Smith - Smith & daughters: a cookbook (that happens to be vegan)

Youre reading a cookbook by two women who set out to broaden the mainstream scope of plant-based cuisine. Shannon creates the impossible with pans and vegetables; I bring the passion and business focus to build a following for those creations. Our powers combined, we made a restaurant (Smith & Daughters), we made a deli (Smith & Deli), and we made this cookbook so that people could experience plant-based food the way it should be: big, bold, flavourful, noteworthy, celebration-worthy and myth-dispelling. There are still people who believe veganism is a trend, that all vegan food tastes the same, boring, bland way and, above all, that vegan food is uncreative, not filling and lacks flavour. We dont. Shannon has a repeat saying: a chef s job is to make you happy.

And nothing makes Shannon happier than feeding people. If shes not cooking, shes putting heaping plates of food in front of people. She loves cooking and she loves feeding people. And the way we look at the recipes in this book is more like: how good would this dish be on your couch, on a rainy day, in your PJs, in front of the TV? Shannon was inspired to cook without using animal products because of a sincere lack of inspiration within mainstream cooking. Everything had been done before, except making meat without meat, cheese without cheese, croissants without butter, and eggs without eggs. There were no guide books or scientific research from a chef s perspective on how to recreate animal products from plant-based ingredients, so she just had to do it herself.

Everything in this book stems from the desire to do better, make more, and blow peoples minds. Its unpretentious. Its real. And really good. We believe in real food, touched by real hands (our hands have been all over this food). This book is also about making vegan food accessible to the person who never ever thought they could make the jump.

The greatest compliment we receive on a daily basis is being told by customers that if they could eat Smith & Daughters/Deli every day, theyd go vegan. And this is from customers who, before their meal, joke about grabbing a cheeseburger on their way home, but then say roll me out of here! at the end of the meal. Its amazing and humbling. We have also included more than recipes in this book, so you know who we are, where we come from, where we want to go, and some of the super fun stuff we love and value in this business. We included it to show you that all it takes is a bit of excitement, talent and a lot of hard work to make dreams come true. Yay. Yay.

We hope this book helps you to make meals for yourself and people you care about, meals you enjoy, and meals that will hopefully show you and everyone else that theres more to vegan food than most people think. Enjoy. MO WYSE MO & SHANNON MEET, AUGUST 2012 I approached Shannon to be a part of the Peoples Market: an outdoor events space in a vacant parking lot, which was built out of shipping containers and involved food, music, art, market stalls and a bar. I wanted a vegan food offering, so I approached a friend with a vegan caf who pointed me in Shannons direction. Shannon was head chef at The Gasometer Hotel at the time and had made an institution of her vegan options. Shannons a calculated risk-taker, so she said yes, left The Gas and we joined forces.

She opened South Soul Food and it became the most popular food container at The Peoples Market. ARE WE CRAZY ENOUGH TO OPEN A RESTAURANT? FEBRUARY 2013 At the Peoples Market we were always the first to arrive, the first to set up and make sure everything was right and proper for the day of trade, and always the last to leave, meticulously locking up and ensuring that the next day was set and ready. There was a mutual recognition that our work ethics were on par. An idea was conceived: we should do a restaurant! From this point forward we met for weekly planning dinners, and became unstoppable. FINDING 175 BRUNSWICK STREET, NOVEMBER 2013 Shannon found the location by trolling real estate agencies and endless searching. She made an appointment with the leasing agent and called me while I was at my desk producing TV.

I made up a fictitious doctors appointment and off I went. Amazingly enough, it was the site of one of Shannons first jobs, previously a Spanish restaurant called De Los Santos. This was the very place where Shannon had been told she was just a glorified kitchen hand by fellow kitchen staff. We had to take the space. We signed the lease and embraced the thrill of the unknown, armed only with ambition and our life savings. CONSTRUCTION, JANUARY TO MARCH 2014 The entire place needed an overhaul.

It had been left in the very same condition as when it had been operating, since approximately the late 90s, and nothing had been cleaned, updated, repaired or looked after. It was dusty, dirty, and ridden with little unwanted friends. Everything in the kitchen, cellar, bathrooms and bar was gutted and replaced. We had a small army of friends, family and future staff volunteering their time to make this all happen before our opening in March 2014. Ambitious, but totally worth it: we did it all ourselves. SMITH & DAUGHTERS OPENS, MARCH 2014 We opened the doors to media on 14 March for a First Look Feast, with friends, family and Melbourne journalists and photographers eating and drinking family-style.

Everyone rolled out with doughnuts wrapped in napkins in their purses. There was a booked-out grand opening a week later on 21 March 2014. Since then, that dining room has been full night in and out, winter, blazing summer, holidays and slow seasons. We very quickly outgrew our restaurant space and subsequently opened Smith & Deli on 16 June 2015. Smith & Daughters has been featured in every major Australian newspaper as well as on many acclaimed blogs and in print magazines. In 2014 we won the Time Out Peoples Choice Award, against some very big and well-established restaurants.

And after this book, the possibilities are endless. SHANNON IS NOT VEGAN Thats not the point, is it? But really, its never been something weve hidden or tried to hide. From day one, weve exclaimed it loudly its a point of extreme difference to our peers in the vegan food industry. Shannon knows shes an asshole for not being vegan. Shes smart, she gets it. Not being vegan is a shit thing to do, but not being vegan enables Shannon to do what she does.