Camden Roundhouse is to hold a two-day festival this summer that will see leading chefs, growers and farmers put plant-based food centre stage.
Chantelle Nicholson of Tredwell’s, who will release her plant-based cookbook Planted this year, Damian Clisby of Petersham Nurseries and Mexican chef and project manager of NOMA Mexico are among the first chefs to confirm their participation in the event on 1 and 2 June.
The festival, created by Franco Fubini, founder of fresh produce supplier Natoora, chef and restaurateur Richard H Turner and festival organiser Clare Isaacs, will host chefs from around the world, who will cook, talk, and hold workshops paying homage and hailing the diversity of edible plants.
The founders said: “Since the beginning of time we’ve lived our lives among plants yet, if we’re honest, 2018 finds us a highly advanced species who know less about edible plants than our ancestors. We’ve got used to plundering our planet – but today many of us have never picked an apple in the wild.”
Visitors attending the event, which will also see Selin Kiazim of Oklava, Josh Eggleton and Rob Howell of Root in Bristol and Athanasios Kargatzidis from Baron in Beirut, demonstrate their skills, will see the Roundhouse transform into a series of counter-style restaurants, long table feasts, producer markets and inventive bars, with a rich programme of talks, debates and classes.
The continued rise of vegan and plant-based food was tipped to be a trend by food experts interviewed by Hospitality & Catering News at the beginning of the year.
Former Hawksmoor executive chef Turner told The Observer magazine in 2016: “We all eat too much meat. If we had to pay the real price, rather than supermarket prices, we’d eat less and enjoy it more. We are omnivores but 70% of our diet should be vegetables and it isn’t. The plant-based diet, with small amounts of meat, is going to come round soon.”
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