Chef quits 20 cigar a day habit to turn vegan and start UK’s first plant-based school kitchen prompted by wife’s allergies and parents’ deaths

A globetrotting chef has launched the UK’s first plant-based school kitchen as his parents’ shocking deaths and his wife’s food allergies saw him ditching his 20-a-day cigar habit and meat and dairy heavy diet to become a health-conscious vegan.

Boasting 35 years of culinary expertise, when Gary Hardley’s parents both died of cancer seven months apart in 2015 he quit smoking, going on to stop  eating and cooking with meat and dairy soon after his wife Anna Hardley, 48, was diagnosed with dairy and wheat intolerance in 2019.

Gary, 51, of Worthing, West Sussex, said: “We worked with Public Health professionals, nutritionists and parents to create the right menu and set up a huge tasting day with over 70 families to try the food and figure out what worked.

“So far, there has not been one negative comment. With kids, the food needs to look good and it needs to taste right, or they won’t eat it.

He added: “Or we change the names of the dishes, as while our black bean and quinoa balls in BBQ sauce looks good, it sounds odd to kids, so now they are veggie balls in BBQ sauce.”

Gary’s first health wake-up call came in May 2015 when his dad Peter Hardley died from throat and chest cancer, only for his mum Carol Scott to die within months on Christmas Eve of peritoneal cancer.

He added: “I am 51 now and my parents both died at 61, which is constantly in the back of my mind.

“I want to do anything I can to keep going for longer and soon realised that if that meant changing my lifestyle, I would do it. .

Meanwhile, Gary’s wife Anna had been breaking out in unexplained rashes.

He said: “We were living in Mallorca at the time and my wife kept coming out in all sorts of rashes.

Desperate to find a solution, Gary plucked one of Anna’s hairs and sent it off for allergen testing, which revealed that she was 100 per cent allergic to wheat and dairy, among other foods.

“I thought, ‘What are we going to do?'”  he said.

But the couple decided to do all they could to change their lifestyle.

And, after a few months of exploring dairy-free options, they decided to embrace Veganuary in 2020 – the month-long vegan challenge – with “life-changing” results.

He added: “I was always dieting before I went vegan, but never with any great success. Now, though, I weigh 100 kilos and feel really good.

“I used to take blood pressure tablets, too, which I don’t need anymore and I feel so much more energetic now.”

Despite festivals being off the agenda and Gary shielding due to his blood pressure, an opportunity arose just down the road from their home to put their ideas to consumers.

He said: “There was this little shop not far from us where a  woman was making vegan pastries and scotch eggs and in June she announced she was having to leave,” he said.

Initially, the couple’s family were hesitant of their plant-based plans.

Gary said: “They didn’t really understand at first and I explained that it is a really busy and growing market that has become massive.

He added: “Our first customer was a four-year-old girl who had been on a school trip where everyone had ice cream and she couldn’t, because she was dairy intolerant.

“Her mum brought her in and said she could have anything she wanted and she couldn’t believe it, she was so happy.

And, less than a year after launching their new business, another opportunity arose at their local private school, Our Lady of Sion, where staff were looking for an “out of the box” caterer.

Arranging a meeting and tasting, Gary and Anna set up the Plant Based School Kitchens brand – the first of its kind.

He said: “It’s the end of the week and they can have a veggie burger in a gluten-free bun with skin-on fries.

“They still have the nourishment they need and it’s always served with corn on the cob or salad and dessert. If its a shortbread biscuit, it’s served with coconut milk or oat milk.”

He admitted: “I would never have thought a few years back that I’d become plant-based.

“Back in the day, if a vegan had come into a restaurant where I was chef, I’d have thought, ‘What can we give them? They eat nothing’.

He added: “Plant-based diets aren’t a fad – they are the way for everyone to  go.”

Now, with GCSEs on the horizon in May, Gary said they have planned a pop-up BBQ tent  at the school offering world street food every day for students during the exams.

He said: “It is just five plant-based meals out of 21 meals a week that we do for the children, so if you still want your kid to eat meat, they can have it for the rest of those meals.

“We are just trying to offer them this plant-based option and ask them to be more adventurous.

With one school under their belts, Gary said they are keen to move into more and more if possible, although cooking for state schools may yet be some way off.

He said: “We can’t go into state schools at the moment because, currently, rules say they have to serve meat three days a week and fish once a week.

He added: “But, for now, we want to expand into as many private schools and nurseries as possible.”

Gary would also like to make their menu entirely allergen-free – with, so far, 11 of the 14 main food allergens ticked off.

He added: “If we can produce a plant-based diet that is free from all allergens, then that  will be a winning format.

“We want to be in as many schools as we can as a business. This is definitely the future.”

For more information, head to www.plantbasedschoolkitchens.co.uk