Changing South Africa's meat based diet

DW (English)

Bakiel Ben Shomriel also known as the Soy Chef, is on a mission to change South African's perceptions about veganism with the food he creates. And his Braai alternative is surprisingly convincing and mouthwatering.

Transcript

00:00 Would you take a bite out of this?

00:02 Believe it or not, this right here is vegan.

00:08 He's known as the soy chef.

00:11 This is how Bakil Ben Chamriel

00:13 is changing people's attitudes about veganism.

00:16 - A vegan diet, in very simple terms,

00:21 is a diet that completely excludes animals.

00:25 The obvious one is the elimination of animal flesh,

00:30 but there are other byproducts from animals

00:33 such as milk, eggs, and such.

00:37 The challenges of vegan food are very obvious ones.

00:44 Remember, you've been eating meat your whole life,

00:48 and somebody's basically saying or inferring

00:53 that you are doing something wrong.

00:56 And that can be something to protect and defend.

01:00 So whenever you speak about changing,

01:04 people are always going to hold on to their beliefs

01:11 and their cultural norms.

01:13 And especially South Africa,

01:15 South Africa is a very meat-centric society.

01:19 Everything, I mean, we've got the braai, you know,

01:21 and the braai is the central part of South African heritage.

01:26 Then we've got traditions,

01:28 African traditions where we slaughter animals.

01:31 But I invite everybody for us to re-evaluate

01:36 even our beliefs to say,

01:39 how can this direction contribute

01:43 to our wellbeing and our health?

01:46 - Products like tofu from Johannesburg's Chinatown.

01:51 Here, he finds diverse options

01:53 to incorporate in his flavorful meals.

01:55 - Welcome to Chinatown.

02:01 This is where I get my fresh produce.

02:03 As you can see, there's a nice wide selection

02:06 of organic vegetables.

02:07 Hi, Ma.

02:14 How are you?

02:15 Ni hao.

02:16 Could I please ask for four of these tofus

02:19 and one dozen of the soft tofus, please?

02:22 Thank you.

02:23 Tofu is like the feta cheese of soy milk.

02:27 The first type of output in a coagulated dairy milk

02:31 is feta.

02:32 With soy milk, you get tofu.

02:34 Tofu is like a blank page,

02:36 but you've got a nice protein foundation.

02:39 And the interesting thing,

02:40 it's got meaty characteristics.

02:42 It's also got dairy-like characteristics.

02:45 You can use it as an egg substitute.

02:47 We also gonna have it on the braai.

02:49 - Through his father,

02:51 Bakil was introduced to the Israelite community

02:53 in Dimona, Israel,

02:55 a community operating and running

02:57 some of the earliest vegan restaurants

02:59 and factories throughout the world.

03:00 - I remember the first thing I ate was a lentil burger.

03:05 But the way the burger was prepared was,

03:07 it really astonished me.

03:09 So I wanted to learn more.

03:10 This is black fungus.

03:14 It usually grows on the back of a tree.

03:18 And it's highly nutritious,

03:21 rich in minerals and glyconutrients,

03:24 and very tasty.

03:25 - He was also inspired by vegan restaurants

03:29 in the United States.

03:30 - At the time,

03:32 they had some of the earliest vegan restaurants

03:36 in the United States.

03:37 Their brand of restaurant was called Soul Vegetarian,

03:41 which was very popular in states like Atlanta and Chicago.

03:45 So I began to learn about what they were preparing.

03:48 So their genre of vegan food was vegan soul food.

03:53 So your traditional Southern food,

03:57 things like your KFC style Southern chicken,

04:01 cornbread, you know, those kinds of foods

04:05 had been transformed into their vegan equivalent.

04:09 So I wanted to translate that idea

04:12 into a modern South African perspective.

04:17 (upbeat music)

04:19 These meat alternatives are made with what we call seitan.

04:22 Seitan basically is washed cake flour protein.

04:27 And the flour is then colored,

04:33 have colors added to it,

04:35 and then flavors as well,

04:38 and then cooked.

04:39 In Shaolin temples,

04:42 they don't eat meat.

04:43 So this is typically the type of meat

04:46 or where it comes from,

04:48 this also what is called Buddha meat.

04:51 In the early days,

04:53 my wife inspired me to go and start

04:57 a takeaway kind of vending kind of thing

05:02 in Shabville, Johannesburg.

05:05 So we started making things like vegan burgers,

05:10 vegan pizza, pies, and so on.

05:14 We'd wake up three o'clock in the morning,

05:16 start baking, pack them,

05:18 and then start walking on the streets

05:21 and start selling.

05:22 And it was very enjoyable.

05:24 I mean, people were very,

05:26 this was vegan food.

05:28 People never questioned it.

05:29 They didn't, you know,

05:30 even the aspect that it's vegan.

05:33 People just wanted nice food.

05:35 So outside of concepts,

05:38 food is just food.

05:40 And I think that's really my main message.

05:43 And if food is enjoyable

05:45 and we don't have to kill anybody

05:48 to have and enjoy that food,

05:50 shouldn't we do that?

05:51 Wouldn't that not be a reasonable way

05:54 to move forward,

05:56 to enjoy our lives without harming other animals

05:59 or without harming other creatures?

06:01 other creatures.

06:02 (upbeat music)

Category

Transcript

Recommended