No one could accuse Theo Randall of having gone off meat. It’s just that the British chef and restaurateur wants everyone to start eating more vegetables, not necessarily for the health or environmental benefits but for the flavours that are unlocked when roots and shoots are used in season and cooked just right. Visiting Hong Kong to launch a new vegan menu at his Theo Mistral restaurant at the InterContinental Grand Stanford, he explains how chefs are stepping up to meet the demands of customers who are moving away from meat, and why vegetables are more challenging to cook with than meat. “I have always been a big fan of vegetables,” he says. “It’s a lot harder to cook a very interesting meal with vegetables than it is to cook with fish and meat, because when you cook with fish or meat you tend to have a garnish, or some kind of sauce, whereas when you’re cooking with just vegetables, you really have to think about it.” Fake meat is big business in 2019. As restaurants race to add burgers and fillets made with wheat or soy to their menus to attract the rapidly growing meat-free or flexitarian crowd, humble vegetable combinations have fallen slightly out of favour. Why should restaurants spend time making chickpeas, lentils, mushrooms and herbs taste great when they can whack a preformed patty on the grill? Here’s why: not only are plants easier on waistlines and wallets but, bought in season and grown locally, they are packed with nutrients and flavour. Randall waxes lyrical about vegetables throughout his three cookbooks, and recognises dining habits are changing. However, he has not released a stand-alone collection of meat-free recipes and is careful not to sound evangelical when describing the virtues of veg and why he is debuting a vegan menu in Hong Kong. “I’m the first to say that I’m not an advocate for just cooking vegan, but I think it’s really nice to be able to have that choice,” he explains. “The point is, you can eat fish and you can eat meat once in a while and make sure it’s very good quality.” This is easier said than done in Hong Kong, which imports around 90 per cent of its fresh food, and where “farmer’s markets” are often little more than a show by property developers to make their concrete plazas seem less soulless. Randall’s menu at the InterContinental Grand Stanford breathes new life into stuffy hotel dining. Reasonably priced at HK$480 (not including drinks or service charge), a four-course menu takes dishes that vegans would usually veer away from, such as risotto and panna cotta, and makes them accessible – and delicious – to all. Instead of flying in produce from Europe, Randall makes the best of what he can find in the region: buying tomatoes, figs, herbs and fish from Hong Kong producers, and sourcing other vegetables, including bell peppers, cauliflower, onion, carrot and broccoli from trusted suppliers in China. “We wanted to buy things locally,” he says. “We looked at lots of ingredients here and we adapted a menu around that. The ingredients we buy from China are really very good.” A starter of balsamic-dressed tomatoes makes the best of perfectly ripe tomatoes, while a mushroom risotto secondi puts a lighter spin on the classic, omitting the dairy and using high-quality Acquerello aged rice, the starchy texture of which makes up for some of the creaminess lost by leaving out the cheese. For the main course, diners can choose between polenta with a slow-cooked vegetable ragu or a pan-fried chickpea cake with roasted red peppers, potatoes and caramelised red onions. The meal is finished with a fishbowl-sized portion of coconut milk panna cotta, its subtle coconut flavour offsetting the zingy strawberry soup layered on top. The trend towards meat-free dining , which is driven by younger consumers, has become impossible to ignore even for classically trained, traditional chefs. Gordon Ramsay, who as recently as 2016 trolled vegans on Twitter, was forced to admit he was behind the times. “Veganism is on the rise, we’ve got to adapt and I just have to eat a slice of humble pie,’’ he said recently. Randall admits that catering to the vegan crowd with a dedicated menu is a business decision. “As a chef and restaurateur, you’re always trying to give people what they want,” he says. “Because that’s business: you never say no, you want to make sure everyone’s happy. Because they’ll come back.” The 52-year-old has been quietly championing vegetables for years: vegan options were on the menu at his eponymous London restaurant before a diet free of animal products became mainstream. “I’ve always been mad about provenance,” he says. “It’s always been in my DNA.” He was born in Kingston, just outside London, to an architect father and artist mother who grew and cooked their own food and exposed a young Randall to travel, particularly in Italy and France; the cuisines of both would heavily influence his subsequent career. He began working as a chef in 1989 when he joined The River Cafe, a Michelin-starred Italian restaurant on the banks of the River Thames where he spent the next 17 years. He took a year out during that period to work at the influential Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California, which prides itself on its organic, seasonal food and relationships with local farmers and dairies. “Both restaurants focused on sustainability and good ethics and just very, very good food,” he says. I’ve always been mad about provenance. It’s always been in my DNA ... It is exhilarating to create something that’s totally vegan using lots of different vegetables Theo Randall, chef Inspired by traditional Italian cuisine, Randall excels at taking commonplace vegetables and maximising their flavour, through slow-roasting to caramelise them and using freshly chopped herbs and lashings of extra virgin olive oil. It may not be diet food for the “clean eating” movement, but Randall puts ingredients such as tomatoes, aubergines and courgettes on at least an equal footing with meat in the flavour stakes. “It is exhilarating to create something that’s totally vegan using lots of different vegetables. I’m a big fan of vegan food, but I don’t think I’m anyone to start preaching about eating just vegan because I love fish, I love meat,” he says. “Once in a while, you can go and buy a wonderful sea bass from a fishmonger or a really lovely organic piece of meat that has lots of flavour. “Have it once in a while.”