I disagree with the notion that top chefs could whip up a vegetarian meal by just being crreative- not when I am paying top price for it!
What I notice is that usually vegetarian whipped up items are a) a table spoon of rice, b) a few pieces of. Arrows, c) parsley, d) some free leaves with lots of thorny rough edges, and a bunch of poorly cooked beans. If a chef can't cook beans, I don't care how good he is as a generic chef. It is even worse when you just ate a salad before your vegetarian surprise. I also have often noticed that top chefs have no idea about how much salt a vegetarian dish could take; at least they could taste before serving what they created.
Of course soups are all based on meat stock!
I forgot to mention in my earlier posting that Italian and Mexican restaurants also offer good vegetarian dishes.