There’s a new culinary event taking place for the first time this September in Naperville — the Vegan Chef Challenge.
Hosted by the national nonprofit Vegan Outreach, the challenge invites restaurants to offer dishes made without animal products and encourages diners to test them out — whether they regularly eat vegan or not.
Organizers say the competition is a way to highlight the benefits of a vegan diet and engage the culinary community in something fun.
“We’re not specifically reaching out to vegans and vegan restaurants,” said organizer Austin Simmons said with Vegan Outreach. “We want to get the whole community involved, just to see how delicious vegan food can be when chefs are motivated to create something unique.”
Competition shows ‘you can be vegan’
Chefs at Avocado Theory, Lucky Penny Diner, Sushi Naper, Indian Harvest, Totopos, and Chaibar are among those perfecting their new vegan dishes for the competition, which runs Sept. 1 through Sept. 30. The competition is open to restaurants, cafes, bakeries, delis, ice cream shops, food trucks, catering services and others in the food service industry, and organizers are still accepting new entries.
Leaders of Avocado Theory, which opened in Naperville this spring, say they’re in it to win it. The restaurant already offers several vegan options on its all-avocado-inclusive menu and innovates with new offerings every six months, co-founder Jon Rojas said. Joining the Vegan Chef Challenge is an exciting way for the new eatery to spotlight its uniqueness and nutrition benefits, he said.
“We want to show customers that you can be vegan and also be healthy at the same time,” Rojas said. “We encourage our cooks to be creative with the dishes.”
Lasagna involtini, photo courtesy Sarah Hyden
Vegan Chef Challenge — how it works
Here’s how the challenge works: Restaurants create and submit their vegan menu items, then promote them as part of the competition. Diners go to a participating restaurant, order a vegan item, then visit the Vegan Chef Challenge website to vote on how they liked it. The competition uses a three-point rating scale, where tasters effectively rate what they’ve tried as amazing, OK, or not the greatest, Simmons said.
Participating chefs can earn prizes, recognition and vegan bragging rights in two ways.
First, there are three overall prizes, and these go to the three locations that had the most diners try and vote on their dishes — regardless of whether the votes said the food was great or subpar.
The challenge also offers prizes in categories for the best appetizer, entree and dessert, based on which items voters rated the most highly.
Finding ‘vegan food all around us’
The Vegan Chef Challenge has taken place in more than 40 cities across the nation, including Bloomington, Champaign, Peoria, Rockford and Springfield in Illinois, and now Naperville is joining the list. Interested diners can follow along on social media on the Vegan Chef Challenge Facebook or Instgram pages.
“There’s a lot of vegan food all around us already,” Simmons said. “The more we can being awareness to its benefits and how delicious it can be, hopefully the more people who will consume it.”
Image courtesy: Sarah Hyden
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