Vegan butter

Here is a super quick post to let you know that I just bought some vegan butter by fabulous London cheese artisans, Mouse’s Favourite.

I got mine from GreenBay Supermarket in Fulham.

The company is an extremely small operation at the moment meaning the products aren’t everywhere just yet, but you can check out the current stockists by clicking here.

Mouse’s Favourite even show up at festivals from time to time.

Follow Mouse’s Favourite on Instagram.

Work with marshmallows

One of the most-loved vegan sweet treats companies in the UK is hiring.

How would you like to work making vegan marshmallows?

Check this out.

Ananda’s is a brand most UK vegans are familiar with thanks to their glorious marshmallow treats and vegan wagon wheels.

Now they need a staff member at their HQ near Sheffield.

Here are the details:

  • We are looking for a hard working, dedicated individual to join our small family business.
  • We are a vegan confectionery producer. Our products are mainly produced by hand.
  • Applicants must be experienced in Food Production (we’re not talking large scale machine operation), work well with their hands, have a good eye for detail, and excellent organisational skills.
  • Occasional early morning starts, late finishes and weekend work!
  • Looking for a career? We want you to grow with us and step up to become team leader.
  • Average weekly hours 42.5
  • Initial Pay – £8 – £10 per hour depending on experience. Progression to salary.

If this sounds like the job for you, get in touch via anandafoodsuk@gmail.com with your details.

Yay for vegan jobs and yay for vegan marshmallows!

London gets a vegan pie and mash shop

Do you know what is a great feeling?

I absolutely adore when a vegan business I love and support takes a big leap forward. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.

Carla and Marco from Young Vegans have worked harder than most people I know to perfect the food they serve around London. Their pies and mash (served with gorgeous gravy) have been one of the smash hits at Hackney Downs Vegan Market where they trade every Saturday.

Seitan and ale, curry, all day breakfast, and sweet potato pies served by this street food trader are some of the finest food you’ll get anywhere in the UK. The fact that the people behind the pies are the nicest, funniest, and coolest folk I’ve met makes it even harder to stay away from their food.

I just want to see them do well.

Which is why I am thrilled to let you all know that Young Vegans now have a brand new pie shop in Camden!

Check out these photos from the recently opened outlet.

The shop is located in Camden Lock Market, right at the end of the narrow cobble stone alley between the Lock Market and The Stables Market. Click here to see the location thanks to Google Maps.

Follow Young Vegans on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Get into their shop ASAP. Tell them FGV loves them.

New seitan katsu curry

Wagamama has officially launched a seitan katsu curry on their menu at their Soho based restaurant, noodle lab.

Noodle lab is a brand-new development kitchen, open to the public with its very own exclusive menu that is changed every four weeks. Items are trialled and if the feedback is positive, Wagamama will roll them out across the UK.

You can click here to see the location of noodle lab online.

 

Check out the photo below and let me know what you think if you try this innovative dish.

 

Doppleganger burgers

After receiving 5 star reviews and enjoying a sell out string of pop-ups last month in Cambridge, Doppleganger Burgers are set to come to London in November.

At The Grocery, Kingsland Road on Friday 10th & Saturday 11th of November, 2017 attendees will have the opportunity to taste three of the company’s mouthwatering vegan burgers and sample their vegan date shakes.

Doppleganger Burgers are made from a marinated umami soya-protein patti, loaded with a range of signature toppings from vegan ‘bacon & cheeze’ to ‘hoision duck’, all served in a lightly toasted
bun.

Alfy Fowler, Founder and Head Chef at Doppleganger has said, “At Doppleganger we have one clear aim, to create 100% based plant based burgers that are accessible to everyone. Receiving such positive feedback from our last pop-up in Cambridge, we realised our next logical step was to come to London where the number of people in the capital adopting a vegan lifestyle has increased dramatically.”

Tickets to the pop-up event are limited and are available online here for £12.49 which includes a choice of
Doppleganger Burgers and a side of hand-cut fries. Diners will be able to purchase a selection of vegan wine and beer at the venue.

You can follow Doppleganger on Instagram.

Try the FGV boot

I have to be honest and say this wasn’t a childhood dream in the same way releasing a book was, but how darn cool is it that I have just released a Fat Gay Vegan boot?!

I’ve teamed up with an ethical boot manufacturer to create the FGV Vaquita.

The gorgeous boot is made in Portugal and its features include:

  • 100% vegan (of course)
  • durable and water-resistant black patent microfibre upper
  • 1 pair of thin waxed pink laces
  • 1 pair of thick waxed black laces
  • Pink faux-fleece lining

If you want to try this boot on before they are released to the public on a wider scale, I am hosting an exclusive VegfestUK London viewing of the boot THIS WEEKEND (Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 October, 2017).

We will have the boot in sizes EUR36/UK3 all the way up to EUR46/UK12.

If you love the boot and want to order a pair after trying, we will give you a 10% off voucher so you can order your very own pair online.

The boot will not be available in stores for a little while so this is your chance to try the boot on for size, be certain you like the fit, and order now for savings.

If you celebrate birthdays or Christmas, this is the perfect way to ensure you get a gift that is comfortable and fabulous. Bring the present buyer along with you!

I hope you love this boot as much as I do.

The Fat Gay Vegan stall at VegfestUK London is number U45 on level 3. I am also selling early release copies of my first ever book.

Vegan chocolate box

It’s that time of year when I say that I don’t celebrate Christmas but I do celebrate chocolate.

Now that I have that out of the way, let’s all celebrate this new selection box by Moo Free Chocolates.

How fabulous does this look?!

The box retails for £4.79 and includes:

  • Original Chocolate Santa Bar
  • Original Chocolate Snowman Bar
  • Mini Moos Minty Moo
  • Mini Moos Cheeky Orange
  • Original Choccy Drops

Look for this in your local retailers or order from the company direct online if you run a retail outlet.

Extra note: Moo Free Chocolates is included on the Food Empowerment Project list of trustworthy chocolate manufacturers. See the full list here.

The list reflects Food Empowerment Project’s most recent research on companies that make vegan products containing chocolate to find out if they source their chocolate from areas where slavery can still be found.

Moo Free gets the thumbs up!

Best at VegfestUK London 2017

It is that time of year again. VegfestUK London is set to throw open its doors to consumers and activists this weekend (Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 October, 2017) at London Olympia.

The full show guide can be found online, but I wanted to highlight some of my top picks for the show.

Let’s take a look!

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I adore Kizzy’s Cookies. They are just the right amount of chewy.

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My number one pick for food vendor at the show this year is What The Pitta!. Stunning comfort food that I can’t get enough of.

I always make time for the vegan wagon wheels by Ananda’s.

Conscious Chocolate bars are exquisite and maybe the most luxurious treat I know.

Tofurky is one of the true superstar vegan brands on the planet and they will be selling their new gran and go sandwiches.

A vegan show is not a vegan show without Follow Your Heart. Get your Vegenaise at show prices!

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My book! I will be selling early release copies of my first ever book and will even be presenting some of the themes of the book during a talk in the auditorium on Saturday at 4pm.

You can buy your advance tickets for VegfestUK London online now.

Raise funds for this crucial London kitchen

October 16th is World Food Day – and what better date for Made In Hackney, an award winning eco-community kitchen and cookery school to launch a crowdfunding campaign to raise £45,000 – with a stretch target of £85,000. Since opening in 2012 the small but dynamic organisation has helped over 6000 Londoners lead healthier, happier more environmentally sustainable lives. They have achieved this by offering healthy eating focused cookery and food growing classes to groups in need including young people leaving care, low income families, people with long term health problems, recovering addicts and people with learning difficulties.

The team behind Made in Hackney have launched a campaign on Crowdfunder.co.uk to raise £45,000 to secure the organisations future and ensure they can help more people, in more parts of London to take part in their life changing programme.

The project and the team’s approach has been praised in high profile media such as Jamie, Vogue, The Observer, Vegetarian Living and Vegan Trade Journal. And that’s where it gets really interesting. The cookery school has a local, seasonal, organic (when possible), 100% plant-based food policy. Radical stuff.

Sarah Bentley, the kitchen’s founder says, “We teach people how to cook and eat food that is not just good for their health – but also the health of the planet. Everyone knows we need to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables and less processed foods, sugar and meat – but most people don’t know where to start. Many don’t even know how to cook from scratch at all and especially how to prepare vegetables in an exciting, tasty way. That’s where we come in.”

The project has taken their programme into schools, children’s centres, youth centres and pensioners clubs across the capital and worked with a number of national and local organisations such as Action For Children, Off Centre, Age UK, Deaf Plus, East London Vision, the Salvation Army, the Women’s Environment Network and Public Health Hackney.

According to their 2016 impact statistics they’re programme really brings about meaningful change. After completing the Made In Hackney programme 90% of participants said they felt more confident cooking from scratch using fresh ingredients and healthy cookery techniques; 90% said they now ate more fresh fruits and vegetables; and all participants felt inspired and had the necessary skills and recipes to eat less meat.

With spiralling levels of lifestyle related diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and obesity – local programmes such as this are essential to prevent and in some cases cure, a plethora of chronic illnesses.

Rupy Aujla, author of Doctors Kitchen food blog, practising GP and volunteer for Made In Hackney says. “Made In Hackney is the blueprint for how we should be tackling and preventing a wide range of illnesses largely brought on by poor diet. They do fantastic work and have made a huge difference to thousands of people’s lives. It’s essential we secure their future. Donate to them today.”

A word from Fat Gay Vegan:

As you can tell, the above is a press release sent to me for publishing.

It gives you a lot of information about Made in Hackney but I wanted to add some of my own words to this post.

The work carried out by Made in Hackney is crucial. Not just warm and fuzzy, but crucial. They are doing incredible outreach in one of the most polarised locations in the UK when it comes to wealth disparity and access to nutritious food options.

The people they are helping are marginalised and placed in situations where they do not have equitable access to quality food.

They are supporting at-risk members of their community and they are doing it only with plant-derived ingredients.

If you donate to just one campaign this month, please consider if it can be Made in Hackney.

Click here to donate to the campaign if you have the funds and please share this blog or the link to the campaign.