Pavel Kanja is a chef with a mission. The co-owner of acclaimed Holland Park restaurant Flat Three is quietly but successfully ending perceptions that vegan food can never match meat or fish for taste and variety.
Inspired by the minimalist aesthetics and flavours of Japanese, Korean and Nordic cuisine, Flat Three offers an array of plant-based food and drink, much of it made in- house from fermentations that are a common thread across the cultures that it embraces.
Pavel’s creations transform humble vegetables into something extraordinary, with
Smoked sand carrot, miso & sweet cicely, Wild broccoli parcel & French onion dashi and Grelot onion, girolles & corn miso just some of the imaginative seasonal choices on offer.
Says Pavel, “We extract every flavour we can using fermentation, smoking and salting to give vegetables taste components that you don’t expect.”
He even goes so far as to make a jus totally from vegetables, reckoning that the flavours he extracts are exactly the same as beef or chicken.
Flat Three’s Plant-Based Menu showcases the wonders of locally sourced and often overlooked ingredients, with Forager, a renowned team of wild plant specialists led by Miles Irving in the forests of Kent, supplying Pavel and his team with a wealth of little- known but delicious wild vegetation.
Accompanying these dishes is a selection of vegan wine, teas, infusions, ferments and delicious house-pressed juices.