THE NUMBER OF people eating a diet of just plant-based foods has increased in Ireland and globally largely in the last few years. Vegetarianism is not anything new, but veganism has gained more momentum of late.
In Dublin, two popular spots are Vish Shop and Veginity. Both owned by Mark Senn, who moved to Ireland from Australia years ago and had the idea of starting a plant-based food truck, even though back then it was going against the grain to do so.
“We started the food truck two-and-a-half years ago and we’ve built up from that to where we are now. We opened a permanent location of Veginity on Upper Dorset Street, Dublin 1 around two months ago and we have just signed a lease for a permanent location for Vish Shop on Blessington Street,” Mark Senn explained.
“The new Vish Shop will be a sort of fast food takeaway. There are lots of meat alternatives cropping up, but no one seems to be concentrating on fish alternatives so that’s the gap we’re hoping to fill. We made this vish from cassava flake and people would come up at the end and say, ‘That fish was amazing!’ – so we knew it had obviously struck a chord.
“I have been a chef for 20 years and I have found that if you can present something new to people with a bit of familiarity, they are more likely to take it up and enjoy it.”
We asked Mark what five things he has learned that are nuggets (vegan ones, obviously) of wisdom…
“Something might not pay a benefit today, tomorrow or next week, but it’s a long term game. If you put the hard work in now, there will be lots of opportunities at the end, rather than a single one. Don’t be afraid to back yourself to be successful too. You might make mistakes along the way, but it’s all part of the learning. Self-backing is almost like a leap of faith!”
“It’s definitely the driving force behind why we are able to grow is us finding people who want to be there and have the opportunity to learn and push themselves and express themselves. A big thing I found when I was chef, when I training in particular, was there wasn’t a lot of opportunities to work in veggie or vegan places. I can now see how difficult it is from the outside and for someone who wants to work in the industry, but they might have only a few places or choices in the country to try and work somewhere to cook something they are passionate about. I want to give them the opportunity.”
“To ask yourself why something works or doesn’t work. If you can identify these things than you can improve them. If you keep on pushing it and you don’t understand why it doesn’t work then that can be really frustrating so it’s important to ask yourself these questions.”
“If you don’t make mistakes you aren’t pushing hard enough. Never stop learning from the good and the bad. When working within a team involve people with those mistakes, so you have someone to bounce off and you can all learn from them. Teach your team about your mistakes so they don’t make the same ones.”
“It means they won’t be scared to try a different avenue that you haven’t tried before and maybe come up with a slant that you haven’t seen before or a better way of doing something. The food becomes quite artistic when you are able to do that; instead of being stuck with constraints or forms of what you think plant-based cuisine should be.”
“Every day is completely different and you should be open to the flexibility to change quite quickly and rapidly depending on how the day is progressing. If you have a mindset of what your day is going to be like and never deviate from it then it can be quite difficult. With our industry you need to be very flexible all the time.”
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