This Is How To Get A Michelin-Starred Vegan Feast At Home For When You Just CBA to cook
As you know, we all love food here at Consommé; we know you all do too - otherwise you wouldn’t be here. There’s nothing quite like slaving away over a hot stove all day and then sitting down to enjoy the delights of your creations with your loved ones or lusting over the menu of your favourite restaurant as you allow yourself to be transported away remembering the melody on your tastebuds - especially when that restaurant is of a Michelin quality. But with restaurants closed (hopefully for not much longer, we beg, Boris) and when you get those days where you just CBA. We feel you. So what if we told you that you could get a Michelin-Starred Vegan Feast delivered to your door - for cheaper than your local takeaway?
Pied à Terre - one of London’s longest standing Michelin Starred restaurants who, under the watchful eye of Head Chef Asimakis Chaniotis, known for being one of the youngest head chefs to work at a MS standard and for bringing his Greek flair to the classical French cuisine to create a new culinary style that is contemporary and innovative have demystified the traditional stigma surrounding fine dining and made it accessible to all - through vegan, vegetarian and free-from dishes (which are all award-winning menus) and by offering the chance to see behind the curtain of such an establishment, and during COVID lockdown last year, they launched their at-home Vegan Feast.
Each week the team at Pied à Terre craft a seasonal menu that is available for collection or delivery across the UK for you to finish and enjoy at home. Their menu is suitable for two people and comes complete with easy to follow instructions. So, it has, quite literally, never been easier to enjoy Michelin quality, freshly prepared Vegan food at home - without any of the pretence, faff or washing up of multiple pots and pans.
Pied à Terre: Example Menu
I’m lucky to have eaten at Pied à Terre on multiple occasions across the years and the team always manage to completely exceed all expectations and keep raising the bar higher - so, of course, I had very high expectations while eagerly awaiting for my box to arrive… and it did not disappoint. Each dish stayed true to Pied à Terre’s ethos, keeping things equally as playful as it was delightful and really showcased the true creative craft and inventiveness of the chef’s skills, knowledge and technique in every dish - with the added element of surprise and piece de resistance - pushing the limitations of select hero and vegan ingredients to create exceptionally beautiful food.
We started with their Spiced Pumpkin Velouté which was slightly spiced with warming notes that continued deep on the palate. The soup itself was rich in taste but light on the tongue. A silky smooth texture that could only be achieved by only the most experienced of techniques without the use of cream or dairy. The toasted pumpkin seeds on-top not only added a note of nuttiness but the creamy texture as you bit into the nut mellowed out the spiced notes - it was a delicious addition to any cold winter’s night and one I would happily eat again and again.
This was followed by a cold potato dip, (Potato Dip with Garlic, Lovage and Spring Onion) lovingly topped with greens and spring onion which was wonderfully and surprisingly fresh, beautifully smooth and with lasting flavour of the seasonal toppings which paired perfectly spread atop the warmed crisped bread that accompanied it.
We opted to serve the tender stem broccoli (Tenderstem Broccoli with Basil Pesto) warm, rather than the cold way the restaurant recommended. I’m yet to find a floret I don’t like and this was no exception. It came complete with the most pungent pesto flavoured with fresh basil, high quality olive oil that coated the tongue and smothered and clung to the each floret and took such a simple dish to one of my most favourite dishes to have eaten that yet.
The stew (Beans “Gigantes” - Oven Baked Vegetable Greek Stew") was smokey on the nose but built on the palate with a rich depth that just kept giving. The vegetables, still with an al dente bite added to the experience. Delicious in their own right but elevating the dish as a whole; the beans, in their gigantic form were beautifully creamy and wonderfully filling.
And then there’s dessert - a Chocolate Rice Pudding with Chestnuts. The dish which nearly put me off ordering until the next week but what ended up making the entire meal. I still have nightmares of School Lunch Rice Pudding slopped on the tray, still in the shape of it’s previous containers’ form with a sticky - only way to describe - blob of jam slipping around on top. But… I am now a rice pudding convert, to my Nan’s delight. We can now enjoy her favourite dessert that I have despised for decades, but with a loving fine dining upgrade. The chocolate note in the dessert was apparent but not overpowering due to the pairing of coconut which resulted in a luxuriously creamy dish that was oh-so-moorish. The chestnuts however added another layer of creaminess which began to feel a little one-note and their chestnut flavour became a little lost amongst the creaminess. If they were toasted it would have taken the dish to an elite level and I would have gone from rice pudding fiend to a rice pudding queen. But, they still did a pretty good job at getting this girl to lick her plate clean.
Pied à Terre has once again set the benchmark for high-quality cuisine that exudes inclusivity while still honouring traditions. Their Vegan Feast is still available for purchase for the foreseeable. You need to order by 3pm Wednesday for Nationwide Delivery on Friday and the set-menu for two, which contains 3 starters, a main with a side of bread and a dessert for around £25pp (prices vary) which is definitely a third of the price, if not more, that should be charged for the exceptional quality received and the wonderful memories it evokes, even weeks later.
Imagery is for the article’s purpose only and not true to Pied à Terre’s Vegan Feast, unless stated otherwise.