City celebrates salad days of organic food icon

Janet Henderson centenary marked

FEW of the daily diners in Henderson’s of Edinburgh will be aware of her name, but the vegetarian restaurant’s founder is being celebrated this week to mark the centenary of her birth.

J a net Henderson was t he pioneer who brought organic food and farming to Scotland and her influence is still felt to this day.

On Wednesday, Henderson’s will serve a centenary three- course dinner using only local and seasonal ingredients in honour of Henderson, who died, aged just 60, in 1973. It is part of a 50- day food festival being run at the Hanover Street restaurant.

Henderson’s, which Janet opened in 1963, is one of the capital’s bestknown restaurants, and it was partly responsible for the vegetarian revolution. Its more famous clientele over the years have included Tilda Swinton, Billy Connolly, Daniel Radcliffe, Elijah Wood and Sinead O’Connor.

Henderson grew up in Glasgow’s west end. Her father, Andrew Millar, was a prominent architect, and her three brothers had noteworthy careers in journalism, broadcasting and the diplomatic service.

Her daughter, Catherine, a partner in Henderson’s with her brother Oliver, said: “Her own mother was a traditional Glaswegian housewife and I would imagine that they had fairly standard fare on their table.

“But her father died in, I think, the early 1920s, and when she was 17 or 18 Janet’s mother moved from Glasgow to Troon, and Janet spent the pre-war years travelling through Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

“She lived with an aunt in Austria, just outside Vienna. The aunt was a vegetarian and made an enormous impression on my mother.”

When she returned home in 1937, she married “Mac” Henderson, a farmer and former Scottish rugby international. They farmed at Spittalrig, in East Lothian, and went on to have a large family.