Naperville residents will have the chance to dive into the world of vegan food this September.
The Vegan Chef Challenge, a competition held in cities across the country, is coming to Naperville. Restaurants participating in the competition will add a new vegan dish to their menu that customers can try and rate during the entire month.
The business with the most votes wins the competition. There also will be special award categories for categories like the best vegan appetizer or best vegan entree. Anyone who casts a vote is entered into a raffle, with the more votes cast, the greater the chance of winning a prize.
The Vegan Chef Challenge started in 2010 in Durham, North Carolina, in response to the lack of vegan options in the area. The event picked up popularity and a second challenge was held in Sacramento the following year. The nonprofit Vegan Outreach took over the event, bringing the competition to cities across the country.
“It’s really the best time to try out a new menu option because the chefs will get all the feedback,” said Austin Simmons, a Vegan Chef Challenge organizer. “It’s pretty common that the popular dishes stay permanently. And I can say even here in Springfield, the winner of the first Vegan Chef Challenge we organized there, they won the ‘best entree award’ and that entree is still listed on their menu.”
In other words, the challenge is a win-win for customers and businesses.
“It really appeals to everybody, not just the vegans,” Simmons said. “A lot of times vegan food is just kind of like an afterthought on menus. They might have a veggie burger or something like that, but for the event, they’re challenged to come up with something really unique and interesting.”
Businesses that have signed up for the event in Naperville include Avocado Theory, Miskatonic Brewing Craft Kitchen, Lucky Penny Diner, Sushi Naper, OutKast and Manna Kitchen.
In previous competitions, chefs came up with such items as vegan sushi, pizza and even crab cakes.
“I specifically remember one meat eater saying that (the crab cake) was better than the actual crab cakes that they have had previously, and that’s pretty cool,” Simmons said.
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Simmons, a longtime animal rights activist based in Springfield, wanted to help bring the competition to more parts of Illinois after hearing about a Vegan Chef Challenge held in Champaign. While cities like Chicago have a plethora of vegan options, restaurants in smaller cities could have more options.
A Vegan Chef Challenge is currently underway in Bloomington, and earlier this year there were competitions in Peoria, Rockford and Champaign. Other states that have hosted the competition this year include California, New Jersey and Florida.
As for why Naperville was chosen, Simmons said that mid-size cities tend to work well.
Naperville, Simmons noted, already has a fair number of vegan options, citing the Vegan Bar and vegan-friendly Avocado Theory, which recently opened downtown.
“The star of Illinois is going to be Chicago on the vegan food availability, but there are some really good things to try in Naperville,” Simmons said. One Naperville restaurant standout for him were the chicken tenders at the Vegan Bar made with lions mane mushrooms.
“If I could have … just those lions mane ‘chicken tenders’ every day, I definitely would,” he said.