More Plants, Better Meat: Wahaca

When founders Thomasina Miers and Mark Selby started Wahaca, one of their core objectives was to build a business that could be truly sustainable. “The world around us matters at Wahaca,” says Sustainability Manager Carolyn Lum, “and we want to tread lightly on the planet across everything that we do.” Senior management is heavily involved in setting targets and steering the course, with monthly meetings focused entirely on sustainability and attended by both co-founders. The goal is to offer people a menu that is not just vibrant and delicious, but that has plenty of sustainable options with a low carbon footprint. One central way they accomplish this is through highly creative vegetable-led menus.

Putting plants on the menu

“We take inspiration from Mexico,” says Carolyn, emphasising the amazing natural diversity of the country: Mexico has around 50,000 plant species, compared to the UK’s approximate 2,000. “Tomatoes, corn and squash all originate from Mexico,” she continues. “The pre-Hispanic diet was predominantly plant-based, with a lot of vegetable proteins coming from beans and seeds.”

Increasing the number of plant-rich dishes has allowed the Wahaca team to reduce their reliance on meat and dairy. “Eating less but better-quality meat is what we consider a modern, sustainable way to consume it,” Carolyn says, matching our own beliefs at The SRA. By removing bavette steak dishes from the menu, the team has reduced their beef-based offering by half. They also reviewed the amount of cheese used across their menu. Unwilling to compromise on flavour, they used blind tastings to ensure quality and still managed to reduce the cheese used in a core menu item by 16%. For their non-vegetarian dishes, they source free-range chicken and pork, grass-fed beef and sustainably sourced fish.

Reducing food waste is another priority, and with this in mind the team has been working towards greater carcass utilisation. “Our Development Chef has created a new recipe that can incorporate more parts of the animal,” says Carolyn, “so instead of using hundreds of cows for one specific cut of beef, we could use the equivalent of three cows across multiple cuts.” Another good example of waste prevention is the Smoky Sonoran Hummus, a new menu item that combines carlin peas (sourced from UK pulse growers Hodmedod’s) and the cauliflower stems left over from their buttermilk cauliflower bites, creating a tasty, healthy and sustainable menu option.

Ensuring success in meat-free menus

One way to encourage sustainable food choices is simply to increase availability. With this in mind, Wahaca builds plant-based dishes into every seasonal menu change. In fact, meat-free items account for 59% of the Wahaca menu – up to 63% if you include desserts. They’ve had a vegetarian set menu available since 2018 and launched a vegan version in 2021. ‘Regular’ set menus also feature a good proportion of vegetarian dishes.

Over the summer, the brand launched two ‘specials’ and used this as an opportunity to test the effects of increased availability. “Often, we feature one meat special and one veg special,” says Carolyn, “but this time we went with two plant-based options.” These were esquites (crispy roasted Jersey Royal potatoes with charred corn and jalapeño aioli) and a smoky aubergine tostada. The results from simply making veggie options more prevalent were incredible: the esquites option was their second highest-selling special since the beginning of 2022. 

Carolyn notes that, in order to make a plant-based offering successful (that is, to ensure it converts to sales), it’s about appeal as well as availability. “Veg-based dishes also need to be delicious.” Clever marketing doesn’t hurt, either. In January, Wahaca invited diners to try their favourite low-carbon plant-based dishes, free of charge. “This also provided another opportunity to engage with our customers on the carbon labels we added to the menu in April 2022,” Carolyn says. 

To celebrate the launch of co-founder Thomasina Miers’ new book, ‘Meat Free Mexican’, Wahaca held a plant-based supper club in Brighton, featuring dishes like tenderstem and squash tempura, pickled mushroom tostadas and spinach tamales. “We’ve really used [the book] as an opportunity to put more plant-based specials on our menus.” The outcome of these combined efforts? An impressive 50.5% of quantity sold is vegetarian or vegan.

Embracing creativity

“Of course, we have faced numerous challenges along the way, and we don't expect the future to be free of obstacles in terms of continuing our commitment to sustainability,” says Carolyn. “Cost can be a big issue. If you don't start with, for example, energy-efficient kitchens, the cost to retrofit these can be huge.” However, she emphasises the impact of finding new, innovative ways to build sustainability into operations. “By embracing creativity and innovation to drive our planet-friendly operation, we find a way forward.”

One inspiring example of their creative thinking is the compostable takeaway taco trays that the team created this year as part of their drive to eliminate single-use plastics from the business. These taco boxes have resulted in a 69% reduction in CO2 emissions and a 42% reduction in packaging used – a whopping 12,247kg of packaging saved per annum.

Food Made Good at Wahaca

Co-founder Thomasina Miers, “a driving force for sustainability within the business,” as Carolyn describes her, brought the Food Made Good Standard to the management team. “We decided to take it because it embodies our commitment to the environment. It’s a great framework for a restaurant business that is passionate about being truly sustainable.” The team was quickly impressed by how in-depth and holistic the Standard is, and has also enjoyed being a part of the FMG community and attending the working groups. “It's a great mixture of inspiration and information.”

We ask Carolyn what advice she would give to businesses embarking on their first FMG Standard. “It's a great starting point,” she says. “Don't be disappointed if your first rating isn't great – it's a holistic framework, so there will most likely be areas that you haven't focused on before. The long-term goal is for continuous improvement.”

Feedback at Wahaca has been overwhelmingly positive, proving that customers are hungry for better veg-based options. “We know that a lot of our customers share our passion for sustainability and want to dine out in a planet-friendly, sustainable way,” says Carolyn. “We've had plenty of positive feedback on everything from the carbon ratings on our menus to the deliciousness and variety of our plant-based options.”

Looking forward

We wrap up the conversation by asking what’s next on Wahaca’s sustainability journey.

“Like a lot of businesses, we have a strong focus on our net zero targets,” says Carolyn. Having already identified their highest emission sources, they have projects underway to reduce GHG emissions and environmental impact. 

“We’re also really happy to have started working with Wildfarmed recently to supply a number of dishes on our menu. Their focus on soil health and biodiversity aligns well with our core sustainability values.”

We can’t wait to see where they go from here.

Learn more about Wahaca’s incredible commitment to sustainability (and gorgeous veg-based menu!) at their website. Read more about why ‘More Plants, Better Meat’ is one of the 10 focus areas of the Food Made Good Framework, or click here to learn how the Food Made Good Standard can benefit your business.