Plotting your next last-minute getaway? Head to paradise and partake in plant-based heaven alongside – innovative five-star island resort Amilla Maldives Resort and Residences is welcoming leading vegan chef, Kirk Haworth, for a special foodie residency from 11-25 November
Alongside his sister, Keeley Haworth, with whom he co-founded the prestigious plant-based restaurant, Plates London, Kirk will offer Amilla’s guests the opportunity to experience next-level vegan dining at a series of special gastronomic events including an exclusive masterclass over the two-week residency.
Specially designed five-course tasting menus will feature show-stopping, wholly plant-based creations – forgot rabbit food, this is riveting and exciting fine dining.
Dishes include the likes of fermented shiitake broth, coconut custard, Tokyo turnips and black truffle; smoked pumpkin, fragrant sauce, black rice, kaffir lime and yuzu; and organic potato cooked on embers, pickled onion and barbecued aubergine. Masterclass attendees will also discover Kirk’s secrets to making herbaceous pancakes with acidulated fennel, baby beetroots and dill.
The collaboration between Amilla Maldives and Plates London was born of a closely aligned culinary and sustainability ethos. Despite its remote location on a private island in Baa Atoll, Amilla’s wide range of contemporary international cuisine encompasses its groundbreaking signature Wellness Your Way concept, which offer guests a comprehensive variety of vegan/vegetarian, gluten-free, dairy-free and keto/paleo/low-carb wellness dishes at all of the resort’s restaurants.
Amilla Maldives also cultivates its very own extensive fruit and vegetable gardens on-island – an abundant natural resource from which Kirk will gather the freshest of ingredients to enhance his creations.
Kirk leads the kitchen at Plates London with unparalleled passion, inspired by his own personal wellness journey in addition to 16 years of perfecting his craft in Michelin-starred restaurants around the world. After winning the North West Young Chef of the Year award at 17, Kirk went on to work under the world’s top chefs at The French Laundry, Restaurant Sat Bains, The Square, The Quay and The Northcote. In 2016, a diagnosis of Lyme Disease led him to overhaul his lifestyle and explore a plant-based diet in pursuit of optimum health.
After discovering that an anti-inflammatory diet without meat, gluten, refined sugar or dairy reduced the intensity of his symptoms, the Plates food ethos was born. “Plates now follows my personal journey, a chef’s journey, into 100 per cent plant-based eating and cooking,” says Kirk. The Plates London team focuses on balance and well-being, without compromising on taste or creativity, to deliver modern, plant-based food with high-end execution.
Make it happen
Abercrombie & Kent (www.abercrombiekent.co.uk; 01242 386 500) offers seven nights at Amilla Maldives Resort and Residences from £5,033 per person. Price based on two adults sharing a Treetop Pool Villa on B&B, return economy flights and shared seaplane transfers. Subject to availability.
