Canty chef delivers vege message
We all secretly know it – we should be eating more plants.
Promoting the change is Green Dinner Table, a food delivery service run by chef Tom Riley. Its plant-based food boxes fill the bellies of up to 200 Christchurch households every week.
‘‘There’s been a trend in cooking over the last five years or so, at least that I’ve seen, not so much towards veganism, but towards smaller protein portions, less meat and more vegetable sides,’’ Riley said. ‘‘That’s become much more trendy, and really we are just trying to stay ahead of the curve.’’
Together with business partner Cole Stacy, Riley launched Green Dinner Table two years ago, after eight years working in a busy cafe in Toronto, Canada.
He trained at CPIT, now Ara Institute of Technology, before pursuing an international culinary career. He moved back to Christchurch with his wife in time for the birth of their first child, born two weeks before Green Dinner Table’s first delivery.
‘‘My wife’s been vegan for quite a while, and I’ve kind of been leaning that way in my cooking career . . . and we just figured this would be a cheaper setup than starting a restaurant,’’ Riley said.
Various plans are available, either in couple or family sizes, and either three nights or five nights of meals per week. A family plan for five nights, which will feed two adults and two children, costs $159.
The business employs three staff to prepare, pack and deliver the boxes. Delivery is on a Sunday, arming customers with recipes and the necessary ingredients. Riley and his team make ‘‘almost everything’’ themselves.
‘‘Nowadays there are so many more vegan aiolis, cream cheeses and plant-based proteins, but two years ago there were so few that we were forced to make it ourselves. So we make aiolis, wasabi, tapenades, spice mixes, pickles, kimchi, sauces, jams, all sorts really,’’ he said.
His culinary knowledge results in dishes where ingredients are used ‘‘on [their] own merits’’, often replacing mass-manufactured ingredients for more natural alternatives. Where citric acid might be used ‘‘for that nice sour taste’’, for example, Riley uses dried sour mango that ‘‘kind of does the same thing’’.
Compared with running a restaurant, Riley said the business’ waste was close to zero. Produce orders were dictated by demand, meaning the shelves and pots were empty every Sunday.
‘‘In a restaurant you’d have to prepare 10 litres of barbecue sauce for one dish on the menu, and you might end up throwing most of it out at the end of the night. Here we cook a few litres of something and put it all perfectly into the boxes. It’s so much more efficient,’’ he said.