Plant-based entertainment round up

New Day New Chef

While most cooking shows add a vegan chef or dish into the mix, often out of tokenism, Amazon Prime scored a major hit in 2020 with New Day, New Chef. Big name guests like basketball star John Salley and Olympic cyclist Dotsie Bausch talk up their favourite plant-based foods and offer expert opinions on health benefits and energy levels.

Veganuary 2021

According to a report drawn from internet searches by food-based media outlet Chef’s Pencil, global interest in veganism reached an all-time high in 2020. So, January 2021 is expected to be the biggest Veganuary, with newbies from 192 countries signing up to try a month without meat or dairy. Ambassadors like actor Joaquin Phoenix have helped boost the profile of the event since 2014, and everyone who takes the pledge gets a free celebrity e-book with tips and recipes

COOKBOOK RECOMMENDATIONS

Cool Beans by Joe Yonan:

This is a real passion project for the food editor of the Washington Post, who has slowly adopted a plant-based diet centred on beans in their infinite variety. Yonan shows you how to make everything from dips to desserts – all from a pan-global range of pulses.

Vegan Cakes by Sarah Hardy:

Another big seller in 2020, this beautifully designed book has done veganism a serious service. From Pink Vanilla Dream Cake to Black Sesame Banana Bread, Hardy makes the case for third-course decadence without recourse to eggs, cream, or butter.

Speedy Bosh by Henry Firth and Ian Theasby:

Winner of the PETA award for best vegan cookbook of 2020, this latest compendium by the duo behind the internet plant-based food show, BOSH.TV!, is packed with Firth and Theasby’s quickest and easiest recipes – the emphasis is on one-pot and frying-pan vegan dishes that can be ready faster than a takeout order.

In Praise Of Veg by Alice Zaslavsky:

Perhaps the best designed cookbook of recent years, this one stands out in being organised by colour. Food writer and presenter Zaslavsky draws the eye first, right to the vivid-looking veg at the centre of the plate, then hits you with the flavour by way of simple, stylish recipes, storage tips, and helpful counsel from some of the world’s top chefs.

PODCASTS

Science vs

Hosted by funny, incisive Aussie-American science journalist Wendy Zukerman, this stalwart mythbusting podcast sets old-school empirical enquiry against the faddism and marketing-speak that tend to stretch the truth on many aspects of modern life. Very often, the show challenges claims made by purveyors of trendy beauty products, or designer health foods, from essential oils to detox teas. A recent episode was based around taste-testing and fact-checking various lab-grown meats.

Home cooking

For grimly obvious reasons, more people were looking for tips on this subject in 2020 than any previous year in human history. Many found profoundly useful info on this latest offering from celebrity chef and cookbook writer Samin Nosrat, host of the popular Netflix show Salt Fat Acid Heat. Together with veteran podcaster Hrishikesh Hirway, she tells listeners how to make the absolute best of what they’ve got in the kitchen, with advice on roasting vegetables, making cranberry sauce, and bringing maximum flavour out of tinned food like sardines.