Real Fake Meats
It’s the Real Deal!
BY LINDSAY WICKSTROM
PHOTOS MICHELLE DOUCETTE
People are often surprised to learn that one of my favourite restaurants in the city is a vegan restaurant. The assumption is that vegans must compromise taste for ethics and settle for “this will have to do.” But Real Fake Meats is not the vegetarian restaurant of yesteryear, with lentil patties in dry spelt buns. Sometimes, you want something “meaty,” “cheesy,” and comforting, and that’s when Real Fake Meats delivers.
Chef Lauren Marshall
Chef Lauren Marshall graduated from the Culinary Institute of Canada in PEI and spent the first eight years of her career travelling and cooking globally (she has even been a contestant on Top Chef Canada). She has also completed a holistic nutrition program, and that education guided her into more of a plant-based mindset. She eventually became the head chef at EnVie for its first two years, which sealed the deal.
“I was like, well this is my excuse to not ever have to eat meat or cook it. I had no reason to. It felt too easy not to do. And then obviously 10 years later—here I am.”
The concept for Real Fake Meats started as a subscription service for “butcher boxes” of Marshall’s plant-based meats and cheeses. However, there was so much demand she opened a brick-and-mortar location on Gottingen Street in 2019.
Real Fake Meats serves as a restaurant and a vegan butcher shop, with vegan meats, cheeses and condiments behind the butcher case.
“The idea, really, when I first started was to sell products. Like that real butcher shop where we have meat,” says Marshall. “But I can’t help myself.” She explains that most of her culinary experience is working in restaurants, not butcher shops, so it’s natural for her to approach things from a Chef’s perspective. It’s also a good way of showcasing products to her customers, who can then buy them to take home and make their own creations.
Marshall’s wife, Kim Carson, handles the wholesale and office side of the business. And they have a new head chef, Erin OHearn Brown, who was the head chef at EnVie when it closed and has now taken the reins from longtime chef Gwen Forrestal.
Last summer, Real Fake Meats took over the space formerly occupied by Geebo (cell phone repair) and expanded their operation. There is now more seating and later hours (they are open until 9 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays), and the restaurant will soon have a liquor license. I noticed a neon “Party Time Brewing” sign on the wall. Marshall tells me it’s her brothers’ home brewery, and they will soon have it on tap.
I used to think of Real Fake Meats as a place to grab some street food—maybe one of their famous vegan donairs or a breakfast sandwich. But now I can see myself coming here for weekend brunch or wings and beer.
The brunch menu includes eggs benny, a grand slam-style breakfast platter, and even carrot lox and cream cheese bagels—all vegan. But I am here on a weekday, eager to try as many things as possible.
I sit down with Marshall to discuss the wizardry of Real Fake Meats’ products, and we spend quite some time on the intriguing alchemy of vegan cheese and eggs. I am dazzled by her food science techniques. For example, they make two different types of vegan eggs. The hard-boiled egg on the Cobb Salad is made with house-milked almonds and thickeners to resemble boiled egg white in appearance and texture (the yolk is mashed chickpeas with eggy flavouring). In contrast, the sunnyside egg on the grand slam uses reverse spherification to create its runny 'yolk.' Spherification is a culinary process that combines sodium alginate and calcium chloride or calcium gluconate lactate to shape a liquid into small, squishy spheres that resemble roe.
“I mean, tons of Michelin chefs are doing that, right?” Marshall says. “But the reverse spherification makes it so [the egg] still runny on the inside.”
Whatever the explanation, the result is some next-level vegan trickery!
“I keep my staff totally supplied with lots of work,” she laughs. “Hey guys, I just put this new thing on [the menu], here’s how you do it. It’s totally easy. It’s cool. It’s a little molecular gastronomy. It’s going to be fine.”
I sample the hard-boiled egg on the Cobb Salad, a hefty green salad with coconut bacon, grilled chickn’, tofu feta, marinated chickpeas, and a green goddess (creamy herb) dressing. It is the perfect post-gym salad. Finding take-out that is plant-based, healthy, and high in protein can be challenging, but the seitan (wheat gluten)-based meats at Real Fake Meats do the trick.
“In general, seitan has the same protein as a sirloin steak but in most cases because I’m not adding any fat … You’re not getting that saturated fat, right? Now, of course if we crumb that and deep fry it and put it on a brioche bun you get a different effect. A restaurant ‘treat yourself’ edition.”
I had to try the Chickn’ Wings, which come in Buffalo, Hunni Garlic, Sweet Korean Heat or BBQ. These were a good approximation of a boneless wing, with a crispy outside and meaty centre. I did not miss the bones, cartilage, grease and fat. These were somehow cleaner and lighter but just as satisfying as traditional chicken wings.
“I know there’s a story from maybe last year or something,” says Marshall. “A woman came in and had wings. Sat at the counter, ate her wings. And then she started looking around. ‘This place…wait, was that vegan?’ And she’s like, ‘all right, well, I guess we’ll be back.’”
Alongside my wings, I try the mac and cheeze, with added maple “bacon”. I had not expected to devour the most cheesy and addictive mac and cheese I’d ever had. But there I was, wondering: how could a cheeseless mac and cheese be so very cheesy?
Marshall tells me it’s basically a base of carrot, potato and onion soup, with nutritional yeast and cashews for cheesy richness.
“The potatoes give it the right glue, for lack of better words. It creates that feeling of handfuls and handfuls of cheese being put in.”
The maple “bacon” is crispy and caramelized, adding the perfect meaty texture with a hint of sweetness and smoke that compliments the cheezy pasta.
For dessert, a tofu chocolate espresso torte with an almond meal crust topped with a bit of raspberry coulis. Decadent perfection.
This visit was not my first to Real Fake Meats, nor will it be my last. With so many regular menu options to try, rotating specials (the lobster roll was a big hit this summer), and always something to take home from the case (the cheeze ball is superior to any festive rendition I’ve tried) there is always something bringing me back here.
Gwenhwyfar Forrestall, Lauren Marshall, Erin O'Hern Brown, Alex Little
Vegan food is becoming more accessible across a wide range of restaurants, but you are still likely to find a reliance on burgers, pasta, and cauliflower cosplaying as protein. Most chefs aren’t putting vegan proteins at the forefront or busting out molecular gastronomy to go the extra mile. Real Fake Meats is the real deal.
“I came from a traditional chef background, you know,” says Marshall. “I’ve worked with Italians, I worked in a Sicilian restaurant in Australia for a year. I worked in a French fine dining establishment in Nantucket for four years. So I did that really traditional French cooking and my mind frame is: I’ve been there, I’ve tasted it, I’ve cooked it all, I’ve felt everything.
I like to make food taste good. And I’m kind of here for everyone… and you don’t have to put a label on it, unless I guess you want to.”
I’ll put a label on it: damn good.
