A plant-based food academy created by Lauren Lovatt in order to inspire passion through plants and to bring people's dreams to life through plant-based food, taught by award-winning chefs and entrepreneurs.
Plant Academy
Site: www.plantacademy.co.uk
Founder: Lauren Lovatt
Photos: Sara Kiyo Popowa
A key objective of this project was to create the best plant-based education program, first on-site, in London, and now online, with a focus on healthy and conscious eating, sustainability, creative thinking, and making a positive contribution to the future of food in a community of plant-based leaders.
As a co-creator of the onsite courses, now online, I wrote and taught module six, The Business of Plants, for Plant Two, and designed Plant Three's content, activities, and manuals, the ultimate online course for plant-based business owners.
The Challenge
Through cooking, sustainability, and food, it aims to positively impact the world.
Plant Three
Plant Three is for those who dream of owning their own plant-based business
Plant Three is for those who dream of owning their own plant-based business
You can join the program if you want to discover what you are passionate about, if you have an idea for an existing business that you want to develop, or even if you have a business already, but you want to change it.
The biggest challenges in creating Plant Three's content were connecting a student-centered course with the guest lecture, creating a course suitable for an onsite course before the online course, and overcoming the fear of blank pages.
My goal from the start was to develop a practical tools that students could use to play and refer to whenever they needed guidance. The content is very practical and fits well with the rhythmic flow and timings of the course following Hero's journey and the James Webb Young's 5-step ideation process (for producing ideas).
Three workbooks are included in the course content:
Modules zero to nine have their own storytelling flow parallel to guest lectures, filled with personal assignments and challenges.
The Plant Challenge: Using The Plant Challenge Tarot Deck, students will be able to create their own product and service based on a given framework instead of relying on what they already know or what they are comfortable with.
Modules ten to fourteen: It is an invitation to dream. What do you really want to work on? These modules will help you frame an open-ended design project: imagine what another person would experience with your product or service. This workbook will guide you through the design process.
Guest´s speakers: Eoghan Proudfoot, Tom Hunt, Rachel Pamart, Josh Puddle, Mirko Parmigiani, David Bez, Veryan Wilkie-Jones, Sara Kiyo Popowa, Josh Bolding, Amelia Christie-Miller, Ayelen Martinez, Tom Baxter, Lauren O’Donnell, Rishim Sachdeva, Nicole Marguerite Gray, Monique Foy, Zoë Lind van't Hof , Steffy & Will Ashurst-White, Safia Shakarchi and Caterina Oliveira.
Plant Two
My module, The Business of Plants, focuses on cooking with constraints. One of the essential skills in cooking is learning to take advantage of the constraints on a dish, rather than seeing those constraints as mere limitations. When I develop the class:
Time is limited. Evenings only.
Space: It needs to be something I can cook in my shared flat (which has a really small kitchen).
Equipment: zero, only what you can find in a normal kitchen, close to the concept of a “student kitchen” in the absence of any useful tools.
Language: English.
Through four lessons you can explore each constraint, a creative technique for developing concepts and the lesson recipe:
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Why do we like the things that we like? Creativity and Constraints: limits on ingredients & time.
Recipe: Celeriac Taco
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The Making of Unfinished, Decomposing and Re-assembled Dishes.
Recipe: Bloody Pear.
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Or WHY food is a powerful vehicle for storytelling.
Recipe: Confit fennel.
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A Creativity Flow Chart.
Recipe: Saffron & Onion Tarte Tatin.
My dream was to start a cookery school, but I needed support and structure to bring it into reality. Carolina helped me with developing in-depth chef training that would be the core offer for the business.
I loved working with Carolina because she totally got the vision and could see the steps to bring it into reality. We managed to execute every event and class in a creative, imaginative way. We had a clear organisation, vision, and structure, and we had all that we needed to make it happen. She provided world-class development and out-of-this-world assistance for the guest chefs.
Literally making the business possible in a way that nobody else could have done. The results: sold-out classes and the start of building a stellar reputation for the brand.
It is a pleasure to work with Carolina because she is amazing at what she does. In addition, she is realistic about what's possible, and she has the clearest and most creative vision. – Lauren Lovatt
Nourishing Minds, Empowering Businesses
[Always on adventure]