Young’s pub chain caused uproar for charging the same for cauliflower steaks as for Aberdeen Angus – but this may be the price we pay for creativity in meat-free cooking

In the last financial year, London-based pub company Young’s celebrated pre-tax profits of £37.6m. This week, we got an insight into how that might have been achieved with news that Young’s 148 pubs were selling a meal for two of cauliflower steak for £28: the same price as two Aberdeen Angus steaks.

Whichever way you slice it, £14 for a dish with a main component that costs less than a pound feels grabby. The general rule for pricing restaurant dishes is a 70% gross profit on the ingredient costs, to cover all the associated labour and outgoings, leaving a notional 10% clear profit. This – flagged on Twitter as “properly mental” by the food writer and event creator Jamie Klingler – looked more like a 90% GP, and a blatant attempt to cash in on Veganuary.

At first, Young’s defended the “premium quality” dish, but on Tuesday, “having listened to the feedback”, it pulled it from the menu. But such controversies could compound the idea that meat-free dishes should always be cheap; a prejudice that has, arguably, constrained the creativity of meat-free cooking.

An absence of animal protein usually keeps costs down, says Mary-Ellen McTague of Manchester’s largely meat-free Creameries. “I wouldn’t sell [those steaks] for the same price. It’s a massive profit.” But the price of good vegetables is increasing (McTague says she pays £1.90 for organic cauliflowers), and the labour-intensive nature of modern meat-free cooking can be costly. McTague charges £6 for a relatively simple roasted cauliflower salad, but her celeriac noodle soup (the celeriac is shredded, roasted, dehydrated, then added to an equally complicated broth), takes a full day to make and costs £12. “It’s a lot cheaper to buy in pre-cut meats than vegetables you have to transform into something interesting. Anything that takes a long prep time, the price will reflect that,” says McTague.

By all means be wary of rip-offs, but if we want vegetables to be taken as seriously as meat, they may not always be the cheapest option.