We sat down with chef Erin Baker to find out a little more about her culinary career.
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself, including where you are today, professionally, and what got you here?
I was born and bred in rural New Hampshire USA. My mother and grandmother were both avid home cooks and gardeners.
I graduated from university with a degree in creative advertising and decided I didn’t want to spend my life behind a computer. I stopped eating meat at a teenager as I didn’t like the texture and then I learned more about the cruelty associated with factory farming and its environmental aspects and went vegan in 1998. I have been vegan since then apart from a few years being veggie.
I cut my teeth as a chef in Northern California attending a small culinary school focusing on therapeutic cooking with natural foods.
There I was introduced to a range of world foods and cooking styles including raw foods, macrobiotic, Ayurvedic and fermentation, all of which have been pillars in developing my style of cooking.
While in Northern California I worked as a garden chef at the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, a non-profit conservatory of biodiversity, which honed my skills in cooking seasonally and from seed to plate.
I also was co-owner of an award winning vegan restaurant in Sonoma County during the time which was hard work but so much fun. That is where I began teaching. The restaurant was in a resort town North of San Francisco.
In the summer the population went from 3,000 to 30,000 so in the winter we had to look at other ways of bringing in revenue and cooking classes was a great way to do this. I have been teaching people to cook plant-based food for over 25 years.
I moved to England in 2006 and then became the head chef at Woodruffs Organic Café. I started offering cookery classes in the café kitchen and they proved to be very popular, from there I spent a few years freelancing at cookery schools around the county and as a core tutor on the Vegan Diploma classes at Demuths in Bath. In 2018 I was offered a space in Nailsworth with a commercial kitchen and published a cookbook. We have celebrated the five-year anniversary of both.
What’s your signature dish?
Hmmm that’s a tough one as I do so many. My Thai curry stack is a dish that I love to serve and it always goes down a treat as it ticks so many boxes. Kind of like a deconstructed Thai green curry. Stir-fried green curry vegetables, sesame crusted tofu, with black rice, and fragrant squash lemongrass and galangal sauce.
What are the most important considerations when crafting your menu?
I do a range of different menus for a classes, catering, supper clubs or takeaways however I always take into consideration the season, what vegetables will taste the best and be the freshest, nutrition and protein are always included, a variety of textures and flavours to excite the palate and how it looks on the plate to entice the eater.
How would you describe your cooking style?
Modern plant-based vegan cookery with a heavy influence on seasonal veg and world flavours. No fake meats or highly processed vegan cheese here.
Do you have a favourite time of year or ingredients that you look forward to working with?
Late summer in this country when there is an abundance of locally grown veg. It’s a time of year where you can get homegrown tomatoes, aubergine, squash and kale all at the same time!
What is your favourite ingredient?
Whatever is in season but I do love squash!
What’s your favourite piece of kitchen equipment?
Toss-up between a good old pair of kitchen tongs and my high-speed blender. Both are critically important in the kitchen.
Where’s your favourite place to dine?
Millenium in San Francisco is a long-standing favourite although I don’t get there much these days! Star Anise is Stroud is fabulous and Mildreds or Farmacy when I am in London.
What do you think is the most overhyped food trend?
Foods like Fois Gras that are extremely cruel and unnecessary.
How would you describe the food you create to somebody who’s never experienced your kind of food?
Vegcentric, fresh, nutritious, full of flavour, texture and colour.
How do you go about menu planning?
We do supper clubs at the cookery school about every six weeks and I absolutely love it as I can put whatever I want on the menu. I start by thinking of the season and contacting my local veg suppliers Farmer Fred from Close Farm just outside Tetbury and Good Small Farms to see what they will have ready. Then I think about what I can forage or what is ready from my allotment to add to the menu and then I build a five- course tasting menu of small plates. Each dish is constructed individually but also has to flow with the rest of the menu.
Flavour, texture, composition and acidity are all taken into consideration. It’s super fun and all of my team loves the supper clubs. Here are a few of the dishes from those nights. Nettle pakora, tamarind sauce, mint chutney, chive riata, asparagus tempura, gochujang mayo, fermented wild garlic, furikake, miso braised hispi cabbage fermented tomatoes and whipped tahini, raspberry cashew cheesecake with hibiscus jelly, hazelnut cardamom crust raspberry rose sorbet.
What would you be doing if you weren’t a chef?
Probably working for an animal rights charity, but I have always found giving someone a vegan cake far more effective than shoving a pamphlet in their face.
What’s your favourite takeaway or comfort food?
A good brothy noodle soup like ramen or pho hits the spot!
Natural Cookery School Days Mill, Old Market, Nailsworth GL6 0DU
01453 832444
