Tulsa’s very own Vegan Chef Challenge has been running for the past two years.
The Tulsa Vegan Chef Challenge is sponsored by Shawkat Mediterranean Grill who serve Lebanese food. This year the challenge runs from April 1 to April 30, 2025, raising awareness of the vegan restaurants and vegan serving food restaurants across Tulsa. During this month restaurants will feature special vegan menu items and diners can enjoy meals and vote on and comment on the vegan meals they enjoyed, alongside posting photos, reports Vegan Outreach. You are able to see who visits the most places by downloading a passport to win a prize through the Vegan Outreach website. You can enter by submitting photos or videos of your experience for a chance to win a prize across many Tulsa restaurants. This includes, just to name a few, Big Baby Rolls and Doughnuts, Brookside By Day, Caribbean Sushi, Cherry and Bark and Copper Dome. On the Vegan Outreach website under each restaurant selection provided is a phone number, a website, an option to find them on a map and a menu.
50 local chefs are competing to create the best vegan dish. The Vegan Chef Challenge was first introduced to Tulsa in October 2023 by organiser Sarah Hyden reports News on 6. However, the challenge did not take off until 2024 when it broke a record for being the largest in the nation, resulting in the challenge being held every April in Tulsa, reports News on 6. The executive chef Jessie Gilroy working at Peacemaker Lobster and Crab as one of the participating restaurants made a greek salad and smoky cajun mushroom jambalaya specifically for the challenge, reported News on 6. Gilroy said “I wanted to do a play on a jambalaya so we got some locally sourced mushrooms and made a really nice mushroom stock out of that to cook the rice and stew the tomatoes. Then, I was able to find a really nice vegan sausage that had a lovely smoky flavour to kind of make up for not having a meat in it” reported News on 6. Even though Gilroy is not a vegan, she works at a seafood restaurant where she has often experimented with plant based cuisine, “When it is done right, you cannot tell the difference. You do not need meat, you do not need butter, you do not need cheese. When it is done well, it is just delicious” reports News on 6.
Ella Abraham, a recently turned vegetarian, is interested in this challenge. She thinks “This is a really great opportunity for people to experience vegan food and see that it can be both nutritious and tasty! What a great challenge! I love the chances for me to be able to show my friends what vegan food is like and create happy memories. This can encourage more people to try veganism. Having these options for a whole month makes eating out much more appealing and I think it will bring the vegan and vegetarian community together. I’m really excited to also see it is not just dinner type restaurants there is a whole range including breakfasts for example. Hopefully this will teach people vegan food can be yummy whatever time of day you eat it. You never know, maybe it’ll become someone’s new favourite lunch idea or their new favourite restaurant!”
The Vegan Chef Challenge was created by the nonprofit Vegan Outreach organisation, Hyden says “This is a nonprofit that aims to reduce animal suffering. A lot of people are learning more about animal agriculture and choosing plant based things for ethical reasons and also environmental reasons” reported News on 6. Hyden encouraged that this challenge is not just for vegans with many vegetarians interested too, with herself being meat free for approximately 20 years and fully vegan for the last eight years reported News on 6. Hyden said “Although it does help us vegans have a lot of yummy options to eat all month long, this helps meat eaters be able to try new creative dishes and learn how delicious plant based cooking can be” reported News on 6.
If you are interested in the challenge more information can be found on the Vegan Outreach website specifically for the Tulsa area: https://veganchefchallenge.org/tulsa/
