JJ's Recipes

In 1969, when JJ started out on her career, vegetarian restaurants were almost unknown, and vegetarian food was regarded as boring and fiddley. But JJ was no stranger to controversy, and had already shown her stubborness in staying so true to her identity. Through patience and sheer hard work, and a great deal of talent, she slowly forged herself a name that went beyond mere curiousity around her person.

In the nineteen seventies and eighties, the biggest challenge for JJ was to find the raw ingredients she needed for her restaurants. Work with a new restaurant always started with hunting up farms that were willing to pick nettles, ground elder and wild garlic, and provide ecologically produced vegetables, and herbs like rocket and lovage, and write contracts with them. She had to find nurseries that were willing to cultivate aubergines, and courgettes and shops that could provide the lentils, chickpeas, beans and spices she needed. Pulses and lentils were not available on normal supermarket shelves. There were no Asian stores in Scotland until WeeWoo came to Glasgow in the nineties, and a great deal of her ingredients came from stores in Newcastle, with the accompanying risk of delayed deliveries.