The chef behind Melbourne’s much-loved vegan deli and vegan Latin-inspired is coming to Sydney for the first time - and for one day only.
Chef Shannon Martinez will be making her first Sydney guest chef appearance at in Paddington on November 26.
So expect a dairy-free version of that parmesan toast that everyone harbours an obsession with, plus loaded potato skins, her take on the pasta bar and she’ll be cranking the soft-serve machine, too.
And yes, there’ll be bacon bits.
What’s surprising, though, is she won’t have to make this item from scratch – as bacon chips are . “People have been fooled for years,” she says. “It’s soy protein.”
At Melbourne’s , chef Shannon Martinez does create many vegan items from scratch, though – from the salami to the buffalo mozzarella. Except for the bacon. “It’s one of the things I don’t make”, she says. She sources the soy and wheat protein replica from an Asian grocer and the key is how they cook it.
Where else can I get vegan bacon?
Vegan bacon – who’s making it and why are we obsessed with it?
“Most bacon you buy at the supermarkets turns really cardboardy. [The reason why] bacon is so good is because it’s full of fat. So we make it extra greasy and really salty and we use extra liquid smoke to give it a bit more flavour.”
It’s used in Smith & Deli’s hugely popular egg and bacon muffin – it’s the reason the venue goes through 40 kilos of vegan bacon a week. For Sydneysiders, though, to get a taste of the egg and bacon muffin, you'll still need to get to Melbourne.
'My Australia' with Shannon Martinez, Sunday 26 November 2017, $60 per person, bookings: [email protected].
106 Oxford St, Paddington, NSW
Tue-Sat 8am-6pm
111 Moor St, Fitzroy, VIC
