Latest features Eating your greens

Date Published:

07/05/2008

Q: What’s the best way to get a vegetarian riled up? A: Ask them about the eating out options available to them.

You’ll no doubt unleash a torrent of complaints aimed at the food industry - in many cases, completely justified.

Simon Rimmer, owner of Manchester vegetarian restaurant and institution, Greens, regular guest presenter on TV cookery shows - and surprisingly, non-vegetarian - is one of the leading chefs specifically catering for the vegetarian market in the UK today. 4Food caught up with him ahead of the launch of his fourth cookbook (and second completely veggie offering), to find out how he’s making a difference to the culinary landscape.

Exciting, accessible food

As someone who had no interest in the oft touchy subject of vegetarianism, it seems unlikely that Simon Rimmer would’ve chosen to embark on a crusade to change the ‘V’ options on menus across the country. So why take on the vegetarian Greens?

Says Simon: "18 years ago Greens was a downbeat vegetarian caf. I didn’t care what it was; I was just looking to buy something cheap. So you could say I happened into it.

It was only once I got in there, that I realised the potential. 18 years ago to be 'vegetarian' was very political, so we were one of the first places to coin the phrase 'meat free’' We focused on it being about a food choice rather than an ethos. You don’t have to be Chinese to eat Chinese food.

The restaurant is purely based on food – we want to make exciting food that’s accessible to everyone."

Taking stock

With constant talk of eating seasonally (Gordon Ramsay recently launched a campaign to get restaurants fined for not using in-season produce), one would presume that this would influence the chef's menu choices. Or do his veggie-tastic dining decisions revolve around the trendier vegetables-of-the-moment?

"When deciding on the menu we focus on both prominence and seasonality and produce. I’m also a bit of a magpie – I steal from everywhere. I look at cuisines that do vegetarian well and not necessarily just meat replacement – South East Asian, Eastern European…

One of our big breakthroughs was looking at French sauces – we made them using veggie stock and they're still full of rich flavour, and still retained the heaviness."

Cooking the books

Enthused diners and interested members of the public have naturally been keen to tap into Simon's veggie cooking techniques. Thus it's no wonder that he's branched out into the world of cookery literature having published his learnings and recipes in a number of publications. But have they appealed to both vegetarians and meat-eaters alike?

"I’ve written three books - the first one, the Accidental Vegetarian, back in 2004/5," enthuses Simon. "It’s now been translated into 6 languages, and in its 14th print run, selling extremely well in America… it’s one of my proudest achievements. It’s full of accessible dishes. For those non-vegetarians, for example… they’ll open a vegetarian cookbook and there’ll be a list of ingredients as long as your arm and loads of words that are hard to understand.

We've done half a dozen vegetarian veggie master classes for chefs - I can’t reveal the names! People are stunned at the variety of flavours that can be achieved."

Causes for courses

Having been the poster boy for vegetarian cooking for many years, has the vegetarian ethos had any influence? Has Greens started to focus more on the cause than the course?

"One thing that people hate is being preached to," replies Simon determinedly. "Whether it’s about eating seasonally, eating locally, eating vegetarian - people don’t want to be told what to do and what to eat.

At the end of the day, I’m just cooking people’s tea and I want it to be enjoyable - I want them to go away thinking it was a fantastic food experience - and that's all."

Want to sample some of Simon's finest? Try his vegetarian recipes.