Plant based delights are the dish of the day on the latest episode of Mary Berry’s Love To Cook, which airs on BBC2 tonight, 18th November. Keen to try some vegan cuisine, Dame Mary Berry, the renowned celebrity chef and food writer, invited Mike and Joe Hill, the father and son duo behind One Planet Pizza, the UK’s first plant based frozen pizza company, to cook her up a vegan storm.
Lightly spiced, succulent BBQ Pulled Jackfruit and tasty turmeric Tofu Scramble were the simple but delicious recipes that Mary most wanted to try and Mike and Joe proved that removing animal products is no barrier to taste or texture. Viewers will see Mary revel in the jackfruit’s likeness to pulled pork and learn how, with the right balance of herbs and spices, tofu can make the perfect scrambled egg alternative.
One Planet Pizza was founded by Mike and Joe in 2016, out of a passion to make mouth-watering pizzas that are great for you and the planet. Wanting to create a go-to plant-based alternative to their much-loved freezer staple, they started experimenting with ingredients and plant-based cheezes to make their own plant-based pizzas at home.
One Planet Pizza was born, the UK’s first frozen vegan pizza brand and first plant-based business to crowdfund, reaching investors from all over Europe in. Now the business is exporting pizzas to over a dozen different countries around the world as well as over 500 outlets in the UK and producing over 3,000 pizzas a week from their production unit based just outside Norwich.
On the new Mary Berry’s Love To Cook, the longstanding vegans, whose company is based on the ethos that epic tasting food doesn’t need to be harmful to the planet, cheekily challenge Mary to go vegan to help save the planet, as meat and dairy production causes twice as many CO2 emissions as plant based foods.
Ironically, Joe’s grandparents live and work on their pig farm in north Norfolk. The co-founder of One Planet Pizza, says:
“Aged 10, I asked my grandparents why they were keeping all these pigs as pets and discovered the horrific truth that they were all being raised to be sent off to be slaughtered and eaten. I never looked back at meat!”
“Growing up as a young veggie was hard as the only one in the class or in my group of friends. Ever since, food has been a huge part of my life and I’ve always used food as a way to encourage compassion and challenge traditions that I don’t believe are ethical or right.”
On challenging Mary Berry to go vegan, Joe says:
“Mary Berry is such an icon, she has been teaching Britain to make delicious dishes for over six decades! She said she had lots of plant-based foods in her pantry and seemed keen to add vegan dishes to her repertoire, so it seemed like a good time to challenge her to go vegan and encourage the rest of the country to follow suit to help tackle climate change.”
“Who knows maybe there will be a vegan spin off soon – Mary Berry’s Love To Cook Vegan.”
