know what I mean, because I'd rather die happy than live an extra three years not happy. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Well, and it's not even that Like I mean I have a diagnosed gluten intolerance, like I've actually been through the testing and do I avoid it? No, because when I eat it in moderation, like once again, like once a week or every two, it doesn't affect you the same.
Speaker 1:You educate yourself on where it's coming from? Yeah, and.
Speaker 2:I eat here. I eat pasta here all the time and I'm fine and I eat, you know, tons of bread and starch overseas and I'm fine. And sourdough bread, you can eat that. You're fine if you're gluten, whatever.
Speaker 1:So there's a lot of ways, right and don't trust every restaurant that they're going to actually take care of you. That's actually true, yeah.
Speaker 2:Especially like the pizzas. Even when you get a cauliflower crust pizza, they usually bake it in the same oven as the other pizzas, so it is touching, essentially touching the flour that's on the bottom of the regular dough, so it is cross-contaminating. Are you going to notice it? Are you going to notice it? Probably not, because you really don't have that much of an allergy to it. So if it's a little bit, you know you're not going to notice it, and I've seen that time and time again.
Speaker 1:And this is what we're talking about is not to bash everybody. It's to bring awareness to those bashing us. When you walk into a place and you see that you know they're not doing it and now you're mad or you feel like you're being ostracized or something. No, it's not the point. The point is it's not what we do. Like I said, don't walk into a sushi restaurant getting mad because they don't have a ribeye. You know what I'm saying. Don't be mad. It's not what they do. Yeah, you know. I really wish all the vegans well. I hope you guys find everything it is you're looking for.
Speaker 2:I really do. I really do.
Speaker 1:I hope it is, but it's not you're unfortunately probably not going to find it here in my restaurant, and for all those people who do, you can't look at me and tell me some days that you just say fuck it, I wish I didn't. You know what I'm saying. It's hard, it's hard.
Speaker 2:This is a personal experience thing. I totally forgot about this. It just popped back in my head when I literally became a target of PETA like targeted like to the point where it was thousands of comments. They put their whole army against me, started trying to shut down my pages for posting a picture of chicken wings literally.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so everyone who eats chicken wings, which is everyone else in the world.
Speaker 2:But because I was on TV, they came after me as someone who, again, is a huge animal supporter, lived on a farm, you know has been through like I've supported every animal charity I think on the planet and I don't condone inhumane behavior of animals or treatment of them in that process. But yes, I will always eat meat. I'm never going to stop eating meat. And they came at me so hard that it's like, ok, educate people, don't attack them, because if you feel you're, you know the reason you're doing. This is like have an actual adult conversation about it. Don't go after them and say you're going to burn in hell because you ate a chicken wing.
Speaker 1:You're going to live happy.
Speaker 2:You're going to be happy Um but he's dressing. Yeah, so it's. It's one of those crazy like crazy things that I've actually experienced. It on the hatred side, Like they get so emotional about it, I'm like you just ain't happy with anything.
Speaker 1:Hot wings with blue cheese right now I mean, chickens are delicious.
Speaker 2:If God didn't want you to eat chickens, he would have made them be able to fly so they could get away from you, right? So here's the thing your chickens are yours.
Speaker 1:Chickens are good If people would change their mindset a little bit and just convince cows whisper in their ear that you're going to be an amazing meal one day and you need to really be proud of yourself.
Speaker 2:Oh we're going to go for self.
Speaker 1:Then they'll be happy, Self-motivated. But if you keep telling them they're going to die and be a meal, they're going to be sad when they die. Right, Just tell them what they have a purpose on this world, and it's that Well.
Speaker 2:I mean.
Speaker 1:You're going to make a nice cup of milk. You're going to make a nice cup of milk, yeah, and that cow is going to be so happy and it's going to die happy.
Speaker 2:Come on Back to like the old school, like wagon type treatment.
Speaker 1:Let's be nice, it is good treatment, you know.
Speaker 2:But I mean yes, and it is healthy animals are better. I am 100% in support of any of the. It has gotten more into the forefront.
Speaker 1:Convince a baby cow that's going to be veal. You can't slaughter a baby animal? It's not so much. Listen, just look out over the pasture. You see how miserable all those cows are. You're not going to be there. You don't have to suffer through that. You're going to be something brilliant right from the get-go.
Speaker 2:Right, we're going to get hell for this, aren't we? Oh, we're going to get so much hell for that cow, it's fine. The thing is, it's all about balance and education and no one's hating, so don't hate on us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's the thing. It just gets old when people just get mad because they don't get everything they fucking want. Look, it's all good, we are joking around, we are having fun with it, but the bottom line is it is hard to satisfy every genre of eating these days.
Speaker 2:But there's a great vegan place here locally in Virginia Beach that does a great job and makes baked goods and they're phenomenal.
Speaker 1:Go to them, they're amazing.
Speaker 2:I eat them because I actually like the taste.
Speaker 1:Right, and, like I said, I'm not bashing vegans. This is more about the vegans who bash us because we don't fucking fit into their schedule. Well, sorry, man, I don't know what to tell you.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, that was fun though, sorry, we just had to do it.
Speaker 1:It was one that we had to do. No, but you know what? The only people who are offended are the ones we're talking about, but there are so many people watching this clapping saying thank you.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Thank you. And it's not that we're bashing everybody. I just don't like being bashed anymore.
Speaker 2:No, you know what I'm saying. I'm a normal menu and a normal restaurant process.
Speaker 1:People ask me straight up you need a vegan menu? No, I fucking don't. What are you talking about?
Speaker 2:For how many people? No, I don't Like literally look at the numbers. For how many people?
Speaker 1:Right, but not only that. It's not what I do. I'm not a vegan chef, or you know. A vegetarian menu would be nice.
Speaker 2:Or you should put a V next to what's not like. You don't need to ask people what is vegetarian. If you're a vegetarian, you should know what you can eat on the menu like. Stop asking like your. Your lettuce is not drenched in duck fat like it's. Unless it is, I mean it could be a warm spinach salad and it could have bacon on it.
Speaker 1:Don't eat that like it's on the menu, look at what we do enjoy, what we do and what we don't do. And then there's restaurants out there and I give it up to all those. Any vegan restaurant out there right now this is a heart attack, it seems like, but anyone out there that's doing successful, perfect. I'm very proud and happy for you. A chef is a chef is a chef and I support and I back everybody. You know what I mean and and if I can help in any way in that area, that'd be wonderful. But as far as coming into my restaurant, what I do do, I just don't do it, you're not going to do it.
Speaker 2:That's that. I did that for Thanksgiving once. I have a friend who is vegan and bounces between vegan and vegetarian and she came over and I literally called her before and I said you need to bring all your own shit. I said nothing that I have does not have some type of meat butter.
Speaker 1:How are you supposed to do Thanksgiving without it?
Speaker 2:So she literally brought her own plate and she was fine with it. She was like okay, cool, brought her own plate.
Speaker 1:And I was like yeah, she opened up her bag and it was a sweet potato it's just one thing, and some nut the meatball.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they can get some very, I don't know. But she, literally, I was like sorry even my asparagus is wrapped in prosciutto. Like hard, so yeah, but she was fine with it.
Speaker 1:For all the meat lovers out there, this is for you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's okay Alright. Did we get enough venting in on that?
Speaker 1:I think so. We'll find out in the comments We'll find out.
Speaker 2:We'll see how this one went, but that's alright. Okay, cool, that's it.
Speaker 1:Don't care, we done Brush your hair.
Speaker 2:We done.
Speaker 1:Alright, that's it.
