Changing South Africa's meat based diet
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)