It’s become clearer than ever in the past few years that we can’t keep eating meat at the rate that we do without causing some serious (and likely irreparable) damage to the planet. To keep up with demand intensive farming has become commonplace, which has a negative impact on the environment. It’s this, combined with an awareness of healthier eating and ethical reasons, that vegetarian, vegan and flexitarian diets are enjoying a meteoric rise.
While many of us are trying to cut back on our meat consumption, it can be hard to make changes to how we’ve eaten for all our life. And while it might be hard to admit, sometimes the taste and enjoyment of eating a burger or a steak can override our ethical or moral concerns. That’s where companies like Moving Mountains step in.
It all started when Simeon Van Der Molen became vegan after a blood test showed he had high cholesterol. After finding other plant-based burgers on offer pretty dry and uninspiring, he decided to spend the next two years producing a patty that was as close to beef as possible, but completely vegan, packed with protein and much healthier. Fast-forward to today, and the Moving Mountains B12 Burger is starting to appear in restaurants up and down the country.
However, even if a burger is healthy and environmentally friendly, if it doesn’t look, feel and taste like its meaty equivalent then it’s not going to convince meat-eaters to give up the beef. That’s why we went to see Chantelle Nicholson, the chef-patron of Tredwells and a pioneer of high-end plant-based cooking, to see what she thought of it.