On this day in vegan history · January 18, 2021
A Vegan Kitchen Wins Its First Michelin Star
Banks turned down her loans because they said vegan food had no future; the Michelin Guide disagreed.
The facts
- Date
- Monday, January 18, 2021
- Restaurant
- ONA (Origine Non-Animale), Ares, near Bordeaux, France
- Chef
- Claire Vallee, self-taught, opened ONA in 2016
- Award
- One Michelin star, plus a Michelin Green Star for sustainability
On Monday, January 18, 2021, the French edition of the Michelin Guide awarded a star to ONA, a small vegan restaurant in Ares, near Bordeaux, run by self-taught chef Claire Vallee. It was the first time a vegan restaurant in France had received the honor. ONA, whose name stands for Origine Non-Animale, had opened in 2016 on financing from the ethical bank La Nef and a crowdfunding campaign after conventional lenders turned Vallee down. Alongside the star, Michelin also gave ONA a Green Star, its newer award for sustainable practice, making the win a double one on the same day.
In their words
The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.
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It felt like I got hit by a train
Claire Vallee, in an AFP interview after the award
Source: EcoWatch -
They said the outlook for veganism and plant-based food was too uncertain
Claire Vallee, describing why banks had refused to finance ONA, in an AFP interview
Source: EcoWatch
Why it still matters
France's Michelin Guide is the establishment that decides what counts as serious cooking, and for decades that meant butter, cream, and meat. A star on an all-vegan kitchen told every chef watching that plant-based food could be judged on the same terms as anything else, not as a diet but as cuisine.
Sources
This history is still being written.
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