St John’s College hosted an event that featured talks from three sustainability and conservation academics including Dame Polly Courtice, Professor Andrew Balmford and Dr Chris Sandbrook.
Andreas Antona and Luke Tipping from Simpsons Restaurant in Birmingham prepared the four-course vegan tasting menu. There are estimated to be 3.5 million vegans in the UK and Simpsons Restaurant is ranked in the top ten vegan restaurants in the UK and in the top 40 worldwide.
The vegan meal included a carrot broth with parsley oil; pickled, raw heritage beetroot with red vein sorrel; celeriac, kales, hen of the wood mushrooms, with truffle sauce and celeriac puree; and to conclude thin apple tart with blackberry sorbet.
Bill Brogan, catering & conference manager at St John’s College said: “We were delighted to host this high-profile event which raised further awareness of the importance of sustainability.
“The hard-hitting presentations focused everyone’s minds on the challenge ahead, with the vegan tasting menu illustrating how we can create world-class cuisine using sustainable ingredients.
“I’d like to thank Nick White of the University Centre and Ivan Higley of Darwin College from the Sustainability Committee of the Colleges’ catering managers group who helped me to organise the occasion.”
White has held pop-up events across Cambridge Colleges and was the winner of the Sustainability Award at The University Caterers’ Organisation (TUCO) Conference in 2018.