NYC Wine & Meals Pageant Evokes Cooks to Discover Crops With New Award

Vegan cheese model Violife is about to make a flavorful debut as an occasion sponsor on the extremely anticipated Meals Community New York Metropolis Wine & Meals Pageant this weekend. The pageant, identified for its culinary extravagance, will see Violife becoming a member of forces with acclaimed Chef Mike Puma of NYC’s Gotham Burger Social Membership to showcase the scrumptious potentialities of dairy-free cheese in a customized plant-based burger.

The Meals Community New York Metropolis Wine & Meals Pageant is famend for its charitable mission, with 100% of the pageant’s web proceeds devoted to supporting New Yorkers going through extreme sickness. Over the previous 16 years, the pageant has raised greater than $14.8 million for its charitable causes. 

One of many pageant’s standout occasions is the Blue Moon Burger Bash, offered by Pat LaFrieda Meats and hosted by the beloved celeb chef Rachael Ray. This 12 months, the pageant is taking a daring step in the direction of the plant-based revolution with the introduction of the Powered by Crops Award, sponsored by Violife. 

NYC Wine & Meals Pageant

This award goals to shine a highlight on plant-based options to conventional meat patties. “The Powered by Crops Award was impressed by the rising pattern of plant-based and dairy-free consuming and our perception within the significance of encouraging cooks and shoppers alike to discover the scrumptious potentialities of dairy-free delicacies and plant-based meals,” Rachel Waynberg, Senior Advertising Supervisor of Foodservice for Violife, tells VegNews.

The brand new Powered by Crops Award

To qualify for the Powered by Crops Award, burger entries should include a minimal of 25 % plant-based or various protein within the patty, they usually have to be topped or paired with a plant-based or dairy-free condiment, sauce, or cheese. 

“The award solely requires 25 % plant-based protein to permit cooks the pliability to showcase the flexibility and taste of our plant-based merchandise whereas nonetheless incorporating different parts into their creations, fostering creativity, and guaranteeing a variety of scrumptious plant-powered burgers for consideration,” Waynberg explains. 

This new addition to the pageant lineup is anticipated to encourage culinary creativity amongst cooks and spotlight the rising pattern in the direction of plant-based eating. “We all know that pivoting to a plant-based or dairy-free weight-reduction plan can really feel like an enormous change for some shoppers. What higher option to spotlight find out how to make optimistic, incremental adjustments in your weight-reduction plan than characteristic a plant-based cheese on one among America’s favourite meals,” Waynberg provides.

NYC Wine & Meals Pageant

For his half, Chef Mike Puma is making a customized plant-based model of his award-winning Gotham Smash Burger that was impressed by an Oklahoma fried onion burger.

“Elements of any nice burger must be easy, however utilizing high quality substances. For this burger, we’ll use plant-based beef, sliced onions, and naturally, our favourite, scrumptious melty cheese from Violife—all served on a toasted vegan bun,” Puma tells VegNews.

Violife promotes the advantages of vegan cheese

Based in Thessalonica, Greece, Violife’s merchandise have been loved by individuals world wide for the reason that Nineties. The model was born out of a need to get pleasure from cheese in the course of the 100 days of fasting noticed underneath the Greek Orthodox calendar, which prohibits dairy product consumption.

Over time, the model has discovered many distinctive methods to get its vegan cheese in entrance of shoppers. Final month, Violife partnered with Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker to indicate his greater than 8 million Instagram followers find out how to make a vegan cheese quesadilla utilizing Violife shredded vegan cheese. 

After cooking the quesadilla with all of the fillings, Barker takes a chunk. “Rattling, Violife is f*cking superior,” he exclaims.

Violife

In April, the model tapped James Beard Award-winning cooks to develop distinctive culinary experiences utilizing its dairy-free merchandise. These cooks crafted revolutionary recipes that includes Violife’s signature vegan cheeses, butters, and lotions which have been added to their respective restaurant menus. 

By means of this partnership, Violife goals to supply shoppers with an enhanced culinary expertise by bringing collectively the creativity and experience of those cooks with its dairy-free merchandise. 

“As a pacesetter in plant-based and dairy-free cheese, with a powerful roster of pizza-focused cheeses, in addition to a rising steady of different cheeses and merchandise similar to dairy-free spreads and cream, it’s our mission to proceed elevating consciousness for plant-based consuming inside the foodservice and retail sectors, offering cooks and shoppers with extra choices when eating out or in,” Waynberg mentioned on the time.

High Chef Canada

This partnership adopted one other collaboration that challenged prime cooks to work with Violife’s merchandise. Final 12 months, High Chef Canada aired a vegan feast-themed episode wherein opponents used plant-based merchandise from Violife and margarine model Becel—each owned by guardian firm Upfield. 

The profitable chef, Montreal-based chef Camilo Lapointe-Nascimento, impressed judges with a cucumber granita with white chocolate ganache, white chocolate crumble, and grilled cucumber made with Violife Authentic Creamy cream cheese.