James joined Vegetarian Express in 2025 as development chef. His work focuses on developing sustainable plant-based ingredients and menus, while guiding and educating chefs and food service teams on emerging innovations in plant-based cuisine. He brings with him a wealth of experience from fine dining, neighbourhood restaurants, and large-scale catering operations.
His path through the industry has been shaped by curiosity and creativity. He began as a kitchen porter while at university and quickly rose to head chef at Zizzi Sheffield. Defining experiences followed: Brasserie Roux, where he honed French technique; the Scolt Head in Islington, where fast-changing menus sharpened his adaptability; Restaurant Associates at Nomura broadened his understanding of ingredients and refined his skills under mentors with Michelin-starred backgrounds. Three years at Cin Cin in Fitzrovia marked a turning point; where zero-waste menus, seasonal cooking, and an annual vegan menu allowed James to prove that plant-based food can meet the highest standards.
Now, as development chef at Vegetarian Express, he continues to draw on his wide ranging experience, blending creativity and respect for ingredients into a philosophy that prizes consistency, seasonality, and above all, flavour.
“I’m not about reinventing the wheel, just good honest cooking and sharing joy with food.”
James’s passion for plant-based cooking has personal roots. With a brother who has been vegetarian since childhood and a wife who eats mostly vegetarian, he witnessed first-hand how often meat-free dishes were treated as an afterthought - little more than “meat and two veg.” Determined to do better, he set himself the challenge of creating dishes that stood proudly alongside the best meat options, even at family Christmas dinners!
He has always loved the technical side of the kitchen, particularly the garnish and entremetier section, where vegetables take centre stage. For him, it’s about precision, skill, and attention to detail - proving that with the right approach, vegetables can shine just as brightly as any main ingredient.
' Always focus on flavour. Give yourself room for error. When you were starting out doing traditional cooking there would have been mistakes that you made and then learned from, getting confident working with unfamiliar ingredients only takes a couple of attempts.'
James has been making his mark developing plant-based recipes for Seed-Bank helping chefs add crowd-pleasing plant-based dishes to their menus. Here are some of his top picks.
James is one half of our fantastic Chef duo which also includes Dan Blucert our Development Chef.
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