ACCIDENTALLY VEGAN - The interrogation of a patissier in LONDON

I love my work.....Yesterday, I got to hang out in London with the genius  behind ACCIDENTALLY VEGAN and a driving force (actually he's so relaxed/patient about it all...so probably best to say strolling) for the mainstreaming of vegan food....DRUM ROLL PLEASE....

Introducing Alex Burton!...readers...Alex, Alex....readers..Hi.Hello.

I met Alex through a chocolate eclair....

thank the Lord for my fully functioning taste memory!

I attended a book signing with the LOVELY Sarah Kramer in May 2011 and this very chocolate eclair had me HANKERING for more.  Who was this alchemist of VEGAN French Patisserie? (Can I collect DNA and clone the talented rascal????. ) I rooted around, made enquiries and found it was Alex ~Burton, the owner of Accidentally Vegan, a vegan baker with a French flair.   So, I emailed him to say.... 'Hi Alex, I ate one of your amazing eclairs and I am now smitten.  Here's the blog post I wrote.  Thought you may like to read it'......  He shook the rice flour from his hands and tapped a reply onto his keyboard.  We made arrangements to meet.  And we did. 

We rendezvoused at Tibits (no, not my spelling mistake and, no, didn't eat there YET, it's veggie so it's on the list) on Hebben Street, a quiet side-step from Regents St (LONDON).   We chatted until he was shivering from the cold and I was shivering, from a low blood sugar and a high need for an eclair.

Alex, a Uni student on his way to a Degree in Management, began AV following a community event in Covent Garden.  A year ago Alex's mother had asked him to bake some cakes to provide for a stall.  His food went down a storm and all the attending ladies were sparkly eyed for his pastries and cakes. The ladies were very surprised when he mentioned that everything he'd made  just so happened to be vegan. And thus, as the legend goes, Accidentally vegan was conceived and born...gestation..1 afternoon. 

Alex is a sweet, almost humble guy who wants to do good in the world.  He wants to make vegan food mainstream.  Providing delicious, affordable, food, to anyone with tastebuds.  He also wants it to be nutritious, he has two years study of nutrition under his slim belt too (I'm convinced he never sleeps!...he assured me he does).  Alex is passionate and curious.  He enjoys chemistry...knowing how things interact/work and their effects.  This passion is fed into his kitchen creations and he has a real understanding of ingredients and taste.  He makes all his pastries from scratch.  Learning as he goes.  I've not yet tried his Cornish pasties but apparently they are just like the original Cornish version (sans meat, of course).  Much of his food is gluten free ( accidentally) just because they taste better, which is good news for the gluten free among us (a happy accident!).

ooh la la!  VEGAN pain au chocolat...GOOD!  Oh my gosh, the 'bite' of the pastry and flavour is a splendid rendition. Apparently even better gently warmed.  BETTER?! is it possible?

He seems so happy with all he has got going on right now, but Alex does have visions for the future...a bakery in Soho (YEY!) a ready meal range packed in eco-good packaging, (WOO HOO!) but his feet are firmly in the present.  He is very at ease with what he is doing and is happy to go with the flow.  He's only 21 and I'm sure destined for (more) good things.  Currently, a huge 50% of his profits go to Animal Activism but he is keen not to shout about it (me and my big mouth!). 

I could have spoken to Alex all day.  I still was firing questions at him with the frequency of an ack-ack gun,  long after our tea cups were drained, and learned so much about him.  I asked him his favourite from his collection; 'the brioche....no, the Belgian waffle, with ice cream (home made)......oooh, no, actually, I love marshmallows', he crooned. Clearly, and thankfully (for us), Alex's tastes are multitudinous (and my question was a bit rubbish...one should not be made to choose!).  A bit of a polymath, he hopes to someday soon get time to put some energy into another passion of his. Music.  He also plays piano. (I know... this guy is brimming with creativity and talent).


You'll find Accidentally Vegan at Vx, and around town. His repertoire also includes mille feuille, s'mores, whoopie pies and sandwiches.  His ready meals are also soon to be in London health food stores.  Watch this space....not indefinitely...you may get bored and at some point have to pee, so what I mean is COME BACK..or subscribe to my blog.  It makes me VERY HAPPY when people SUBSCRIBE!

Accidentally Vegan cherry eclair...oh my gosh!  GOOD!   It was frozen as they'd sold out and I have to admit I ate it when it was not quite defrosted. tut tut but it was still AMAZING

I got my fix from Vx.  Thankfully still open at 6pm.

Topping up my supplies...though the chews and chunkies didn't make it home to sit in my cupboard!

Thanks Alex for a very enjoyable 2 hours in London and for catching the baking bug! x

VEGAN LONDON

What a day!  More fun than you can shake a stick at!  LONDON DAY OUT!

Chosen Mission - FUN.  CAKE. VEGAN.

First stop October Cafe, London's 1st VEGAN tea shop. YES, a vegan tea shop.  My beating heart!  I had heard about the opening of this place whilst in California and I hot footed it here as soon as I had chance.  Peter, the owner, a Dubliner nestled in London since 2001, was there in his waistcoated finery.  Impressive!  Suited and booted, as they say in London land. 

Our sweet toothed, dapper host makes all his own cakes and pastries.  He'd had a busy run and few cakes remained so I didn't have chance to try his legendary, retro classic,  Black Forest Gateau. It was lounging in the kitchen, waiting to be dressed and the baked cheesecake was cooling off, still in it's tin.  My mouth watered at the thought of the cheesecake so I pretended I wasn't gluten intolerant and opted for that, over the Cream Tea, Parisian jammy dodger and Cup cakes.  I sipped green tea out of my china tea cup, and soon dug into the towering (ok, slight exaggeration) blueberry cheesecake.  It was sweetened to perfection, cloying, thick (in the way that good baked cheese cake is) and I rode widly on a sugar high that took me shore at my next stop....

Vx (pronounced V Cross).  Also known as SSOV  The Secret Society of Vegans.  Vx is a great little shop with a tiny cafe downstairs.  It had reclined on my 'to visit' list for ages.  When I found out super Vegan STARLETT Sarah Kramer of 'How it all Vegan'  & Vegan A Go Go was going to be there...I was on it.  Quarry Girl & VEGAN BACKPACKER had stepped over the threshold before and I wanted in on the action.  Now... lets talk chocolate eclairs VEGAN..Hello!  I honestly didn't hold out much hope for this stale looking creamy thing..But, BUT... it was GORGEOUS, the pastry was just like my mum used to make but VEGAN and the vanilla cream was totally DIVINE.  I apologise for eating half of it before taking the piccy but I was impatient to gorge on it.  A local vegan patissier makes the cakes ACCIDENTALLY VEGAN (genius!).  They had a plate of chocolate Rolo's, for us to sample,  that AV had made and they were beyond superlatives!

After topping up the sugar load I went to the Vx Cafe to see Mrs Kramer.  I thought I'd just say hi (not wanting to fall into the putting of a celebrity on pedestal trap) but Sarah and all the other people that gathered were so NICE and fun, I rooted myself in for a comfortable hour of happy chit-chat.  Sarah is LOVELY, fun and vivacious.  I adored her.  She is full of the joys and it was nice to meet lots of fellow vegan foodie obsessives.

So passionate is this chica that she had this tattoo done to help her to remember her baking conversions.  Way to go Sarah. 

http://www.tattoozoo.net/  Copyright.

 Melisser aka The Urban Housewife turned up to say hi too.  What a love!  It all became a bit of a tattoo fest and I felt quite naked with my body still the same as God made.  Her tattooed sleeve below is the story of some of her travelling life....which has now taken her over to the VEGAN friendly Berlin.  Hope to see her there one day soon.  What a lovely way to pass the day...I just wish I could have whisked us all to a huge designer kitchen to hang out and make busy with some food.

Tattoo.  The Urban Housewife .Copyright.