Popular restaurant chain ditches steak from its menu

Thomasina Miers, who won Masterchef in 2005, launched the chain of Mexican restaurants in 2007

Wahaca has become one of the first major restaurant chains to remove steak from its menu for environmental reasons.

The Mexican restaurant, owned by 2005 MasterChef winner Thomasina Miers will no longer serve the red meat in hopes that the restaurant can reduce its carbon footprint.

The small chain, which has 13 branches across the UK, previously offered steak and cheese tacos as one of their best-selling items.

Miers, 47, told The Telegraph: “We wanted to look at a way of reducing the amount of meat dishes... while still offering truly tasty options for those that still enjoy eating it.

“Being conscious that meat and dairy products are among the biggest culprits from an emissions perspective has led to us expanding our vegetarian and vegan offerings in recent years,” she added.

Last year, Miers began displaying the carbon footprint of dishes on the restaurant’s menus.

Its chargrilled steak burritos were found to be the dish with the highest carbon footprint.

Miers founded Wahaca in 2007 two years after winning MasterChef, opening the first branch in Covent Garden, London.

Wahaca restaurant in South Bank, central London (PA)

She went on to open more than 20 sites over the years that followed. After running into financial difficulties during the pandemic, the company was forced to reduce the number of branches.

Miers is an environmentalist and has previously urged people to eat “significantly less meat” in a column for The Guardian.

Beef is considered more environmentally harmful than other meats because cows produce a higher amount of methane gas.

The gas is the second most important greenhouse gas contributor to climate change following carbon dioxide.