VANCOUVER — Online culinary-training program Rouxbe has launched its plant-based course for enterprise customers. Designed for professionals looking to improve their culinary skills to keep pace with the increase in demand for vegan and vegetarian menu options, Plant-Based Foundations provides the most extensive online course for plant-based cooking available to culinary teams today.
“Plant-based dining is not a fad that’s going away. As we’ve become more aware and attuned to what we put into our bodies, along with the impact our food has on the environment, we have observed a shift in the way people think about food,” says Ken Rubin, Chief Culinary Officer at Rouxbe. “Restaurants are catching on and realizing it isn’t as simple as adding a vegan burger onto the menu. Consumers want amazing food that’s as good, if not better than, dishes centred around meat. Most chefs, however, have not been trained in cooking a plant-based diet — at least not on a heightened level. With the new Rouxbe program, we’re empowering chefs to not only embrace this new consumer demand but do so in a way the produces incredible food that will attract new and returning diners to their tables.”
Significant data backs up this increased need:
- There’s been a 600-per-cent increase in people identifying as vegans over the past three years. (GlobalData)
- Restaurant owners saw a 13-per-cent increase in business in response to adding vegan options. (Foodable Labs)
- Total sales of plant-based foods now exceed $3.7 billion. (Foodable Labs)
The new course includes five units, 22 lessons and 138 tasks over the course of 30 hours. Topics vary from plant-based staples, such as soups, dressings and marinades, to meat and dairy alternatives and no-heat cooking.
In addition to the new plant-based course, Rouxbe also offers a Basic and Pro version of its Professional Online Culinary Training course. It’s also teamed up with chef Barton Seaver on a Seafood Literacy Course and with the James Beard Foundation for a Waste-Not course (coming soon), designed to introduce food waste-reduction methods into working kitchens.