Cambridge University college chefs in plant-based food training sessions at Market House

Introducing a wider – and tastier – selection of plant-based options for college diners at the University of Cambridge has led to the development of a unique series of training sessions at Market House.

The five-floor diner on market square has a food lab on the premises, with facilities to explore and develop dishes for 10 chefs, and the lab has had teams in from the University of Cambridge throughout January.

“We did some sessions last year, but this format started this year,” says Market House proprietor Bill Brogan, who is on the board of Cambridge Sustainable Food, which is marshalling the city’s hospitality industry to become only the third UK city with gold food status. (The official decision date is June but Bill says “we should have a decision in the next few weeks”.)

“There’s ten people who can work in the lab, usually it’s a pastry kitchen. It’s good to be working with Stem & Glory.”

Stem & Glory is the award-winning vegan restaurant on Station Road, whose executive head chef, Eddie Al Subaei.

Eddie is leading the training at the Market House sessions.

“The courses we’re running at Market House are basically an introduction to plant-based cooking,” he says, “so it’s everything they need to know to cook plant-based dishes – ingredients, nutritional values, serving balanced meals, fish and dairy replacements, pairing flavours, then sharing recipes, getting cuisine experience for other cuisines, then it’s their input and from that they become very good at it.”

Eddie shows the chefs how he would prepare a plant-based dish.

“I was showing how to cook vegan sea bass, it went very well. None of the students knew I had a vegan sea bass in the fridge, so I said to them ‘cook this as if it were a normal sea bass, what would you do usually’ so it would start with season with salt and pepper on the skin…

“Vegan sea bass is made from nori sheets for the skin, the actual flesh is 50 per cent tofu and 50 per cent potato pulp. We keep the pulp and squeeze water out, which gives it the flakiness of the fish because the potato isn’t completely cooked and the starch doesn’t become active until it’s cooked. Algarve sweet, a natural sugar, gives it sweetness, along with iced salt and organic onion powder. Mix it and put it on the nori sheet and it looks like sea bass and flakes like sea bass.”

Eddie has worked closely with Ivan Higney, catering manager at Darwin College, and chair of the Catering Managers Sustainability Committee at the University of Cambridge (CMC). Ivan’s role is to develop an approach to plant-based cuisine which supports the university’s goals, and will encourage students towards plant-based options. The CMC is also working with TUCO (The University Caterers Organisation), making the Market House sessions something of a pilot for a wider opportunity: indeed TUCO’s head of academy, Sarah McLoughlin, is monitoring the session.

So how can this shift – the colleges are on the same journey to plant-based we’re all on to some extent – be delivered, I ask Ivan over coffee at Market House while the training sessions are taking place?

“Well this is the fourth session in the collaboration with Stem & Glory at Market House,” he replies. “All the chefs come from the colleges. It’s part of the CMC’s training plan, with science-based support and research from CamEATS Zero.”

The CamEATS Zero sustainable food initiative will be launched on 12 February by chair Sally Morgan, master of Fitzwilliam College, with a panel including Emily Shuckburgh, Cambridge Zero director, Sarah Carr, Downing College green officer, and Ivan Higney.

“This is training for college chefs in plant-based cookery,” continues Ivan, “and it’s also to support Market House and Stem & Glory in the diversification of their businesses. It’s part of the training programme to help college kitchens learn about and discover plant-based cooking methods which they can take back to their kitchens.

“Today we’re training them for the CamEATS Zero group, we’re helping to support them with science and research to show why we should be providing more plant-based meals. My role is to provide training, resources, and support to the chefs – and interesting meals.”

On the menu for preparation is plant-based gnocchi, along with plant-based sea bass and a plant-based chocolate dessert to finish.

Ivan stresses that the goal for the sessions is to give chefs a creative framework they can develop themselves – “we hope the chefs go back to their kitchen enthused, inspired and not frightened of cooking alternatives,” he says, adding: “Chefs aren’t taught this at school.”

One of the challenges I find with plant-based food is getting value for money – if I go for Sunday lunch and order nut roast, it’s maybe a couple of pounds less than the chicken, but the ingredients cost far less. Does that seem right?

“Yes the ingredients are cheaper but the work to create a nut roast is much more involved – the chicken you just season and put in the oven, but with the nut roast you have to make it from scratch.

“So for instance for plant-based chicken, that’s porcini mushroom-based, and bear in mind you want them to eat it because it’s good – we sell the dish not the ethos behind it.

“A plant-based nut roast is much more hands-on, so the labour costs are higher.”

And the demand is there?

“Yes,” says Ivan. “At Darwin College, five years ago it was 15 per cent of meals consumed that were vegan, today it’s over a third – it’s one in eight across the UK.

“So the university is supporting local businesses for training needs and further, and the feedback we’re getting is that the chefs are very encouraged, interested and would like to learn more.

“If there are other businesses or hotels who want to participate they can contact me, and we might be able to set up courses for local people who also want to cook plant-based food.”

The CamEATS Zero sustainable food initiative will be launched on 12 February by chair Sally Morgan, master of Fitzwilliam College, with a panel including Emily Shuckburgh, Cambridge Zero director, Sarah Carr, Downing College green officer, and Ivan Higney.