Let me paint the picture. It was a normal day like any other. I went to buy food in our new, reorganized cafeteria. Being a vegetarian, my options were limited. I checked out the pasta line, but it wasn’t really calling to me. They were also out of garlic bread. Taste of India probably wouldn’t really taste like India being an Indian, and the subway sandwiches were screaming “the vegetables are contaminated by gloves that have touched every single meat they sell!” So, naturally, I gravitated towards the pizza line. I eyed my cheese pizzas, took the best looking one, and punched in my student ID.
Walking down the 400 wing, I took my fourth bite of pizza. And then I felt it. Something hard. I thought it might have been overcooked dough — but overcooked dough in a ball and only in one area? Something was off. My vegetarian radar was screaming. So naturally, I spit it out. Lo and behold, there is a piece of chicken. Even then, I wasn’t totally sure if it was chicken. So I asked my non-vegetarian friend to confirm. And well, yes, she did confirm that there was a ball of chicken in my pizza.
I threw the pizza out and ended up making a run to get ice cream, but a part of me was still traumatized.
It’s not like I haven’t eaten meat in my food before. I have had incidents, such as in elementary school, when I ate meat in my supposedly ‘vegetarian’ pasta. The incident triggered the mandatory “is this vegetarian” question before ordering any food for the rest of my life. However, if I have to ask this question before ordering a supposedly cheese pizza, or feel the need to thoroughly examine and pull my pizza apart to see if there’s chicken? Now, that’s messed up.
Now, non-vegetarians may have bit into this pizza, and thought, oh wow, free piece of chicken at the price of one cheese pizza. Yay, happy ending! Most of us, including myself, probably don’t think about other minority groups when eating food. What does being vegetarian mean to the rest of the world? What do people think is the reason one chooses to be vegetarian?
Recently, vegetarianism (and even veganism) has become a movement. The most popular reasons for becoming vegetarian “are related to ethical and health aspects”, with animal-cruelty following shortly after [1]. Other factors can include “general well-being and weight maintenance”, along with religious reasons, with some less common ones being extensive allergies or some extremely good persuasion skills [1]. Because the ethical or health aspects are most commonly thought of, there may be an implication that a majority of these people can choose to eat meat. There are also a variety of vegetarian diets that have arisen, such as pescetarians, flexitarians, ovo-vegetarians, and more, which could add to the confusion regarding the boundaries of vegetarianism [2]. These various perspectives can greatly influence people’s understandings of what being vegetarian means. Some may think that it can allow for the occasional ‘cheat day’, whereas others may understand the broad spectrum. None of these perspectives are wrong, but it’s important to understand each and every person’s individual needs in regards to vegetarianism. For instance, someone like me is vegetarian for religious reasons, so that chicken in my pizza was not — and never will be — my ‘cheat’ day. In the United States alone, vegetarians make up “six percent of U.S. adults” [3], but that still amounts to quite a hefty number — 19,998,000 or a little under 20 million people (and for fairness, I used the 2022 population count of 333.3 million)!
And yet, in many restaurants that I see, there is quite a lack of vegetarian options. Writer Jaya Saxena, a vegan, notes “No one walks into a barbecue restaurant or a smash burger joint expecting plentiful plant-based options. But on a beautiful fall Sunday, with a group of friends of various dietary needs, I did not expect to walk into a pub in tiny Brooklyn and see nary a vegan item on the menu” [4]. Saxena went on to continue about how not even the fries were vegan, and were also the only vegetarian option on the menu. I could relate — over break, my family and I visited a French restaurant called Bouchon in Las Vegas. To our disappointment, the only vegetarian option was a salad. We knew our choices would be limited, but it was still frustrating.
Restaurants like these that cater quite specifically to non-vegetarians are disappointing to vegetarian, or even vegan guests, who want to try some new type of cuisine but are limited by the lack of vegetarian menu options. But it’s not just the guests who are losing out. Business owners are losing out too — losing out on profit, that is! Chef Brian Cortes agrees, saying, “From a business perspective, you never want to turn any guests away”, whether that be directly or indirectly [4]. I can also understand why restaurant owners may be hesitant, however, specifically because vegan or vegetarian items may appear to have a lack of demand, increased costs, or simply, are quite the hassle! [4] Cooking, however, is not just about making a profit, to me, but about expanding new flavors to the rest of the world! Restaurants can’t achieve that mission without including vegetarians and vegans, right?
At the end of the day, I understand that vegetarians are a minority. I understand that much of the population likely eats meat, and that businesses can likely make most of their money from that. And look: I’m living in America. I understand that it’s impossible to get a fully vegetarian meal without a single speck of meat in my food. But at the very least, for the vegetarian options that I am granted, I would like to have the peace of mind of not worrying about meat in my food. So, this is not only a call to Aramark or restaurants, but the entire world! If allergies require serious precaution, then vegetarian preferences should be taken just as seriously! Take our preferences and ‘vegetarian hygiene’ (if that can even be a thing) into account as much as possible, and allow us to have the same range of options! Hopefully one day, I can walk into any restaurant and be certain that I’ll have just as many options as anyone else!
Sources
[2]https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/vegetarian-and-vegan-eating
[4] https://www.eater.com/24319701/vegetarian-vegan-restaurant-menu-options-lacking