Radhika Oswal, founder of the vegetarian fast food concept Otarian, is going global with her sustainable cuisine and opening stateside. With two new locations in New York (one on Bleecker and a second near Columbus Circle) and additional restaurants in London, no one living in either metropolis has an excuse for careless eating anymore. Based on the Aussie’s dream of a sustainable planet, each restaurant is constructed from recycled materials and next to each vegetarian menu item, diners will find the carbon content of the dish, the amount compared to a meat dish, and the carbon footprint of that meat dish. Try out some guilt-free eating after the jump.

On the considerations -- vegetarian and sustainability-wise -- that went into the menu at Otarian: Vegetarianism is not just a diet. It’s the most sustainable way of living and being. I’ve extensively studied the impacts of vegetarianism on sustainability and it’s really achieved so many environmental, economical and social endeavors just as much as a tasty meal. What we tried to do is get the food correct, because of course, it has to be tasty to get the people in. People think its rabbit food. I think there was a big gap in the market with no real vegetarian fast food, doing a variety of food at the same time and doing it the sustainable way. The way I see it, there is no sustainable fast food chain in the world. We started with about 600 dishes and we had 14 international product development shares from different parts of the world. We made the menu and we tried them. We had research testing done with our target market in New York, London, Perth and Bombay. We held them six times with 100 people each time. We kept redoing the menu with the findings and that’s how we have the 30 dishes on the menu. When we decided that we need to footprint it, we had about 100 dishes. We then sent it off to our consultants who advised which would be the central ingredients according to their analysis.

On fast food v.s. fine dining: We wanted to reach the masses. Vegetarian food is really misunderstood at the moment. I didn’t think people would be willing to sit for hours in a place to eat vegetarian food when they could spend $14 in 10 minutes. It’s just simple logic, really.

On the difficulties of upkeeping sustainability in a large city: Yes. It’s a tradeoff. Sustainability is multifaceted. There are three tiers: environmental, economical and social. There are a lot of things in which people have their minds made up about. For example, if you say “local” to people, they think it’s more sustainable. It is sustainable, but if you choose local food, what are you doing with fair trade? So, what happens to globalization? What happens to the social side of sustainability? If you choose fair trade, then what happens to local food and what happens to sustainability? So, there are a lot of tradeoffs in balancing those aspects. You do have to choose one of those pillars as your backbone, and hopefully, you choose the one that maximizes the strength of all three pillars. We chose to highlight the carbon emissions. From there, we selected ingredients that have the lowest environmental impact.

On the New York locations: Bleecker St. is right near NYU. It’s got our target market: the young girls. I’ve always said girls are the family makers and the decision makers in the home and the boys just follow them. That’s what happens later on in life, at least once you’re a grown, married woman. Then, we’ve got the 8th Avenue location which is again reaching out to a bigger variety of people. It’s more residentially located. That one is reaching out to the family and the community, moms and dads and normal people who have an environmental consciousness, but don’t necessarily have much time so they’re going for that fast diet. They want to do something good, but they don’t necessarily know how to do it. So, Otarian provides them with the quantifiable measures to enable that.

On the importance of carbon emissions for the average diner: Like I said, I believe that people have an environmental consciousness these days and being sustainable is hard. It’s especially difficult to understand governmental policies and politics. The average person thinks, “What’s that got to do with me?” What I want to show is that vegetarianism -- or at least our Otarian, vegetarian meals -- are designed to help you save on your impact. It doesn’t take much work. It’s as simple as eating a tasty meal. For example, if you choose one of our carbon combo’s, you choose 3 kilograms of carbon over a similar meat equivalent meal that you may have chosen. That 3 kilograms is over a ¼ of an American or Copenhagen’s core commitment for a day. If you had those carbon combos 52 times over a year, that’s equivalent to driving from New York to Florida. It’s as simple as eating your way to sustainability.

Favorite vegetarian dishes: I like the Tex Mex Burger. I love the Biryani. I love the flatbread. I am Indian by culture, so, I love the spicy foods.

Typical mistakes that vegetarians make in their dietary choices: Vegetarians who have been vegetarians for long don’t make many mistakes. I think it’s people who are trying to eat more vegetarian food make the mistake of not knowing the correct nutritional requirements around the carbs or not knowing the daily servings of vegetables and fruits. Balancing, especially things like vitamin D and B, in your diet are important. Guilty pleasure: I indulge in eggless crème brulee and I shouldn’t be doing that! It’s got a few less calories in fact. My guilty pleasure is dessert.