Last week, we upset a vegetarian guest, who questioned a parmesan coated canapé and got extremely irritated with the waiter who insisted that parmesan was suitable for a vegetarian. The guest grew angry (and actually left), explaining that parmesan must by law be made with animal rennet.
Le Manoir's ethics as well as our staff's knowledge were put on trial here, and I must hold my hand up - we were guilty.
It is not unusual for us to have 50 or even more guests who have some form of allergy, food intolerance or more complicated dietary requirements. Various forms of vegetarianism are the norm, and as a good restaurateur it is our duty to adapt and respond to these new needs and to our guests' rising expectations.
We are not in the habit of upsetting any of our guests at Le Manoir, let alone losing one. I contacted the guest myself, apologised for our ineptitude, and promised I would launch a full investigation.
We discovered that for years we have been giving cheese containing animal rennet to our vegetarian guests. So we set about researching cheese made with vegetarian rennet. (Rennet is an animal protein, extracted from the fourth stomach chamber, the abomasum, of young calves - hardly appropriate for our vegetarian guests.)
We wanted to find rennet-free cheeses that use alternative setting (fermenting) agents, so as to satisfy the strictest lacto-vegetarians. Most people do not know that most cheeses including parmesan, gruyère, comté, Montgomery cheddar, Stilton and the rest of the familiar names, are set with rennet. Our research is unfinished.
Our investigation found something alarming: looking into the use of setting agents in UK cheese production, we discovered evidence of genetic engineering. Most cheeses with the reassuring label 'vegetarian cheese' are actually set using chymosin or rennin, an enzyme that can be made by using bacteria or fungi. But about 90 per cent of the chymosin used in the UK, says the Vegetarian Society, is 'made using chymosin produced in genetically modified organisms (GMOs) such as Escherichia coli, Kluyveromyces lactis and Aspergillus niger' - in fact, genetically engineered rennet.
A copy of DNA from calf cells is inserted into yeast cells. "The chymosin produced by the yeast cells," says the Vegetarian Society, "is identical to the animal protein. The cheese itself is not made using a GMO but rather a product of this, ie the enzyme, which doesn't remain in the finished product." It's hard to follow this argument, but it seems to me to be saying that it is ok for vegetarians to eat processed food that requires an animal product to start the process, so long as no animal product remains behind in the processed food.
The legal position is that cheese produced with enzymes of GM origin does not have to be labeled GM. So, unwitting British consumers are purchasing cheese of GM origin. Interestingly, the Vegetarian Society says that products containing GM ingredients are not acceptable because it is impossible to guarantee that such products are completely in accordance with the Vegetarian Society's principles. Yet most vegetarian cheeses are set with chymosin from modified yeast, but are endorsed by the Vegetarian Society. Isn't this perilously near being a contradiction?
The Soil Association position is unequivocal: you must not use GMOs in organic food processing. They do not fit with the principles of organic agriculture, as they pose a potential risk to environment and human health. Also once released into the environment they cannot be recalled.
At Le Manoir we insist "we never knowingly serve GM products". However, on closer inspection we found that a goat's curd we had unwittingly used, is such a product. Look what is happening without our knowledge: GM 'Frankenfood' produce seems to be creeping into our homes and businesses across Europe.
Vegetarians are unknowingly consuming GM contaminated food. Shouldn't government bring in a more comprehensive set of rules, which would prevent the use of any GM or GM-additives, or at least require proper informative labeling, so that the consumer at least knows he's buying a GM-tainted product?
More and more the choice of our diet is being taken away from us, and unacceptably modified food is coming in through the back door. Worst of all, under the new DEFRA Minister and GM-enthusiast, Caroline Spelman, our taxes are being spent on campaigns to accept GM trials, and mislabeling by stealth is the consequence.
Le Manoir's ethics as well as our staff's knowledge were put on trial here, and I must hold my hand up - we were guilty.
It is not unusual for us to have 50 or even more guests who have some form of allergy, food intolerance or more complicated dietary requirements. Various forms of vegetarianism are the norm, and as a good restaurateur it is our duty to adapt and respond to these new needs and to our guests' rising expectations.
We are not in the habit of upsetting any of our guests at Le Manoir, let alone losing one. I contacted the guest myself, apologised for our ineptitude, and promised I would launch a full investigation.
We discovered that for years we have been giving cheese containing animal rennet to our vegetarian guests. So we set about researching cheese made with vegetarian rennet. (Rennet is an animal protein, extracted from the fourth stomach chamber, the abomasum, of young calves - hardly appropriate for our vegetarian guests.)
We wanted to find rennet-free cheeses that use alternative setting (fermenting) agents, so as to satisfy the strictest lacto-vegetarians. Most people do not know that most cheeses including parmesan, gruyère, comté, Montgomery cheddar, Stilton and the rest of the familiar names, are set with rennet. Our research is unfinished.
Our investigation found something alarming: looking into the use of setting agents in UK cheese production, we discovered evidence of genetic engineering. Most cheeses with the reassuring label 'vegetarian cheese' are actually set using chymosin or rennin, an enzyme that can be made by using bacteria or fungi. But about 90 per cent of the chymosin used in the UK, says the Vegetarian Society, is 'made using chymosin produced in genetically modified organisms (GMOs) such as Escherichia coli, Kluyveromyces lactis and Aspergillus niger' - in fact, genetically engineered rennet.
A copy of DNA from calf cells is inserted into yeast cells. "The chymosin produced by the yeast cells," says the Vegetarian Society, "is identical to the animal protein. The cheese itself is not made using a GMO but rather a product of this, ie the enzyme, which doesn't remain in the finished product." It's hard to follow this argument, but it seems to me to be saying that it is ok for vegetarians to eat processed food that requires an animal product to start the process, so long as no animal product remains behind in the processed food.
The legal position is that cheese produced with enzymes of GM origin does not have to be labeled GM. So, unwitting British consumers are purchasing cheese of GM origin. Interestingly, the Vegetarian Society says that products containing GM ingredients are not acceptable because it is impossible to guarantee that such products are completely in accordance with the Vegetarian Society's principles. Yet most vegetarian cheeses are set with chymosin from modified yeast, but are endorsed by the Vegetarian Society. Isn't this perilously near being a contradiction?
The Soil Association position is unequivocal: you must not use GMOs in organic food processing. They do not fit with the principles of organic agriculture, as they pose a potential risk to environment and human health. Also once released into the environment they cannot be recalled.
At Le Manoir we insist "we never knowingly serve GM products". However, on closer inspection we found that a goat's curd we had unwittingly used, is such a product. Look what is happening without our knowledge: GM 'Frankenfood' produce seems to be creeping into our homes and businesses across Europe.
Vegetarians are unknowingly consuming GM contaminated food. Shouldn't government bring in a more comprehensive set of rules, which would prevent the use of any GM or GM-additives, or at least require proper informative labeling, so that the consumer at least knows he's buying a GM-tainted product?
More and more the choice of our diet is being taken away from us, and unacceptably modified food is coming in through the back door. Worst of all, under the new DEFRA Minister and GM-enthusiast, Caroline Spelman, our taxes are being spent on campaigns to accept GM trials, and mislabeling by stealth is the consequence.
What is your position on hydrogenated vegetable fats? There's talk of these being banned too.
I was surprised to find them in one of your Maison Blanc desserts.
Oh my god – reality has raised its ugly head at Le Manoir. If you knew anything about biology, or anything about agriculture and food production, you would know that almost everything we eat has been genetically modified for millennia, and not just by the latest and most effective way of doing so. But then much of the food chain is like that: it has been changing for ever and also not only by the latest and most effective way of doing so. The Soil Association position is based entirely on their bizarre philosophy and a commercial campaign to promote their brand and denigrate powerful competitors. Ask them why they never have raised a complaint against mutation breeding which effects genetic change on a random basis, yet with no requirements whatsoever for health or environmental testing. They have batted not an eyelid. Their attitude to GM is pure hypocrisy and self-interest.
I'm surprised Monsieur Blanc has only just witnessed and confronted the 'Parmesan battle' as I like to call it at our end. We conducted very similar research 4 years ago and concluded exactly the same - Most of the cheeses aren't suitable for strict vegetarians, unfortunately most of them aren't aware of the Rennet story (that includes my 'innocent vegetarian for life' mother, who relished a lovely tagliatelle pesto many years ago).
There is a lot of GM food lurcking around in the market that aren't labelled so and the producers are covered by the law for not doing so. The reality is unless Gov gets behind this and implement stricter labelling law on GM & veggie food products, business aren't going to budge.