> It's sad to me that "western" cooking is so focused on meat as the centerpiece to cooking.

I wonder if that's for historical reasons. I'd assume that in previous centuries, only wealthy people would have the means to afford getting a cook that would be able to pass on their recipes in written form. As such, the recipes that survived would be the ones that would have access to expensive ingredients like meat and spices.

At least on the French side of things, Carême and Escoffier are very influential in classical French cuisine, and their audience was wealthy people, not commoners.

You are supposing that recipes were passed down through books which is totally false. They were passed down in families and communities and were based to what was available at the time. Meat is more prevalent in recipes coming from regions where it was more available. Some other places have instead a fish based diet. In any way animal based food has always been preferred by every culture that didn't avoid it for religious reasons. Most cultures who have a plant based diet come from a recent past of extreme poverty and food deprivation.

EDIT: Of course as soon as meat got available, recipes that were before only affordable by a small circle, got picked up by a larger share of the population.

I've found fake chicken is pretty good for curries, etc.

However, I mostly just care about environmental footprint, and chicken is already pretty good on that front.

Curry and fake chicken sounds very good right now. Have been big on seitan/tofu katsu plate lunches recently