THE BLOG
Visit the new WWW.EDDIESHEPHERD.COM to keep up to date with my various projects and books.
This website will remain here and active, I will still use it as a blog and as an archive for my recipes.
Modernist Vegetarian by Eddie Shepherd
Now Also Available as a pdf to download for all platforms.
iPhone, Android Phones, Tablets, Computers and Laptops etc
£3.99
Allows you greater portability and instant reference in the kitchen by having it on a phone, or view in its full glory on a large computer screen.
The ebook is OUT NOW
WWW.MODERNIST-VEGETARIAN.COM -
Follow @Modernist_Veg
So to give a little context of who I am, I’m a 28 year old professional chef in Manchester (finest city in the world) focused on modern delicious vegetarian food.
I cook vegetarian food using all the tools at my disposal to make it as delicious and exciting as possible - from traditional techniques, great ingredients and foraging to sous-vide, hydrocolloids and ground breaking food technology.
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 am also the development chef for www.Modernist-Chef.com , which supplies modern culinary ingredients and equipment.
THE SHOP
www.Modernist-Chef.com
A short video of my work
Mostly though, as a chef I’m obsessively passionate about food and cooking, and constantly striving to learn more and improve.
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 alongside a great palate and good attitude to food, 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.
In fact I feel having been a vegetarian chef has far from being a constraint actually fuelled by creativity and pushed me to really try to get the best from my ingredients and concepts for dishes.
Please have a little look around the site, 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 ‘Modern Techniques’ 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
To email me - click and contact me here
Find me at -
www.celebritychefs.co
Note to editors/producers - contact me here to request PR or arrange bookings/projects.
Facebook Page -
Modernist Vegetarian
by Eddie Shepherd
OUT NOW!!
Modernist Vegetarian
by Eddie Shepherd