Latest news with #Plates
Scotsman
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
National Vegetarian Week: The best vegetarian restaurants in the UK
These are the best places for vegetarian food 🥦 Sign up to our daily newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... National Vegetarian Week starts on Monday May 19 DesignMyNight have picked the best vegetarian spots in the UK The list includes restaurants in Glasgow, Brighton, and more National Vegetarian Week takes place from Monday May 19 until Sunday May 25, where we celebrate the best of cocktails across the world. To celebrate the dedicated week, there are plenty of incredible restaurants offering a wide selection of vegetarian food for you to enjoy. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad DesignMyNight have handpicked the eight restaurants across the UK to visit for a delicious vegetarian meal. Down The Hatch, Liverpool Liverpool-based Down The Hatch is a highly rated vegetarian restaurant, which specialises in 'veggie junk food'. Dishes include salt and pepper tofu, stacked burgers and Sunday roasts. Plates, London Plates in London is a Michelin-starred restaurant, the very first vegan restaurant to receive one. It has a tasting menu which is highly praised. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad National Vegetarian Week: The best vegetarian restaurants in the UK - according to DesignMyNight | sonyakamoz - Mono, Glasgow Mono in Glasgow is a long-running establishment which is very popular with residents of Glasgow. It has a plant-focused menu which is a big hit with vegetarians and vegans. Food For Friends, Brighton Another long-running establishment, Food For Friends in Brighton opened its doors in 1981. The restaurant serves up a wide selection of vegan and vegetarian dishes from pancakes to sweetcorn ribs. Mildreds, London London-based restaurant Mildreds has been serving meat-free eaters since 1988, across its six locations. It has a wide selection of exciting dishes to try. Mowgli, Manchester Mowgli in Manchester is a beloved restaurant which is renowned for its authentic Indian street food. While the restaurant isn't completely vegetarian, it has a dedicated vegan menu and plenty of vegetarian options on its main menu. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Novapizza, Edinburgh Novapizza is Edinburgh's only Italian restaurant which serves up a 100% vegetarian and vegan menu. It serves up dishes such as lasagne bolognaise, roman-style pizza and more. Ana Loka, Cardiff Cardiff-based restaurant Ana Loka is 100% vegan, offering up plates of 'comfort food', such as jackfruit bao buns. If you have a food and drink story to share with us, we'd love to hear from you. You can now send your stories to us online via YourWorld at It's free to use and, once checked, your story will appear on our website and, space allowing, in our newspapers.
Montreal Gazette
05-05-2025
- General
- Montreal Gazette
How to practise death cleaning? Remember that it's a process — and sell or donate as you go
Entertainment And Life By Susan Schwartz 'It's a big house, and over time the closets and drawers had filled with things we never touched and, in many cases, had completely forgotten we owned,' the author Ann Patchett wrote in a 2021 piece for the New Yorker on her own version of death cleaning. 'I was starting to get rid of my possessions, at least the useless ones, because possessions stood between me and death. They didn't protect me from death, but they created a barrier in my understanding, like layers of bubble wrap, so that instead of thinking about what was coming and the beauty that was here now I was thinking about the piles of shiny trinkets I'd accumulated. I had begun the journey of digging out.' Montrealer Silvija Ulmanis has exquisite taste and has 'always loved things and kind of acquired them over the years' — from pottery and old glass to objects picked up at home or during her travels: fabrics, antique aprons from Greece, a Murano glass vase she bought in Venice, hand-painted teaware purchased in Hong Kong. It's beautiful. But there is a lot of it. She is in her early 70s now and, if something happened to her, she wonders: 'Who would deal with this stuff? I don't think it's fair to leave it to my husband and two daughters.' And so, like Patchett, Ulmanis has embarked on her own journey of digging out. She has been giving away some objects and selling others: She sold books to a used-book dealer and all but a dozen or so of the 50 teacups that had belonged to her late mother: About 20 were sold to the Teacup Attic in Ottawa, the others on her own. She had a garage sale. And twice last year she rented a table in Pointe-Claire Plaza, where a twice-annual vintage and antiques sale is held. She also rented a table at Plates, Pearls & Pretty Things, a church fundraiser held April 26 in the hall of Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Hawkesbury. Ulmanis has done meticulous research about the provenance and value of items, from vases by Canadian potter and artist Harlan House she purchased in the 1970s to quality pieces by Montreal costume jeweler Gustave Sherman her mother used to collect: His necklaces, brooches and other items, hugely popular in the 1950s and 1960s, are still coveted by collectors. She has also started to photograph objects. 'I thought I would write a little story about something and leave that: Instead of the stuff, I will leave pictures,' she said. As people consider downsizing because they're moving or simply want to own less stuff, they do it different ways. There are Facebook groups featuring decluttering and organizing tips and groups where items can be disposed of. A woman posting on a West Island Community Facebook page said that, during COVID, she got rid of one item a day for a year. Another started in the bedroom and went room by room, donating to NOVA and giving things away through sites like Another Person's Treasures — West Island or selling items on VarageSale and Facebook marketplace. Margareta Magnusson, author of The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning (Scribner, 2018), advises classifying items into categories — books, clothes, furniture, linens — and starting with the easiest one for you to handle. She has death cleaned for several people and always started with clothes. Many of us have documents, letters and papers we haven't looked at in ages. Magnusson asks: 'Why should someone else have to?' Buy a paper shredder, she advises, and destroy anything that risks upsetting those left behind. Get rid of photos of people you no longer like or those in which you look terrible, re-read your favourite books or some you'd forgotten about and then give the rest to a charity, library, school or a young reader. Go in expecting the journey of digging out to take a year or longer, say those who have done it: It's a process. Sell or donate as you go, one de-clutterer advised. Another suggested setting aside items that have not been used in a year and considering getting rid of them. Tell yourself that what you are are giving away will be enjoyed by others. Purging alone isn't enough, said one Montrealer who moved from a big house to a much smaller condo. 'You must also learn from your castaways and change your future buying habits,' she said. 'Getting rid of possessions doesn't work unless you recognize why you acquired them in the first place.' Montrealer Judith Litvack believes in being 'pared down to the absolute minimum of what you need to live.' She owns a single set of dishes, one spatula, one serving spoon. Her clothes occupy one-quarter of a cupboard. 'I wear something until it is tattered and then I get rid of it and replace it,' she said. 'I read books and give them away.' Same for the collage and paintings she makes. 'I am not attached to material possessions. It is about the relationships; it's about the memories, the feelings.'
The Guardian
14-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘Butter is a perception': inside the UK's first plant-based Michelin-starred restaurant
Kirk Haworth, the owner and head chef of east London restaurant, Plates, hates the word vegan. 'At least seeing the word on a menu,' he says. 'Plant-based cooking is not a trend. Not for me, anyway. I've been doing it for eight years and it's just in my soul now.' And yet this week, Haworth became the first UK chef to win a Michelin star for cooking only plant-based food. Plates is small, with just 25 covers. There are two sittings but it's full until the end of April. The phone is always engaged, and they can only cope with reservations today and tomorrow. For everything else, it's send an email. 'It's been like this since we opened – we had 76,000 people trying to book, and the website crashed,' he says. The restaurant opened a few months after he won the Great British Menu. 'I'm not sure anyone's reviewed it yet because they can't get a table.' The diners, then, are diehard Haworth fans, and come in two sizes. The couple next to me have been waiting nine months for a table (it only opened in July), while a man waiting for the loo says he enjoyed his meal but had been brought by a friend 'and had no idea what this place was'. Except for the two City guys discussing salaries at the bar, people have travelled from outside London, take photos of the outside but rarely of their food, and are noticeable for being dressed up rather than well-dressed. Hoxton is, after all, the ground zero of scuzzy hipsters, and this is an unusual location for a Michelin-starred restaurant – being just off the Old Street roundabout, and down the road from east London's more storied Turkish and Vietnamese restaurants. It used to a be a restaurant/bar that closed after the pandemic – as did about 14% of restaurants in central London – but it was a vegan one, suggesting there's something in the filtered tap water. To the food. It is a tasting menu, but a generous one. Among Haworth's favourites is a dish of slow-cooked leeks that comes crowned with a handful of frozen verjus (pressed unripe grapes). He also likes the barbecued mushrooms. But it's the ones that should, by rights, be meat that stand out. A lasagne that feels like lasagne except made from mung and urad beans; the whole thing is then served – as if to remind you, again, of what it isn't – with a thumb of cucumber. Then there is bread, or rather, a bread-ish croissant rolled into a swirl and served with green 'butter' made from cashews. Asked why the non-butter butter is still called butter, Haworth says simply: 'Butter is a perception.' Nowhere on the menu is the word 'vegan'. Nor 'plant-based', 'dairy-free' or even 'cow-lite'. 'Look, I hate imitation,' he says of the now popular fake meat and cheese market. Although beetroot has an uncanny ability to mimic beef, the meat and fish are not so much doctored as completely swapped out. Everything here strikes a balance between casual and assiduity. Even its name, Plates, betrays nothing except that there will be a lot of them. The semi-open kitchen, which has that monastic serenity you only get when food is not cooked to order, is surrounded by a chef's counter made from four felled London trees. Customers sit on mustard banquettes, the large Holiday Inn opposite hidden by cafe curtains. There is only one loo, but it has a huge basin carved from polished rock. The Michelin inspectors described it as cosy rather than cramped. But what looks cosy, in other words, is actually more posh. In the truest three-figure Michelin tradition, there are some at-table sauce pouring performances. Plumes of dry ice fog hover over some dishes and you are told which cutlery to use, and in which order. The mocktails – including the 'yuzuade' – are fun but unnecessary. And some of the textures – some teeth-squeaking puffed rice – are a little overwhelming. Then there is the price – £90 before you've had anything to drink, which feels a little mighty for vegetables. Still, there are enough single diners dropping £150 to remind you this is a destination. The Michelin system is not what it used to be. According to a report by University College London, starred restaurants are statistically more likely to close down than highly rated venues without the accolade. At this week's ceremony, there were fewer new one and two-star restaurants compared with last year, and no new three-star additions. But that doesn't mean it's not difficult to get one. 'I'd like to say it's harder to get a star with plant-based food, but I've cooked both and it's hard all round,' says Haworth, who trained at the French Laundry which is famous for its oysters and caviar. The meal is finished with a cacao gateaux poured over with raw caramel. This is the dish that won him the Great British Menu. As such, it is twice the size of everything else. When it first opened, there were three desserts on the menu. When they drop a course, it's the risotto that makes way, not the rice pudding. Though Haworth concedes the current food system is not sustainable, it was only after being diagnosed with Lyme disease that heexplored a plant-based diet, finding it helped mitigate the symptoms. 'But that's just me. Most of the people who come in aren't vegan. I'd say 99%. That must show you something'.
The Independent
12-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Vegan restaurant becomes first to win Michelin star
A London restaurant has become the first to be awarded a Michelin star by serving a plant-based menu. The Michelin Guide celebrated its 125th anniversary, with this year's ceremony held at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow on Monday (10 February). At the event, 22 new restaurants were awarded their first Michelin star, with nine in London, three in Ireland and two in Scotland. Cardiff also secured its first star. Meanwhile, five Green stars were given to restaurants for their exceptional commitment to sustainability. Based in Old Street, Plates London became the first vegan restaurant to ever be awarded a star in the accolade's history. Kirk Haworth, chef and co-founder of Plates, first began exploring a vegan diet after being diagnosed with Lyme disease in 2016. He took his classical training and 'inventively' adapted it to his health needs. Plates serves a meat-free, fish-free, gluten-free, dairy-free, organic menu that does not use refined sugars. 'The word trend is something that comes and goes, but what I do and the place that it's been created from is definitely not a trend,' Haworth told The Independent. 'It's got so much purpose and soul that if it was a trend, it wouldn't last. But, hopefully it inspires more restaurants to celebrate fruits and vegetables and get creative with it.' The chef, who was the first to cook up a vegan-only diet on the BBC cooking competition Great British Menu, said he found it initially difficult to do classical cooking without meat or fish. 'Trying to work out the formula of our food and how to create without any kind of meat and fish, which is what what I was trained in all my life, was super, super challenging,' said Haworth. He added: 'We have so many incredible, classical chefs. When you're a young chef, you learn how to make a red wine sauce or a terrine. But, in this kind of space, there isn't really that much history. I look at that as a positive and that we can create our own rulebook, you know, there are no rules, so it's kind of like a blank canvas, which is cool.' Born in Blackburn, and coming from a family of Michelin-starred chefs, Haworth opened the flagship restaurant with his sister Keeley, and believes 'it's a great moment for northern cooking'. 'Celebrating with Mark Burchill [who was awarded his third star [for Aughton eatery Moor Hall] who I grew up with in kitchens, and to celebrate with him was just amazing,' he continued. For Haworth, this is 'just the beginning'. What's next? 'Three stars' he said.
