Come the New Year and it seems that just about every restaurant develops a healthy conscience. For acclaimed Holland Park restaurant Flat Three, where nutritious dishes are on the menu throughout the year, the desire to reverse the effects of post-Christmas over indulgence is simply the ideal time to challenge perceptions that vegan food has to be tasteless and unimaginative.
Inspired by the minimalist aesthetics and flavours of Japanese, Korean and Nordic cuisine, Flat Three offers an array of plant-based food and drink, much of it made inhouse from fermentations that are a common thread across the cultures that it embraces.
Pavel Kanja, Head chef , Flat ThreeHead chef Pavel Kanja’s creations transform humble vegetables into something extraordinary, with porcini, brick pastry & green chilli; kabocha, sorrel, almond miso & jus; cabbage, gochujang & buckwheat noodles and Jerusalem artichoke, yuzu, barley & dew plant just some of the inspirational choices on offer.
Flat Three’s entire Plant-Based Menu showcases the wonders of locally sourced and often overlooked ingredients, with Forager, a renowned team of wild plant specialists led by Miles Irving in the forests of Kent, providing Flat Three with a wealth of little-known but delicious wild vegetation.
Accompanying these dishes is a selection of vegan wine, teas, infusions, ferments and delicious house-pressed juices.
It is not just Flat Three’s menu that promotes well-being; the restaurant also boasts arguably London’s healthiest and fittest kitchen team. Pavel is currently in training for next year’s London marathon (not to mention a side order of triathlons), while his wife – and sommelier – Claire even ran a 38 mile Ultra-marathon on her birthday! Staff meals are predominantly plant-based, everyone takes part in regular runs through Holland Park and Notting Hill and Pavel and his business partner Juliana Moustakas even lay on challenging Broga yoga sessions for their staff!
Says Pavel, “The food we serve at Flat Three – and indeed our own personal lifestyles – reflect our long term views on health and life. We aren’t just going healthy for the first month of the year to counter holiday excesses, instead we are nurturing a sustainable way of thinking about food and life, 365 days of the year.”