Eddie Shepherd - Award Winning Vegetarian Chef
The ebook coming this summer
WWW.MODERNIST-VEGETARIAN.COM -
Follow @Modernist_Veg
So to give a little context of who I am, I’m a 27 year old professional chef in Manchester (finest city in the world) focused on modernist vegetarian food. I do some media work - Demos, TV, Magazines, Radio etc, and some work as a free-lance development chef specialising in modern techniques, equipment and ingredients..
I also work alot with ‘Cream Supplies’, the UKs leading modern gastronomy supplier. Doing recipe development, product testing and media work.
A short video of my work
Mostly though, as a young chef I’m obsessively passionate about food and cooking, and constantly striving to learn more and improve as a cook.
I essentially do modern vegetarian food, at times I use techniques and ingredients associated with modern or ‘avant-guard’ gastronomy (often refered to as ‘Molecular Gastronomy’ although I don’t like the term). Personally I think, when used creatively and intelligently, modern cooking techniques and ingredients can be important tools in creating in beautiful cuisine, but in the end the deliciousness of the finished product is the most important thing. So long as the quality and enjoyment of the food remain central though I think modern culinary advancements have opened up an exciting new range of possibilities for chefs and diners alike, and I think thats a great thing and so embrace this in my own cooking, in my own way.
Most importantly for me food is wonderful, exciting, endlessly interesting and suprising. A beautiful subject that pervades all our lives, and at its best is an art that can encompass, reflect and to a degree influence philosophies, social and cultural trends, reverence for the past and future, our relationship with others and bring out our most child like sense of excitement.
Before I get to carried away (honestly its a bad idea if you meet me to get me talking about food because I will love it but just not stop), I should mention my niche, which is vegetarian food.
It is a misconception (fortunately less and less commonplace) that vegetarian food must be necessarily bland or somehow ‘missing something’, this is only true of badly cooked/concieved dishes.
Put simply, good food is good food. The fact that meat is not involved in a particular dish should be fairly unimportant and barely noticed if vegetarian food is done really well and with panache. Some of the greatest restaurants in the world will now do full vegetarian tasting menus (along side their main menu) and it would be naive to think that they suddenly drop their standards for the meat free dishes. So I think thats demonstrative of the fact vegetable based dishes can be done brilliantly and this is what I strive towards.
Please have a little look around the site, which is still just beginning to develop, at some of my own recipes and posts. I plan to keep expanding the site, adding more recipes and being attentive to the blog, along with expanding the newly added ‘Molecular Basics’ page which provides and introduction to some of the modern techniques and ingredients I use.
I’m acutely aware of just how much there is still for me to learn and how talented so many of my peers are. I make no claim to be a brilliant or properly matured chef , I am still young and early in my career, constantly learning and creating, and this site is a place for me to share some of this with you. I hope that some of what I put up here will be interesting and inspiring for others.
Feel free to contact me with your questions, feed back, requests etc and I’ll do my best to get back to you.
For media requests, demos, TV, magazines etc please contact me at - eddie@veggiechef.co.uk
Or you can book me for cookery demonstrations and TV via - www.celebritychefs.co
Cheers
Eddie Shepherd
Contact me- eddie@veggiechef.co.uk
Find me at -
www.celebritychefs.co
Note to editors/producers - email me at eddie@veggiechef.co.uk to request PR or arrange bookings/projects.
Facebook Page -
Above - Fruit Glass Experiments
Also-
For vegetarian news, information, inspiration, more recipes, cookery courses etc please check out the lovely people at ‘The Vegetarian Society’ and ‘Cordon-vert’. I owe alot to these guys for their endless support, enthusiasm and friendship.
Whether you’re a recreational cook or a professional chef looking to widen their repertoire and knowledge and learn about good vegetarian food, I highly recommend the courses taught at ‘Cordon-vert’, both their recreational courses and those designed for professional. Have a look at the variety of courses they do on their website.