Vegan food is not usually associated with luxurious eating but Ben and Jess of Flo’s Kitchen want you to think again…
Hello! We are Ben and Jess and we own and run Flo’s Kitchen! Flo’s Kitchen is a fully vegan-friendly bakery in Northampton and it’s ‘Flo’s’ as Jess’ middle name is Florence and is affectionately called Flo by her family. For those less familiar with the word vegan, vegan food is food that contains no animal products.
This includes meat, dairy, eggs as well as various other ingredients that we may not typically associate with animals (some vitamin D is derived from sheep wool and is used to fortify various foods like cereal and Shellac, a common ingredient in certain confectionary like Jelly Beans, is the excretion of an East Asian tree bug!). Veganism outside of food extends to not wearing leather and not using cosmetic products that have been tested on animals, amongst other things.
We decided to follow a vegan diet when Jess, who had been a vegetarian since the age of 12, began to learn more about the harsh reality of life for animals on large-scale, factory farms where eggs and dairy are produced. We both felt that having a new perspective on these realities we could no longer justify our consumption of the products of these industries.
We chose to start a vegan bakery because, as vegans ourselves, we found there was a general lack of vegan food available in Northamptonshire, particularly sweet and desert-style foods. We wanted to use our experience of baking to help provide for this growing niche of people who want to live a life free from animal products. We started our business just over a year ago and it has quickly grown to support both of us full-time and shows no signs of slowing down. We are out to show that ‘vegan food’ is really just… food! And it can be just as delicious and indulgent as it’s non-vegan counterparts.
We sell both to the public, who can order directly with us for collection or delivery around Northamptonshire, as well as to businesses who we offer local delivery to as well.
As for who we are, we met 6 years ago at University and have been together ever since and we decided to follow a vegan diet and lifestyle around 2-3 years ago. Jess has had a passion for baking her whole life and with just a little experimenting and tweaking managed to ‘vegan-ise’ several classic recipes and these formed the first products of Flo’s Kitchen. Since then we’ve gained a lot of experience and built on our previous knowledge to develop more and more vegan-friendly products.
Our bakery range consists mainly of tried and tested classics including cakes (of course!), brownies, fudge, lemon meringue pies, rocky road, ‘cheese’cakes and our award-nominated Tiramisu!
If you’re wondering where you can sample some of our vegan-frendly treats then you can of course order directly with us, or at any of the following shops and eateries:
The Daily Bread Co-operative, Bedford Road, Northampton
Caffe Morandi, Gold Street, Northampton
The Magic Bean Emporium, St Giles Street, Northampton
Dapper Sandwich Co, Wellingborough Road, Northampton
The Garden Deli, Nene Court Retail Park, Wellingborough
The Ten Hands Café, Watling Street West, Towcester
Radmore Farm Shop, Victoria Avenue, Cambridge
07792 319798 / 07917846631
www.floskitchen.co.uk
