Alain Ducasse Launches Vegan Burger

After the launch of his plant-based canteen Sapid, French chef Alain Ducasse is moving into the plant-based burger space with Burgal, a burger kiosk on the Place de la Bastille in Paris.

Ducasse - who previously made known his strong opinion on faux meat products like Beyond Meat and Impossible Burger and their resemblance to ground beef patties - has created a vegan burger at Burgal that looks, well, like a veggie burger.

“We still believe that we need it to look like minced meat, but we do not need that a vegetable hash looks like minced meat, it must look like a vegetable hash, period,” the chef was quoted as saying about the new wave of plant-based burgers.

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The maestro’s vegetable hash is made of zucchini, lentils, onions, quinoa, carrots and parsnips in a vegan bun without butter, milk or egg. The recipe was inspired by a creation by chef Romain Meder, of toasted cereal bread and vegetables from the Château de Versailles launched at the Taste of Paris festival in 2019. The burger may be purely plant-based, but "nothing to do with an imitation meat steak,” according to his team.

The Burgal also comes with eggplant caviar, spicy vegan mayonnaise and a few pickles, all for €7.50. Gourmets will accompany their vegetable burger with chickpea or vegetable chips, and complete their formula with a vegan chocolate mousse.

Ducasse is not the only leading chef to jump on the plant-based and cultured meat wagon, with Jose Andres and Dominique Crenn deciding to put cultured meat on the menu, while David Chang partnered with Impossible Burger for his Michelin starred Public bar and various Momofuku restaurants.