Lucy Johnson the founder of Edible Ethics holding a vegan cupcake

About Edible Ethics

Welcome to Edible Ethics, an online vegan recipe and food platform run by myself, Lucy, an ex-professional vegan chef. I started Edible Ethics back in 2018 when I was working full-time as a vegan chef in London.

I built the platform to share my own recipes and inventions with the world. This helped to springboard my freelance career as I began to hold my own vegan supper clubs in London, Berlin, and beyond.

In building this platform I discovered my love for blogging. The fact that I can now share my thoughts, recipes, and ideas with anyone across the world is incredible.

My early foodie journey

I have always had a keen interest in cooking, which was mainly fuelled by my Mum’s amazing food and cookery skills. I was also lucky enough to eat in some pretty fancy restaurants, thanks to the chef boyfriend I dated when I was 16.

As a result of these inspirations, I was forever dreaming of lavish food…between shifts at the less opulent Greggs (my first part-time job).

It never occurred to me to take cooking more seriously. I just loved food; simple as that.

I ummed and ahhed about photography for a few years before settling on politics as the subject I would study at university. Very little serious cooking went on during those 3 years, other than at 4am in my student halls when I would fry gnocchi and dip them in ketchup…not ashamed in the slightest.

Lucy Johnson the founder of Edible Ethics in her Greggs uniform
Lucy graduating from university where she studied politics and animal rights

A moral discovery

It wasn’t until the third year of my Politics Bachelor that I really took animal rights seriously, but once I read a few books on it – with thanks to Steve, my lecturer at the time – I couldn’t get enough. My eyes were opened and I was fully astonished – how could I have never been aware of the grim atrocities that were going on in front of me all this time?!

I turned vegetarian and then vegan pretty quickly after that. The literature I was reading gave me all sorts of insights (i.e. Peter Singer’s Animal Liberation), but what interested me the most was the political theory that lay behind it.

How can we liberate animals? What are the reasons for why we eat animals and their by-products? What is different about being human and being a non-human animal?

Discovering my passion for food

My introduction to veganism led me to this new, crazy world of cooking wizardry. I was excited by the innovations in the edible use of plants, legumes, flowers, fruits, grains, vegetables, etc.

I guess this ignited a passion; a fervour that I had unintentionally ignored for many years.

So I started volunteering in a food waste kitchen during my Masters degree and food ethics soon overtook my interest in academia.

I took any chance to learn more about vegan cookery and enrolled in numerous cooking classes, both online and in person.

Lucy at a cooking course discovering her passion for food
Lucy in her chef uniform at a vegan chef job

Life as a chef

I took on an entry-level job working as the sole cook in a vegan junk food cafe in Sheffield called BurgerLolz.

It was a tough job but it taught me a lot about maintaining stock levels and dealing with pressure.

This humble job springboarded my career. I moved to London and took on a job as Chef de Partie of the newly opened Wulf & Lamb in Chelsea.

From there I became the Head Chef of a vegan cafe in North London. My ideas were getting better and better so it was becoming apparent that I needed my own platform to show them off.

Going freelance

My time working in kitchens inspired me to do something of my own, Edible Ethics. I began by holding my own supper clubs and offering my services as a recipe developer and private vegan chef.

I even found myself on a one-way flight to Vietnam to help open a vegan restaurant on the beautiful island of Phú Quốc.

Before long I had opened up my own vegan food delivery service in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, called Sp’roll.

All along the way I was documenting my recipes here on the Edible Ethics website.

Lucy talking to guests at a supper club she held as a freelance chef
Lucy holding a vegan burger in her hands

Becoming a full-time blogger

Over time I began to realise how much I was enjoying the blogging side of things. Sharing my recipe inventions here on my vegan food blog allowed me to spread the word further than I ever could in person.

Plus I wanted to continue travelling around the world and experiencing new cuisines and vegan food hotspots.

So, with over 7 years of kitchen experience under my belt, I switched my focus to developing the growth of my online vegan community.

Expect plenty of recipes that I love and have worked hard over, inspired by many different cuisines around the world! Moreover, there will be product reviews and restaurant write-ups to help you make informed decisions when choosing what to purchase and where to eat out.

Make sure to also check out my recipes on Plant Based News!