Delicious Food Moments with Magu

Delicious Food Moments with Magu

At Royal Doulton we love to slow down and embrace delicious food moments – Magu have a similar mission. A vegan restaurant based in Helsinki, they bring quality ingredients and natural flavors to your plate, to allow you to truly savor the moment.

 

Here we catch up with Magu’s Head Chef, Felipe Moya, who talks to us about the restaurant, its fantastic flavors, making connections over good food, and of course his favorite Olio pieces. He even shares three delicious vegan recipes for you to try! 

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Why did you open a vegan restaurant? 
We thought there weren’t any high quality vegan restaurants in town that we’d like to eat at.  

 
Describe Magu in three words. 
Fermentation, color, seasonal 
 

Tell us more about Magu’s mission. 
Our mission is to inspire you to eat more plants without having to compromise on taste. We use seasonal ingredients, local produce, natural flavors and all our wines are from small vineyards producing natural wines.  
 

What do you love about owning a restaurant, and is it gratifying to watch people make meaningful connections over food? 
I love hosting people. Offering our guests food and the tastes we’ve created. I think of it like my own home that I welcome people to. And yes, especially when you see customers take the first bite of our food, and if they love it…that’s a rush for me. 

Where do you get the food for your restaurant from?
We make everything from scratch from our fresh produce suppliers. We ferment things when they are in season so we can use them later. And we use a mushroom picker that picked around 350kgs of wild mushrooms from the Finnish forest this year! 
 

Share your top tips to lead a healthier more sustainable lifestyle. 
All of us here think vegan food is healthy and sustainable. Buy local and seasonal food. Don’t peel all your vegetables. And don’t waste food! 

What's one myth about plant-based food that you would like to bust? 
That it’s flavorless. If you combine the right flavors, textures and use spices it’s delicious. 

 
Tell us your favorite recipe from the new menu and why? 
The Tom kha with roasted mushroom. It’s so complex, it’s more umami. It’s like a lemony kombu. Also the fermented almond ricotta, I surprised myself when I made it. 

What flavors do you love and why? 
Acidity and saltiness, because they open your appetite, getting you ready for the next flavor. Then comes richness from umami, it completes a circle. 


We understand you like to focus on international cuisines, which is your favorite? 
Chinese, especially Szechuan. It’s cooked quickly in a wok, using less energy to cook, so it’s better for the environment. Everything is chopped, cooked quickly, then it’s ready and tasty. 


Can you share three recipes with us? How can we experience ‘A day with Magu’:


Breakfast: Feta Mousseline 

Ingredients:

  • 200g vegan feta (we like violife brand vegan feta)  
  • 100g oat cream 
  • A pinch of salt 
  • Semi dried persimmon  

Cooking instructions:

  • Add oil, salt, thyme, sliced garlic in a baking tray with ingredients and cook at 160o for 20 minutes. Serve with your favorite toasted sourdough. 

 

Lunch: Broccolini Spinach Pesto Pasta

Ingredients:

  • Spinach
  • 20g basil 
  • 20g parsley 
  • 20g roasted sunflower seeds 
  • Salt and pepper to taste 
  • 1tsp nutritional yeast 
  • 2 cloves garlic 
  • Lemon peel,  
  • 100ml olive oil 

Cooking instructions:

  • Combine the ingredients to make the pesto sauce. Serve with fresh pasta, with blanched broccolini (1 minute in boiling water, 1 minute frying.) 

 

Dinner: Buckwheat salad with beetroot hummus

Ingredients for the salad preparation:

  • Dijon vinaigrette (1 shallot diced, 4tbsp dijon mustard, 1tsp vinegar, 1 tsp lemon juice, salt, pepper, 1dl olive oil) 
  • Cherry tomatoes  
  • Green beans, 
  • Rocket salad 
  • Pistachio 
  • 400g cooked buckwheat 

Combine the following ingredients for the hummus:

  • 200g chickpeas 
  • Lemon juice and peel 
  • 1 garlic  
  • 1tsp tahini 
  • 4tbsp olive oil 
  • 200g roasted beetroot 
Has Covid and lockdown changed what you eat and the way you eat?
I don’t eat such heavy food anymore. More vegetables and less starch. 

 
How do you have your coffee?
Black. It’s simple but the best. 

What’s your favorite piece from the Royal Doulton Olio collection and why?

The pasta bowl. It’s a perfect size for noodles, soup, pasta. The quality is great, we put them through heavy use, at least 150 customers a week and we’ve only broken a couple. That’s not normal.

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