Big veg energy at new Cork food truck

BY her own admission, Meadhbh Halton has had to learn to be comfortable with being called a chef and working in restaurant kitchens.

Her natural talent with food was recognised as a student of culinary arts in TU Dublin and encouraged along the way by friends and fellow chefs. At 28 years old, she is learning to wear her talents more comfortably.

In November, 2022, Meadhbh opened her Airstream-style super shiny food truck, Meb’s Veg, and has quickly garnered a loyal following from those who frequent farmers’ markets at Mahon and Douglas.

Her food is plant-based and heavily inspired by the fresh vibrancy and heady aromatics of cuisines of the Asian continent.

From Vietnamese-inspired Bánh mì sandwiches, summer rolls and pho, to hash browns, shoestring fries, sugared doughnuts, and cherry soda swirled with edible lustre that looks like something out of a fairytale, Meadhbh’s food is colourful, fun and seriously delicious.

So where did this love for food filled with big veg energy come from?

“My mum is from Liverpool, my dad from Cavan, and I was born in Canada. We moved back to Ireland and to Shannon when I was three-and-a-half years old,” says Meadhbh.

I like to say that Shannon makes very creative people – because there’s nothing to do! But I had a really strong sense of community there, and a lot of friends; but there’s not much to do, so making your own fun was definitely a big part of life.

Meadhbh left Shannon for Dublin to complete a four-year Culinary Arts programme graduating in 2018. It was during her time in college she decided to become vegetarian.

“I’ve always had an interest in it. My sister has a bad nut allergy, so I really got interested in people who have strange diets because it felt like a challenge to make nice recipes without certain things. It made me more creative.”

It’s very easy to make a delicious plate of food when everything is on the menu, but when the larder of ingredients is restricted, especially those ingredients traditionally relied on to impart flavour or texture, that’s where the challenge kicks in.

“I wrote my college thesis on going vegan and the social impacts of it. When someone’s preparing you a meal, it’s a caring thing, but suddenly you’re not eating because you can’t eat it, and people can take that as an offence.

“I can understand why because it’s a loving gesture that, in their eyes, is being throwing back in their face. That interested me as well. Also, I love to eat, and being able to make really tasty things was just a perfect accompaniment to that.”

After graduating, Meadhbh went back to Canada and took a job working at a plant-based restaurant in Vancouver called The Acorn.

Throughout college, I never really thought I wanted to work in restaurants, I didn’t want to be a head chef or in charge of anything.

“After college, I worked a summer at The Acorn, and they were just so passionate about vegetables. It was the first place that I felt there were restaurants out there doing things that I was into - I hadn’t found that before.

“I was encouraged into going for roles as a sous or head chef. People said I would be good at it, and in the end, I just came around to the idea and went for it.”

Returning to Ireland, Meadhbh got a three-month summer job in Cork’s pioneering veg-focused restaurant, Paradiso. At the time, Eneko Lopez was head chef, and the sous was Epi Rohan – now the head chef at Nell’s Wine Bar on MacCurtain Street.

“I didn’t want to work somewhere where meat was on the menu, so Paradiso was the obvious choice.”

Shortly after Meadhbh arrived, Epi left and Eneko was coming to the end of his contract as head chef. She slid into the sous chef role first and then head chef.

Paradiso featured recently on TV series John Torode’s Ireland. Filmed in the early months of 2022, when Meadhbh was still the restaurant’s head chef, owner Denis Cotter praised her for gifting him a new perspective on Paradiso dishes and giving them a different flavour profile.

As Torode sat down with Denis and Meadhbh to tuck into three dishes prepared for him to taste, Meadhbh said focusing on vegetables gives permission to be “diverse in the flavours” she uses, allowing more experimentation and exploration.

“I feel like there’s no real rules with vegetarian food,” Meadhbh says. “Whereas what we learned mainly in college was French cuisine and simple flavours, there’s just lots more flavour to explore, and I feel it’s flavour you can get from the plant world.

“The main source of flavour on a meat dish is probably going to be the meat, but when you’re not reliant on meat for flavour, you’ve got all these wonderful vegetables, herbs and spices to draw on.”

For Meadhbh, then, plant-based cooking is a way to break the rules. In a way, that willingness to break the rules fits into Cork’s food culture because it has always coloured outside the lines, finding its own way to move the food narrative along.

Enjoying the challenge of doing something new and following where the flavour goes, in late 2022, Meadhbh left her head chef position at Paradiso to strike out on her own, creating her plant-based food truck, Meb’s Veg. But where did the name come from?

“Although my name is spelled Meadhbh, when I was growing up my parents spelled it as Maeve because Canadians didn’t understand the Irish alphabet! It wasn’t until I was in my teens, I found out the real spelling of my name on my birth certificate. I thought it was a much nicer spelling and I much preferred it.

“My parents grappled with it for ages until once my mum called me Meb, my friends took hold of it and that nickname just stuck!”

The Meb’s Veg menu is very tight, with the stars of the show being her take on Vietnamese Bánh mì sandwiches in which she showcases Kilbrittain-based OTOFU, and Summer Rolls – crunchy vegetables wrapped in rice paper roles and served with a spiced dipping sauce. These are things Meadhbh enjoys eating, too; but how does she keep things interesting for her as a creative chef?

“I can get quite bored doing the same prep every week, but it’s also made me fine tune how I do it so I can do it as speedily as possible and find the best ways to do it, which is a fun kind of challenge,” says Meadhbh.

“But, when I’m in the trailer, I find I get so much out of chatting to people, talking to customers, getting their opinions, coming up with ideas. 

So, it’s maybe less about being a creative chef and more about being in the community – I feel as though I get a lot out of that.

After trading for less than a year, Meadhbh has recently taken on an extra pair of hands to help out with the food truck.

“Before [Angie] started working with me, I was doing the things I had to do every week and I didn’t have a lot of mental space left. I feel like I struggle with having time and headspace to think about things. Now I have someone working with me, I have a lot more time and I’m getting a few more ideas and that’s when I really feel like having the head space for it.

“I don’t want to do something different or new without giving it a really good think through - unless it’s something like picking courgette flowers from the garden, bringing them to market and telling people: I have these – if you want them, come and get them!”

Meadhbh and her Big Veg Energy food truck has found a groove in Cork’s food scene, and it’s a good fit, she says.

“Cork is just a great place to work. Other people from other businesses were really reaching out to me at the start, just saying congrats, and that meant a lot. I don’t think you get that everywhere.

It took me a while to love Cork, but I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else now. In Cork, there is such a community around food, such an excitement, and I feel like everyone shares it – not just the people in food.

“There is a strong community of people who are working in food and chatting about food in Cork, and that’s really nice.”

Meb’s Veg trades weekly at Mahon and Douglas farmers’ markets. You can hire Meb for small events, too. Reach out via her website, www.mebs.ie or follow her on Instagram @mebsveg.

Meadhbh is also preparing to launch her very first series of cookery classes at The Cookery Cottage, ‘Plant-Based Cooking with Meadhbh’ will run every Monday from mid-October in the evenings from 6-9pm. No experience is needed, but is suitable to over 18’s only, and each week will explore a different menu of plant-based delights. Places are limited, priced at 75 euro pp. Book your spot at www.mebs.ie or talk to Meadhbh at the Mahon Point and Douglas markets.