Made In Hackney Is One For The Books

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Big news!

Food security heroes Made In Hackney are finally dropping their first-ever cookbook, and it’s an absolute must-have.

We Cook Plants is more than just a recipe book. It’s a love letter to plant-based cooking, packed with 100 global recipes from the incredible Made In Hackney chefs curated by the charity’s founder, Sarah Bentley. And if that wasn’t exciting enough, the book features contributions from celebrity supporters like Andi Oliver, Sami Tamimi, Dr Rupy, and fermentation king Sandor Katz. Fancy, right?

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Tell Me What You Really Really Want

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Tuesdays around these parts is podcast day.

A new episode of the Tell Me Where I’m Going (Wrong) podcast is released on YouTube and Spotify first thing Tuesday morning.

A quick recap if you are new here.

Josh and I are ex-partners of 20-something years wo are still very good friends. Each week we spend an hour talking about pop music, culture, politics, health, travel, and life as middle age gay men. Oh yeah… we record this conversation and post it online.

This podcast is extremely DIY and low effort. It is simply your chance to observe us sharing our memories and opinions with each other. Do not expect it to be polished and do not expect any research!

You can watch/listen to the latest episode on YouTube below. In this episode we chat about the dismal state of global politics, how dreadful singers end up in manufactured pop bands, and why so many pop starts end up supporting the Tories.

You can also watch/stream on Spotify at the link below!

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Dine Scandinavian Style In London

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I don’t know a lot about Scandinavian food.

As a person originating from outside the region known as Scandinavia, I’m not even sure how effective it is to use a coverall term such as Scandinavian to describe all the food developed across a handful of countries with diverse geographic landscapes and historic influences.

To develop an understanding of what really constitutes Scandinavian food, the best I can do as a non-Scandi living in London is to defer to a chef who is happy to use the term to describe the food they create.

And if this plate of deliciousness is the norm, sign me up as a Scandi fan!

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I’m Not Religious But I Do Celebrate Easter Eggs

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The title of this blog is a joke I’ve made a few times, in a few different forms.

I’ve joked about not celebrating Christmas while expressing my devotion to overeating on Christmas day. I don’t celebrate Thanksgiving but that doesn’t stop me from eating food associated with this problematic calendar date.

And just like the above festivities, Easter comes with it’s own delicacies that I love to consume while simultaneously rejecting the cultural and religious framework surrounding it.

Yes. I’m coming out of the closest as an atheist who is obsessed with Easter eggs!

My family wasn’t religious when I was growing up in Australia and I only attended church for weddings and funerals, but Easter was one of those celebrations that reached even the most non-observant of the population Down Under.

As a child, I would build a nest to which the Easter Bunny would deliver chocolate and candy eggs once a year (a tad confusing when I ponder this as an adult). This nest was more often than not simply a beach towel rolled into a spiral, placed in the living rom or at the foot of my bed. Sometimes I would shred newspaper to create a cosy, cushioning base to protect my expected egg delivery! I have no idea if this was a cultural practice outside of my family but we did it for most of my childhood years.

I suppose it was this custom that instilled in me a joy for Easter eggs that has lived long past my childhood and even long past retaining (most of) my family in my life!

This probably isn’t the right place to do a deep dive into my complex family history, however it is the perfect platform for sharing my current Easter faves with you here in the UK.

Check these out!

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Best Vegan Sunday Roast In London?

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As a long time vegan, I can recall the wilderness years when there wasn’t a decent Sunday dinner option in all of London. These were dark times of hearing other people rave about Yorkshire puddings drenched in gravy while us plant-munchers were left attempting to create our own versions at home.

I grew up in Australia which meant not being familiar with the concept of a roast dinner served in the middle of the day, so when I first moved to London in 1998 I was instantly intrigued by this concept.

And Sunday roasts are a tough thing to avoid in London. Pubs, carveries, and restaurants all shout about this very British meal which left me feeling a tiny bit isolated as a vegan.

Fast forward to 2025 and there is some stellar news for people interested in Sunday roast culture but who don’t want to hurt any animals in order to participate.

Say hello to this gorgeous plate of food being served weekly in east London.

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Learn To Cook And Contribute To Society

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If you sniff around these parts of the Internet often, you’ll undoubtedly be aware that I work with food security charity Made In Hackney.

Made In Hackney does a lot of work around food security, education, and access however it most well-known in London for the free community cooking classes hosted inside our Clapton Common kitchen.

These classes are designed to help empower the community to eat nutritious and delicious cuisine that is culturally relevant. Often the classes will have a wellbeing focus such as ‘cooking to combat diabetes’ or low cost recipes for people struggling with the cost of living.

These classes are open to anyone and are not income tested. Check out the image below to see some of the upcoming community classes.

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Goodbye, Unity Diner – And Why We Need to Fight for Vegan Businesses

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London is about to lose one of its most beloved vegan institutions as Unity Diner has announced it will soon be closing its doors. By the time you read this blog post, it might already be gone.

This place wasn’t just a restaurant. It was a beacon of compassionate eating, a sanctuary for plant-based food lovers, and a shining example of what a mission-driven, independently owned vegan business can be. Unity Diner was founded with a purpose beyond profit, to actively support animal rights through phenomenal food.

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Day trip to Brighton

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I imagine a lot of people feel the way I feel about Brighton.

Brighton, UK is one of those places that we think of as being more exciting and alternative than perhaps it really is. The seaside town has always held a certain sense of excitement, mystery, and creative energy, long being a beacon for cultural outsiders.

Queer people, punk rockers, and hippies would converge on destinations such as Brighton to look for likeminded personalities in order to create meaningful community.

In 2025 it now appears impossible to escape capitalism and gentrification, as a visitor to the city finding a Brighton overflowing with expensive tourist trap businesses as the independents get increasingly pushed out. The outsiders who made Brighton an desirable and exciting place are now in turn being rejected by soaring rents and a landscape unfriendly to independent business owners and community groups.

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Wrapped in plastic

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The latest episode of Tell Me Where I’m Going (Wrong) podcast finds us chatting all things David Lynch, especially our memories of the acclaimed Twin Peaks series.

I was the perfect age to become completely obsessed with Twin Peaks back in 1990, falling in love with the hypnotic storytelling and the incredibly talented cast. Sherilyn Fenn and Billy Zane became true icons for teenage me.

A bit later in life, Lynch’s Mulholland Drive film cemented itself in my list of top ten films and I’ve now seen this in the cinema multiple times. There aren’t many movies for which I would use the term masterpiece, but Mulholland Drive is more than deserving of that accolade.

The podcast also finds us chatting about teeth issues we experience as we grow older and why young people seem to not want to use condoms anymore.

Watch/stream the episode on YouTube.

You can also stream/watch the episode on Spotify.

Use the link below.

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Happy birthday to my book

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Seven years ago, a lifelong dream of mine came true. I published a book. Not just any book, rather a book that poured every ounce of my heart, values, and hope for a better world into its pages. Fat Gay Vegan: Eat, Drink and Live Like You Give a Sh!t wasn’t just about veganism—it was about compassionate consumerism, social justice, and the belief that the choices we make can ripple out to create real change.

I worked hard on this book. Every word, every anecdote, and every call to action. To see it in print was a true moment of pride, but to have people still connecting with it seven years later? That’s a gift beyond anything I could have imagined.

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