Beans have had it tough. They’ve been soft boiled and hard done by, unloved and side dished, confined to the back of the cupboard and synonymous with tasteless hippy fodder. I started my life hating beans. Cold, tasteless three bean salads, sickly baked beans from a tin and bullet-like chickpeas floating in a curry – no thank you. Fast forward 20 years and I’m running a bean brand to try and persuade people they’re the world’s best food.
Like most interesting stories, it started with a hangover. I was on a foreign exchange swap in Madrid and after another night out filled with broken Spanish, I found myself hungry and lazy. I’d bought some Judion beans – specified by Nigel Slater for a recipe – and they were all I had in the house. I opened the jar and spooned one into my mouth. I distinctly remember closing my eyes to properly immerse myself in that moment. It was incredible – that was when I realised beans didn’t have to be sad and soulless.
Working at the forefront of food culture meant I saw beans differently; I saw them as something delicious and aspirational, and the obsession deepened. But I also realised something else: I was very alone in this bean obsession. It came down to two things: the quality of the beans I was eating and the #beanspo I was seeing from the chefs I was working with. When Covid hit and I was made redundant from my hospitality role, I decided to turn this feeling into something that would make beans cool – and Bold Bean Co was born.
Dining and Cooking