In a video uploaded to YouTube last year, home cook and food influencer Alexa Santos scores a wheel of brie, drizzles it with honey, and flips it into a hot cast-iron pan. "Cheese is the main reason why I can't go vegan," she explains before baking the cheese with blackberries and hazelnuts and smearing it on slices of baguette.
She was channeling a common sentiment. There are long Reddit threads of would-be vegans confessing their inability to quit cheddar and chèvre. Miyoko Schinner, the founder of the plant-based cheese company Miyoko's Creamery, said in a recent Netflix documentary series that she hears that kind of thing often. "It's so interesting about cheese that people can't give it up," she said.
