A talented Hull teenager has turned her passion for vegan food into a successful business.
Lucy Musgrave, 15, started out in her kitchen cooking up tasty meals and creating her own recipes.
She built up a strong following on social media, and went on to launch a website to accompany her e-book, called ‘Powered by Plants.’
Lucy is now supplying her recipes to businesses across the UK, as the vegan food sector continues to cook up a storm.
She said: “I got interested in cooking from the age of about 10 and even before that I was baking cakes and making other things because we’ve never really been into takeaways.
“Some of my friends were eating chicken and chips all the time but I wanted to do something different. I really enjoy good food.”
Lucy Musgrave won’t turn 16 until March 2020, but is already more than a year into running her own company, Pure Delicious, and selling her own culinary creations into the booming vegan market.
Her current priorities are to secure good grades in her GCSEs next summer at Kelvin Hall School in Hull and to follow that with studies for A-Levels.
But as Pure Delicious grows, Lucy is also developing her business skills with the help of the John Cracknell Youth Enterprise Bank in Hull and Golding Computer Services, where she has just gained a qualification in computerised accounting for business awarded by the International Association of Bookkeepers (IAB).
Lucy said: “I didn’t really think about a business. I was just having fun cooking.
“My mum found out about the John Cracknell Youth Enterprise Bank and they gave me a grant and introduced me to Goldings, where I’ve learned a lot about the financial side of things and got the qualification.”
Lucy tried pescatarian and then vegetarian diets before going vegan in June 2018 having become convinced by the environmental arguments.
She decided to promote vegan food after comments from friends.
Lucy has attracted nearly 2,000 followers on Instagram and around 100 people have downloaded Powered by Plants from her website at £5 a time.
Feedback from the e-book has been positive, with readers enjoying the range of breakfasts, lunches, mains, desserts, sides and sharers.
Lucy said: “I’m trying to get the message across that most of the ingredients are average price and can be found in local markets and supermarkets.
“Next I’m going to set up a monthly email subscription service for people to receive my recipes and I’m now doing market research for some baking mixtures which I’ve developed.”
To find Lucy’s recipes, visit her Instagram @puredelicious_ or her website at www.puredelicious.co.uk .
