Chef Charity Morgan is no stranger to the spotlight. In 2017, Morgan made headlines for helping over a dozen NFL players for the Tennessee Titans adopt a plant-based diet—and that year, the team made the playoffs for the first time since 2008. The following year, the Le Cordon Bleu-trained chef was featured in The Game Changers, a critically acclaimed documentary film that deep dives into vegan athletes and the physical benefits of a plant-based diet.
Max
On August 22, Morgan returned to the screen in her very own special. Unbelievably Vegan With Chef Charity premiered on Max, HBO’s streaming platform as a collaboration between Morgan, High Noon Entertainment, and the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN). Unbelievably Vegan follows Morgan on her quest to help a local establishment better cater to vegans, despite its meat and dairy-heavy menu.
‘Unbelievably Vegan With Chef Charity’ on Max
In this Max Original, Morgan takes on the challenge of helping Germantown Pub, a local Nashville, TN eatery, add plant-based dishes to its menu at the request of owner Naima Walker Fierce.
Walker Fierce, who eats plant-based a majority of the week, tapped Morgan to help give her pub a plant-based edge. “I really want more vegan options,” Walker Fierce explained in the special. “As one of the owners [who eats] vegan probably four days a week, I need food I can eat. I know if I can eat it, there are thousands of other people like me who would eat it.”
Charity Morgan and JDee Agnew. @charitymorgan | Instagram
Despite Walker Fierce’s desire for more vegan options, Germantown Pub’s executive chef JDee Agnew needed some convincing. “I’m not convinced. You have to convince me, you have to show me,” Agnew challenged Morgan. But with her expertise feeding top athletes, Morgan confidently stepped up to the plate. “If I can get NFL players and athletes all around the world requesting my meals, I can get anyone to go plant-based,” Morgan declared.
Charity Morgan’s vegan dishes for Germantown Pub
To help create three standout plant-based menu items for Germantown Pub, Morgan utilized her signature three-R method: replace, replicate, reveal.
Replace, Morgan explained, entails replacing a dish on the menu that isn’t faring well with customers. The celebrity chef chose to replace the restaurant’s Pub Nachos with her Vegan Pub Nachos With Beer Cheese. As the name implies, this dish features tortilla chips served with a generous helping of plant-based beer queso, a drizzle of dairy-free sour cream, smoky chorizo made by local vegan butcher The Be-Hive, lettuce, and pickled red onions.
Max
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The second factor of her approach entails replicating a customer-favorite dish. For this, Morgan chose to replicate Germantown Pub’s best-selling dish: Trifecta Wings, swapping out chicken for crunchy fried cauliflower. And for her final reveal factor, Morgan whipped up a brand new dish for the pub: Mac and Cheese With BBQ Jackfruit topped off with crunchy onion rings.
With this final dish, Morgan tapped into Agnew’s love for smoked meats with barbecue-seasoned smoked jackfruit to help replicate pulled pork. “My strategy is to first get JDee in his element. He’s comfortable frying, but his true love is on that pit. I’m doing a reveal dish that is going to pull to the heart and soul of who JDee is.”
While Morgan’s jackfruit cooked on the smoker, she enlisted the help of Agnew to prepare the cashew cheese for the menu item’s macaroni and cheese. Hands-on experience, Morgan explains, was crucial to winning over Agnew. “I’ve made a thousand mac and cheese [dishes], I could have gone back there and made it myself. I not only have to educate JDee, but I have to empower him, too,” she said.
Mac and Cheese With BBQ Jackfruit | Max
After completing all three plant-based dishes, it was time for a taste test. Walker Fierce, Agnew, and Germantown Pub’s front-of-house staff tasted each item to determine whether or not they could go on to the next trial: the customer taste test. Ultimately, Morgan’s Vegan Pub Nachos With Beer Cheese and Mac and Cheese With BBQ Jackfruit were immediate hits among the staff. Her cauliflower wings, while delicious, didn’t quite do it for the Germantown Pub. So, Morgan went back to the drawing board.
Instead of cauliflower, she opted for oyster mushrooms to recreate the pub’s fan-favorite Trifecta Wings. After frying up the mushrooms to a crispy consistency and tossing them in chef Agnew’s signature lemon pepper spice and Thai-chili sauce, Morgan knew she had a winner on her hands—and the Germantown Pub staff agreed. To celebrate, Morgan treated them with cupcakes from another favorite local vegan business: Sunflower Cafe.
A taste of Germantown Pub’s new plant-based dishes
While the pub’s loyal customers were hesitant to try Morgan’s vegan fare, the chef’s flavorful dishes quickly won them over. By the end of the special, the once hesitant Agnew had also realized how delicious vegan dishes can be, and he agreed to incorporate all three of Morgan’s dishes onto his menu.
Oyster mushroom Trifecta Wings | Max
Germantown Pub, Morgan shares with VegNews, was waiting until the Max Original special aired, but they are now ready to incorporate the vegan chef’s dishes onto its menu. And Morgan hopes her collaboration with Agnew inspires others to open up to plant-based food.
“[Vegan food] isn’t limited,” Morgan tells VegNews. “You don’t have to sacrifice all of your favorite dishes and things that you have loved for so many years. It’s all about changing the ingredients, not changing the whole entire recipe.”
By incorporating plant-based dishes, non-vegan businesses are able to widen their customer base, the celebrity chef explains. “No two people eat the same. There are so many dietary restrictions, now more than ever before. There’s gluten-free, vegan, [and] there are people that want to eat keto-friendly. There are so many dietary restrictions that people have, and some are for health reasons. I would tell [chefs] not to forget about those people.”
More Charity Morgan on Max
While Unbelievably Vegan With Chef Charity is, for now, a one-time special, there is a possibility this could turn into a series. “It all comes down to numbers,” Morgan says. “The network wants to know that there are people who are going to tune in and watch it.”
Unbelievably Vegan
Add Unbelievably Vegan With Chef Charity to your weekend watchlist. And while you wait for this special to become a series, Morgan’s cookbook—titled Unbelievably Vegan, which inspired the basis for the recipes featured in the Max original—will keep you busy.
For more plant-based stories like this, read:
Jocelyn Martinez is an Associate Editor at VegNews living in Los Angeles, CA.
Here at VegNews, we live and breathe the plant-based lifestyle, and only recommend products we feel make our lives amazing. Occasionally, articles may include shopping links where we might earn a small commission, but in no way does this effect the editorial integrity of VegNews.
