It's this kind of thinking that has resulted in so many veggies being served a woefully unbalanced meal."If you're vegetarian or vegan, you can just leave that (flavour) out"
Does she not know that veg/vegan food isn't *just* a recipe with the meat removed? You need to build in flavour in alternative ways. It's skilled cooking.
Of course jack who was militant vegan for 5 minutes until the vegan cook book was released and spoke about studying nutrition is just as ignorant as your average person from the 90s.