Who am I?

• Digital nomad
• Vegan web designer
• Recipe inventor
• Vegan supper club curator
• Ex-professional vegan chef

My foodie journey

I have always had a keen interest in cooking, which was mainly fuelled by my Mum’s amazing food and cookery skills. I was also lucky enough to eat in some pretty fancy restaurants, thanks to the chef boyfriend I dated when I was 16. As a result of these inspirations, I am forever dreaming of lavish food…between fantasies of stuffing my face with burgers and chips of course!

It never occurred to me to take cooking more seriously. I just loved food; simple as that. I ummed and ahhed about photography for a few years before settling on politics as the subject I would study at university. Very little serious cooking went on during those 3 years, other than at 4am in my student halls when I would fry gnocchi and dip them in ketchup…not ashamed in the slightest.

It wasn’t until the third year of my Politics Bachelors that I really took animal rights seriously, but once I read a few books on it – with thanks to Steve, my lecturer at the time – I couldn’t get enough. My eyes were opened and I was fully astonished – how could I have never been aware of the grim atrocities that were going on in front of me all this time?! I turned vegetarian and then vegan pretty quickly after that. The literature I was reading gave me all sorts of insights (i.e. Peter Singer’s Animal Liberation), but what interested me the most was the political theory that lay behind it.

How can we liberate animals? What are the reasons for why we eat animals and their by-products? Which human goods keep the industry alive? Could we give animals rights globally? What is different about being human and being a non-human animal? Do we share any values, feelings, rights?!

My questions could go on forever.

Veganism

My introduction to veganism led me to this new, crazy world of cooking wizardry. I was excited by the innovations in the edible use of plants, legumes, flowers, fruits, grains, vegetables, etc. I guess this ignited a passion; a fervour that I had unintentionally ignored for many years. So I started volunteering in a food waste kitchen during my Masters degree and food ethics soon overtook my interest in academia. I’ve since worked in various kitchens: some vegan, some not; some community-based, some professional; some finer dining and some junk food. It has been a truly amazing experience.

This brings us to the present day and the formation of this blog. With over 2 years of kitchen experience under my belt, I am ready to let my creative juices flow! I am currently working on my own vegan supper clubs, as well as developing recipes and contributing to the growth of the vegan community. However, I don’t want to forget what got me here in the first place: my academic passion for animal ethics. Only this time, I want to apply it towards my cooking.

Expect crazy hypotheses and propositions that might get you to question why we live the way we do. Alongside these, there will be recipes that I love and have worked hard over, which will hopefully ignite the same passion I experience in my readers! Moreover, there will be product reviews and restaurant write-ups to help you make informed decisions when choosing what to purchase and where to eat out. Ultimately, I aim to provide an all-rounded, multi-faceted blog on modern-day veganism.