A Letter to Restaurants
Dear Chefs and Restaurant Owners,
Your customers are speaking. Can you hear them?
They’re sitting at your tables, scanning your menus, and looking for a reason to believe in you. They’ve seen enough bloated lists of uninspired dishes: Another $40 steak, another sad salad, another forgettable plate with no purpose other than to boost profit margins.
The truth is, your diners are awake, and they’re asking better questions than you are.
They want to know where your food comes from, what it stands for, and why they should bother coming back.
The industry stands at a crossroads. On one side, the old ways: wasteful, overpriced, hollow. On the other, the only path forward: menus that are bold, thoughtful, and rooted in reality. You may tell yourself that these diners are asking for perfection, but they’re actually just demanding relevance. If you’re still cooking like it’s 1995, wake up. The world is moving on, and the clock is ticking.
Let’s talk about your menu. Every dish tells a story, whether you realize it or not. Is yours saying that you care about the climate? That you’ve considered the future of food? Or is it screaming complacency, stuffed with low-quality animal proteins you can barely afford to keep in stock and that diners can’t justify eating anymore?
Whether you like it or not, you’re serving food and values as a package deal. And those values are now under a microscope.
Many of you find solace thinking that those who ask for plant-forward options are happy with settling for dishes that are, at once, an afterthought and overpriced. But if your plant-based dishes feel like a compromise, that’s on you. Vegetables, grains, and legumes have soul, history, and versatility. A plate of charred cabbage with a tahini sauce can be a masterpiece. A spiced lentil dish can hit as hard as the best braised short rib. Stop treating heritage ingredients like the inferior choice.
You might be telling yourself that diners aren’t paying attention. They’re watching, and closely.
They’re noticing who’s putting effort into their food and who’s cutting corners. They’re supporting places that lead. The sooner you can admit that there’s more to plant-based cooking than pandering to some health-conscious elite, the sooner you and your businesses will be able to meet the moment and make food that’s honest, accessible, and aligned with the world we live in now.
And let’s not kid ourselves about the stakes here.
The food system is broken, and restaurants play a big cultural part in that mess.
We can’t acknowledge that industrial agriculture is choking the planet while doing nothing to improve our menus. The restaurants that get it will be the ones standing when the dust settles, and those who don’t will be culpable - and left behind.
Here’s the good news: we have the power to turn this around immediately. Whenever we want, we can create something that makes diners sit up and take notice. You have the tools, the talent, and the platform to lead the way.
The only question left is whether you’ve got the guts to do it.
With love and respect,
The Eat for Impact team