9 Aug 2018

Vegan butchery opening in Christchurch

From Afternoons, 1:26 pm on 9 August 2018

Vegans and butchery don't really go hand in hand, but Grater Goods is a combo of the two. 

Plugged as the country's first plant-based deli, the soon-to-be-opened butchery was founded by Flip Grater, the singer-songwriter from Christchurch.

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Photo: Supplied

She says the idea came after she started a catering business, Yumbo, to pre-pack school lunches when her daughter started school.

"I started making healthy lunch boxes and delivering them around Christchurch to schools and workplaces, and through Yumbo I was making some sort of chorizo products and things like that, that I've always been making anyway - I've been vegan for 22 years. 

"I'd been making this 'chorizo' and I did some 'fried chicken' and a few things like that for novelty items in the lunchboxes and they were so popular that people started asking for them.

Sopressa test #1. #sogood #recipetesting #veganmeat #plantbased

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"I thought, there's obviously a market for this."

She says the goods include things like fried chicken-style saitan, fried cauliflower buffalo wings, chorizo, barbecue pulled pork and cultured nut cheeses. 

"There are all sorts of things you can do with plants that mimic meat products, it's kind of amazing once you get into the world of it."

Her great, great grandfather was also a German pork butcher in Sunderland. 

"I'm continuing that tradition, I'm continuing the family business while I'm updating it for the modern conscious consumer."

She says the appeal for vegans in eating meat-like products is that for most, they're not cutting out or reducing meat consumption because they don't like the taste. 

"It's for other reasons, it's for ethical reasons, it's for sustainability reasons ... so people still want to taste the taste of meat, the texture of meat."

She says it is also a transitional thing about labelling that gives people an idea of what unfamiliar foods might be like, and how to cook them. 

"Many people may not know what TVP and jackfruit and saitan and tempeh are, but they know the words pulled pork and mince and bacon, so it's just a reference point for people to think about what it might be like and they can use it in their cooking in their daily lives.

"They're also foods in their own right."

 She says they're planning to launch their website next week starting with just a few products for sale. 

"Then we're hoping to open a store in Sydenham, a very small sort of kitchen with a small point of sale in September, so next month, and then a larger shop in March next year."

She said if people want to follow the store they can check their Instagram