Forest restaurant’s Plabita Florence on plating up a plant-based FAWC storm in Hawke’s Bay

Auckland vegetarian chef Plabita Florence impressed diners at her FAWC cameo last week - but left Hawke's Bay with some mixed memories. Photo / Lawrence Smith

Plabita Florence - the vegetarian chef and owner behind Auckland restaurant Forest - recently wowed 170 guests at FAWC’s Grand Long lunch with a belter blueberry dessert. She chews the fat with hunter gatherer Mark Story about plant-based fare and how she shrugs off protein prejudice.

Vegetarian eateries are rare in Hawke’s Bay - perhaps at odds with what the province has to offer?

Having been raised vegetarian and having never eaten meat, the value of produce is inherent to me. I do see that this isn’t the case for most. I think value perception is a huge one. People want to feel they’re getting bang for their buck, and an easy way to do that in a restaurant is to put meat on the plate. I think you have to work a bit harder to convey the same level of value from a plate of vegetables, and that’s what we try really hard to do at Forest. Where value might not be imbued in what you actually paid for a thing, you have to insert it by way of attention, care, patience and knowledge. It maybe takes a little more thoughtfulness, but I think if you can crack it, it’s an amazing world of flavours of textures.

Which vegetable especially inspires you?

It probably changes every week to be honest. I like things when they’re in their prime. Tomatoes when they’re good, asparagus when it’s good, snow peas, tomatillos ... I also just really like simple things. We always have iceberg lettuce on the menu. It’s probably the least glamorous when it comes to lettuce varieties, but I just can’t go past it. It’s crunchy and refreshing, and the often missing piece of balance on restaurant tables where everything is highly seasoned and blanketed in butter. I also love potatoes. I actually just really like food. Can you tell?

US chef Anthony Bourdain in 2000 claimed vegetarians were “the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit, and an affront to all I stand for, the pure enjoyment of food”. Does this culinary partisanship still exist in cooking circles?

RIP Anthony. I would say it’s so outdated, but unfortunately, yes, it very much still exists. At the FAWC event I was just at, one of the chefs learned I’m vegetarian and said “ah f** off, I’m f***ing out of here ...” and that’s a fairly common occurrence within the industry. I think it’s closed-minded, but my mission is to open minds with good food. The food has to come first. When I tell everyone afterwards that the custard I served was actually made with oat milk and just so happened to be vegan too, it’s too late, they already said it was delicious, and actually maybe the problem is in their minds and not on the plate.

Plabita Florence's Grand Long Lunch dessert of spiced-rum sponge with honeysuckle custard, blueberries, blueberry sherbet and blueberry granita.

Do you know how many of your diners at Forest are meat eaters wanting something different, as opposed to vegetarians?

We definitely get a good mix. We aim to make everyone happy, not just people on vegetarian diets. Being raised vegetarian, it isn’t even something I chose for myself. So if you think of it like that, I’m really just cooking food the only way I know how, the same as every other chef. I think it’s interesting how often I get put in the vegetarian box, but for me, this is just normal.

What’s the biggest vegetarian myth?

That we’re all judgy and care about everyone else’s choices. It’s funny the amount of people that’ll give me an unsolicited confessional about how often they do or don’t eat red meat. It obviously triggers some sort of moral questioning within them, where they feel the urge to get defensive or explain. The truth is, people who choose to eat at Forest definitely don’t need to be vegetarian at all. We’re not trying to change everyone, but in a city the size of Auckland, don’t you think it’s nice if one place like Forest can exist, and that there can be a bit of variety? We hardly have any vegetarian places in New Zealand at all. I won’t go into climate change, but I think it’s cool if we can embrace the few places offering an alternative approach.

Many of us, including me, struggle to entertain excluding fats and proteins from the kitchen. What motivation can you offer?

Well the first thing I would say is - you don’t have to exclude fats or proteins from your kitchen. I guess it just takes a little more effort to cook with vegetarian ingredients, and that can feel offputting. I do just think it’s not really that hard, you have to dare to step a little bit outside of your comfort zone and try some things. I find plenty of ways to stuff myself with yummy things, and never feel like I’m missing out. You just have to find the things that excite you, that you really want to eat.