On this cloudy Sunday me and a friend of mine went along to Vegfest – an annual veggie bonanza of deliciousness that takes place in Brighton, Bristol and London. It was absolutely packed, like to the extent that it was hard to navigate around the place. There were 125 stalls and lots of talks and cookery demos – it was so inspiring to see so many people making vegan and natural products! And more importantly, its great that it was so popular. We enjoyed scouring all the food stalls for yummy free tasters – my boyfriend joked that they’d clock me and radio round saying ”watch out for the girl in the stripy top, she’ll eat your whole stall!” Hahaha. We had a wonderful lunch of veggie burgers and falafel wraps and then ‘put the world to rights’ over coffee. All in all it was a great day out, and if you’re around Bristol or London and want to check out the creme de la creme of plant-based goodies, I’d totally recommend it. The dates for the next two Vegfests in 2013 are:
- Bristol – 24th – 26th May, £2 adults and £1 kids.
- London – 5th – 6th October, £10 adults and £2 kids. Advance tickets buy-one-get-one-free.
The Brighton event was free admission for everyone, so I’m kind of surprised at the price of the others, but I still think its worth it if you’re interested. A high point for me was getting hold of some vegan fudge. I’ve always loved the smell of fudge and really wanted to eat it, but I’ve never seen any that isn’t made of butter. Today was my lucky day! I must say it was a bit too sweet for me but I guess I just don’t have a very sweet tooth. Also I tried some really yummy veggie sausages that I’ve never had before.
Next task for the day: impressing an avid carnivore and trained chef with a vegan Sunday roast.
Nuts, sweet potatoes and optimism at the ready.
Wish me luck!
Earth Baby 
Good luck with the vegan roast! There are excellent recipes for it, as I’m sure you know. If your friend is anything like my past self phe’ll be delighted to eat your cooking. When I cooked for a living, people often said that they were shy about cooking for me, but I always responded that it was great to eat something for which I hadn’t chosen every detail.
Thank you! It went really well and he said it was the best vegan meal he’d ever had – before admitting it was actually the first! I just wanted to make a good impression because many non-vegans seem to think we just live off carrot sticks or something. How come you gave up cheffing? (:
I’m glad your vegan meal went down well! To me, cooking for specified diets was always a pleasure.
My years of cooking for a living were a kind of sidetrack. I was born to be a scientist but for a while my mental health wasn’t good, so I needed a different way to earn a wage. When I left commercial kitchens, it was for research labs which require almost exactly the same set of skills! You have to do things by the book, identically each time; you have to obey rules about safety; you have to share machines in cramped spaces with people you may or may not like; you have to meet deadlines and you’re often far too hot. Academics laugh at me for saying that I found more job security in that world than I’d found in catering, but it’s true. Chefs don’t get treated well.
I would love to have a VegFest come to my area. I’m afraid the meat eaters majorly outnumber the vegan/vegetarians around here. Glad to know some meat eaters will try vegan foods too, none around here will.
Vegetarians way forward!!
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