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chunks, which can be stir-fried or used in curries, also has huge potential.’’
So convinced was Bruce Craig about the future of meatless meat, he gave up a career as an architect to open the New Zealand arm of Australian vegetarian/vegan fast food chain, Lord of the Fries, which serves everything from plantbased Southern-fried chicken to burgers, nuggets and hot dogs.
‘‘Fast food outlets are some of the biggest contributors to factory farming and deforestation on the planet,’’ says Craig. ‘‘But by offering a plantbased alternative that’s better for your health and the environment, we’re disrupting the sector and saying this is a huge trend and if you aren’t on the bus, you’re going to be left behind.’’
Craig now runs two Lord of the Fries outlets in Auckland, with another soon to open in Queenstown. He’s also eyeing up sites in Wellington and Christchurch, and says the key to the chain’s success is the food tastes good.
‘‘Meat alternatives have evolved to the stage where some people can’t even tell they’re not meat. People need to feel they’re not missing out if they opt for a plant-based alternative.’’
Craig laughs when he recounts the story of the young customer who’d been eating at Lord of the Fries in Australia for five years.
‘‘I was chatting to him and mentioned how good plant-based food is and his face dropped because all these years he thought he’d been eating meat!’’
Craig compares the meat substitute sector to the plant and soy-based milk market, which when he became a vegan 20 years ago was virtually nonexistent.
‘‘You had to go into a health food store to buy almond or soy milk whereas look around the supermarket now and there are aisles of the stuff.’’
In fact, Craig goes so far as to predict that in 30 to 50 years’ time, we’ll look back at eating animals and realise how unsustainable it was.
‘‘The only way we can feed the number of people on the planet is if we switch to plant protein. One day our kids and grandkids will view eating meat as outdated as the way we think of our ancestors using whale oil to light their homes.’’