The meat-loving chef credited with spearheading London’s barbecue revolution is to open his first vegan restaurant in a radical career U-turn.
Neil Rankin, 43, whose uncompromisingly carnivorous ventures over the past seven years have included Smokehouse in Islington and Chiswick, Pitt Cue in Soho and the City, and temper in Soho, the City and Covent Garden, launches his plant-based venue Simplicity Burger in Brick Lane on November 1.
He said he had seen a gap in the market for people who want to eat less meat but were not approaching plant-based food “from a wellness perspective but want something that will really satisfy them”. The 45 seater, two-storey upstairs restaurant, which does not take reservations, will only serve a range of “five or six” burgers created from a secret mix of ingredients including Japanese miso made from fermented soya. There is also a ground-floor cocktail bar.
Mr Rankin, who wrote a recipe book called Low And Slow: How To Cook Meat, said that he had spent more than eight months researching and developing a vegan burger that would be as satisfying in taste and texture as its meat equivalent.
He said he used pickling and fermenting techniques to give vegetables the longer lasting and more intense “big flavour” profiles associated with “a nice bit of cheese or some aged beef”.
Mr Rankin added that while he had not turned vegan, he has “massively cut down” on his meat intake.
He continued: “Eating meat is a matter of common sense. Obviously if you eat big red steaks and whole chickens every day then you’re going to die soon. But if you have a balanced diet like they have in continental Europe, and eat lots of other good things, then you’re going to be okay.”
He said he was worried that the vegan movement was being taken over by big food manufacturers creating processed vegetarian meals with ingredients such as “powders that have had 98 per cent of the vegetable taken out”.
