When life gives you lemons you make lemonade. But, what happens when life gives you a stick of rhubarb, a kohlrabi or a cabbage? What do you make then? To find out, join us to celebrate the launch of chef and food educator at the Garden Museum, Ceri Jones' debut cookbook 'It Starts With Veg: 100 Seasonal Suppers and Sides', published by Pavilion Books.
Taking the humble vegetable as a starting point for each recipe, the book guides us through 40 different varieties and offers two-three seasonal supper recipes for each.
To celebrate the launch, Ceri will be joined in conversation by fellow vegetable enthusiasts Flora Donovan, Research and Training Manager, Education Team at specialist fruit and vegetable wholesaler Natoora, and food writer and vegetable grower Kathy Slack. Each contributing their own personal and professional insights on growing, retailing, educating and cooking that ‘starts with veg’ and follows the seasons.
The book can be ordered in advance or will be available for purchase on the evening.
Speakers
-
Ceri Jones
Ceri Jones
Ceri Jones trained as a Natural Chef in Berkeley, California. Her cooking has always had a focus on health and community, and she has carved out a niche cooking on wellness retreats around the world.
Ceri is currently Food Educator at the Garden Museum where she has pioneered one of the first museum food learning programmes in the country, inspiring people to cook with, learn more about, and enjoy eating plants. Above all, Ceri is passionate about empowering people with the skills they need to elevate their home cooking and inspires people to expand their knowledge of ingredients, their recipe repertoire and improve their practical know-how to give them the confidence to make the most out of and truly enjoy every ingredient on their plate.
It Starts with Veg is Ceri's first book and will be published by Pavilion/Harper Collins in June 2024
Instagram: @cerijoneschef
-
Kathy Slack (chair)
Kathy Slack (chair)
Kathy Slack is a cook, veg grower and writer who worked in advertising agencies in London for more than a decade before burnout and depression took hold and she escaped to the Oxfordshire countryside, finding solace, and a new career, in the veg patch.
After learning the ropes at Daylesford Organic Farm, she became a full time writer and recipe developer, hosting supper clubs and cookery demonstrations with harvests from her garden, as well as food styling and developing recipes for brands and publications. She is a proud supporter of sustainable farming and a mental health advocate.
Kathy’s first book, From the Veg Patch (Ebury) was named one of the Top 25 cookbooks in 2021 by Delicious magazine and was shortlisted for The Guild of Food Writers Award for Best Book 2022.
She writes a regular seasonal recipe feature in The Simple Things Magazine and is a former columnist for Borough Market's award-winning magazine, Market Life. She also writes the Substack newsletter, Tales from the Veg Patch, and is a regular seasonal recipe writer for OcadoLife. She hosts two podcasts and is a regular on BBC Radio Oxford and Magic FM.
Kathy is also Fortnum and Mason’s vegetable expert, hosting events and talks about growing food at the Food and Drink Studio. She also gives talks and demonstrations at various festivals, including the RHS Festival of Flavours, Big Feastival, Rock Oyster and Wilderness, all with a focus on growing and cooking your own food.
You can find more of her writing at kathyslack.substack.com, where she creates seasonal, mostly-veggie recipes inspired by the veg patch and shares tales from the garden to reconnect you with nature.
Twitter: @gluts_gluttony
Instagram: gluts_gluttony
kathyslack.substack.com
kathyslack.com
-
Flora Donovan
Flora Donovan
Flora is currently the Research and Training Manager in the Education Team at Natoora, a specialist fruit and vegetable company, which seeks to revolutionise our food system by directly sourcing high quality crops from smallholder farmers. At Natoora, education means equipping everyone - from home cook to chef to student - with the skills and knowledge they need to make informed choices about the food on their plates. Here flavour, colour and texture are used as the springboards to talk about the interconnected areas of nutrition, soil health, supply chains and seasonality.
Combining her chef training and background in research, Flora’s role is to drive Natoora's internal and community knowledge sharing programmes, including the partnership with Chefs in Schools as well as running a multiple farm trial of the Sustainable Food Trust’s Global Farm Metric. She is also a trustee of the Food Education charity TastEd, which works with nurseries and primaries across the UK to give children the opportunity to explore and enjoy new fruit and vegetables in a fun and playful way using the five senses.
