JACKIE Kearney already had the world at her feet when she became a Masterchef top 4 finalist. Well, she’d already trotted around a substantial chunk of it, her travels in Asia informing her cuisine. As it still does four years on – with added refinement from her transformation into professional chef in the guise of street food/supper club guru Hungry Gecko.
You can’t have missed her 23ft retro trailer, Barbarella, which ferried her up and down the land, eventually beaching up in the car park of the Beech pub in her Chorlton ‘hood.
The sheer wonder of how Jackie’s life has changed glows from her first book, Vegan Street Food, subtitled 'Foodie Travels from India to Indonesia’. As the title suggests, it is a very personal odyssey as well as a mightily usable collection of recipes, which transcend the hempen, homespun vegan stereotype.
That has been promulgated in what is World Vegan Month (in case this had passed you by – I’m still recovering from National Sausage Week, so you can see which side of the fence I trough on).
Yet for millions across the Indian sub-continent and South East Asia veganism isn’t an ethical lifestyle choice; it’s dictated by survival subsistence on pulses and veg. On the evidence of Jackie’s book it can also be utterly delicious and healthy, disposing of the lazier cliches of vegetarianism.
As Jackie pithily puts it in her introduction: “There is so much about Asian food that is more naturally vegan than Western fare without compromising on taste and texture. Western vegetarian tends to centre around dairy. So much so that my friend and I play ‘halloumi bingo’ when walking past trendy restaurants in Manchester’s Northern Quarter.”
There was no dairy in sight when Taste of Manchester tracked the Gecko down at her London book launch, packed with the foodie bloggerati. She was hard at work at the stoves of East Street, an extension of Manchester’s own pan-Asian eaterie chain Tampopo, where she is currently (non-vegan) consultant chef. Check out their new small plate menu and details of their imminent relaunch in the Corn Exchange here. .
If this is proof enough that she know her Thai mussels Tom Yum style (pictured above) from her Singaporean Laksa soup then dip unto Vegan Food. Better still buy a batch of the books as Christmas pressies. After cooking the likes of Rendang with green jackfruit or Royal Laos tom yum with five-spice tofu and sticky rice balls they may never touch turkey and stuffing again.
Vegan Street Food is published by Ryland Peters at £16.99.
Taste Jackie's food in Bolton
ON December 4 and 5 in a tipi on Victoria Square, Jackie will be cooking a pop-up menu inspired by her travels – pani puri pops, Malaysian rendang and baked Alaska, with pistachio sponge served with Ginger’s Comfort Emporium chai spiced ice cream. It’s part of the Bolton Winter Festival (Nov 28-Jan 3), organised by the council. 7pm for a 7.30pm start. Tickets are £30. Robert Owen Brown is another acclaimed chef contributing a pop-up meal to there festival.