The incredible team at Made In Hackney (of which I’m a part!) has opened applications for Global Plant Kitchens, a one-year free mentorship program for anyone wanting to set up their own vegan community food project.
And when I say mentorship, I don’t just mean a couple of emails and a “good luck” pat on the back. They guide you through the entire process including funding, venue-hunting, marketing, and operations. They’ll even check in with you every two weeks to keep you on track.
Every Tuesday morning, Josh and I post a new episode of our very DIY and low-effort podcast to YouTube and Spotify.
In episode 32, we discuss the concept of malicious compliance. This refers to doing the correct thing or following the rules even when it causes hardship or concern for someone else. I love this term so much and the discussion had me chuckling about an example involving ABBA’s Dancing Queen.
Take a listen!
You can also watch/stream on Spotify.
You can order my book ‘Fat Gay Vegan: Eat, Drink and Live Like You Give a Sh!t’ online now. It has been out a while now but is still a good read. You can also listen to the Audiobook read by me!
You can watch/stream all past episodes of the Tell Me Where I’m Going (Wrong) podcast on YouTube and Spotify.
Here is an incredible opportunity to join an intimate cookery class in the heart of Hackney during March 2025.
Transform your dinner parties with plant-based dishes that impress and delight! In this hands-on workshop, you’ll learn to create a show-stopping, plant-powered menu perfect for any gathering. Discover tips and techniques for balancing flavors, enhancing presentation, and preparing a meal that’s as beautiful as it is delicious.
By the end, you’ll be ready to host a vegan dining event with confidence and flair!
This exclusive cookery class is being led by celebrated food creator and chef, Helen Graham.
If you’re looking for a night of Queer creativity, community, and good vibes, you need to get yourself to Queer Open Mic this Sunday in South London.
I started the open mic about two years ago with my friend Josh as we wanted to create a safe and supportive space for LGBTQ+ performers in London because, let’s be real, not all open mic nights are as welcoming as they should be.
Worshipping celebrity vegans can often be a problematic endeavour.
Holding up and celebrating famous people as vegans has often come back to bite our community in the backside.
Miley was championed as an ethical vegan for years right up until she went on the Joe Rogan podcast to tell the world she was eating animals again.
One of my childhood heroes, Drew Barrymore, also went down a similar route. Drew lived as a vegan for years but over the past decade or more had dipped in and out of plant-based eating sporadically. The superstar does promote a lot of vegan food, but it feels as though the argument for ethical veganism is somewhat diluted by her suggesting it’s cool to chop and change on a whim.
I am not really here to drag ex-vegan celebrities (and I do still love both of the mentioned performers. I mean, Flowers is a fabulous song), rather I’d love to shout out a vegan celebrity I feel more comfortable endorsing.
So take a look at who I bumped into yesterday at legendary vegan fried chicken shop, Temple of Seitan.
Fifteen years ago when I started this very blog, if you wanted to be social as a vegan in London you had to make it happen yourself. There were no vegan pubs and certainly no high street chains with dedicated plant-based menus.
This wilderness forced me to launch London Vegan Drinks, a monthly gathering where we carved out a space for ourselves in a world that barely acknowledged we existed. London Vegan Potluck was another community-driven event I curated, where people cooked and shared food because there weren’t many places to eat out.
Back then, if you wanted a vegan meal, you might get lucky at Pogo Café in Hackney (if they were open and serving something edible) or a measly number of eateries that weren’t always great. Other than that, it was whatever scraps you could cobble together from independent health food stores and Holland & Barrett. There were no vegan ready meals, hardly any supermarket own-brand plant milks, and certainly no Gregg’s vegan sausage rolls.
Then the independent vegan revolution happened. Slowly at first and then rapidly.
My ex-partner Josh and I got together again online to discuss a few pop culture moments and in this episode of Tell Me Where I’m Going (Wrong) podcast, we both get a little bit worked up about Emilia Pérez.
We discuss out collective disbelief at the huge number of Academy Award nominations this film has garnered, as we both feel it is one of the worst movies we have ever seen.
Truly shocking.
There are a few other pop culture moments discussed in the episode such as legendary award show musical performances, as well as Josh’s ongoing fight against his chest infection! Is everyone in the UK seriously unwell, or just everyone I know?
You can watch and/or listen on YouTube:
And click through below to watch or listen via Spotify:
There was a time, not that long ago, when I struggled to keep up with newly-opened vegan food businesses in London.
There was a green culinary boom taking place in the UK capital that was tough to track and I’d often find myself being the last to know about a new eatery.
Sadly, there now appears to be another new trend rapidly spreading around town which is equally as exhausting to document.
Vegan restaurant closures.
I’m not here to do a deep dive into why these businesses are closing (mostly because I’m too lazy for investigative journalism) but I did want to take this opportunity to give a shout out to a few locations that had been feeding the vegan and vegan-curious in London but which have now turned out the lights for good.
The huge (and hugely-popular) Club Mexicana on Commercial Street, Shoreditch recently closed quite abruptly. This loss came as a shock to the community as the restaurant had been promoting its offerings almost until the day it was shuttered.
Fans of the Mexican-inspired eatery can still enjoy their favourite menu items at two continuing locations, Soho and Mayfair. Click here to get more information and booking details. Use it or lose it people!
This listicle isn’t my favourite thing to do, but let me rush through these recent closures.
