The word ‘vegan’ isn’t usually synonymous with decadence and indulgence – unless you’re munching one of the creations fresh out the oven from Megan Wessel’s vegan bakery, Gypsy Kitchen.
What do you do if you can’t find the tasty treats you’re hankering for? If you’re Megan, you’re start making them yourself.
Megan is the first to admit that she never expected to find herself running a bakery. After all, the kitchen is pretty far from the swimming pool, where she had spent 12 years teaching kids to swim – and, before she started baking her vegan goodies, she didn’t even know how to cook rice.
The turning point came when she started experiencing severe health issues, which continued for three years. She eventually ended up having emergency surgery to correct a sliding hiatus hernia, and was forced to rethink her diet to aid her recovery. “It wasn’t easy,” she says. “My family’s love language is food – we’re all about the big celebrations over a laden table.” It was over one of those tables that Megan first had an inkling that it might be meat that was making her ill. Her father, a committed braai master, had fired up the coals – and instead of loving the feast, Megan found herself back at hospital to find out why she had relapsed.
When tests revealed that she was perfectly healthy (at least in theory), Megan decided to start a food diary, recording everything she ate and noting how she felt afterwards. It soon became clear that her body preferred fruit and veg, and although she still ate chicken and fish from time to time, she quit white meat too after a dodgy restaurant experience.
Avoiding meat didn’t mean giving up sugar, though, especially since the man she was dating at the time (now her husband), Chef, was a trained French chef with a decidedly sweet tooth. “After he asked me to bake him cookies, I started baking with his daughter every Sunday,” Megan recalls.
The results weren’t too impressive – “terrible” is how she describes them – but with ongoing practice, they got better and better. So good, in fact, that after her boyfriend brought some cookies for the people attending his mixed martial arts gym to sample, Megan received a number of orders. Soon after, she found herself trying to fill those orders in between swimming lessons, morning and evening. “It’s family tradition that we all club together to gift each other a Kenwood mixer, and although I had never used it before, it swiftly became my most frequently used piece of equipment,” she recalls.
It was Chef who suggested she start taking her baking more seriously. “At the time, there really weren’t many vegan options available for people who wanted a little indulgence – and we thought, if we’re struggling to find treats we like, there must be other people looking for these products, too.”
Given the scarce resources, it wasn’t easy to start baking on a larger scale. Everything had to be made from scratch, because the ingredients that are part and parcel of baked goods – simple buttercream, for example – weren’t readily available. It took a lot of trial and error, but finally Megan came up with products she felt proud of.
Although her new business was thriving, Megan hadn’t yet given up on her swimming school – and then, Chef told her that the manager of the café at his gym was leaving, and that he thought she should take the plunge, leave the pool and become a full-time baker. “I was terrified,” she admits. “I knew nothing about running a bakery – I didn’t even know how to cost my items.” It didn’t help that the restaurant wasn’t equipped as a bakery – there wasn’t even proper drainage, so Megan had to use a bucket which had to be pushed outside to be emptied, every day. Plus, it turned out that all the vegan recipes she was able to source from overseas needed a lot of tweaking to make them work in the South African environment, where humidity and even oven temperatures are different. “On one particularly horrible occasion, I walked into the kitchen to find that the unicorn cake someone had ordered for their daughter’s party had completely melted due to the humidity – and she was about to collect it in 10 minutes.”
Not that she allowed this to deter her: she saw the challenges as an opportunity to push herself. She kept persevering, until she was satisfied that she had mastered some truly irresistible bakes. “It took us two years to perfect our croissants and three years to get the macarons right, but it was worth it.” Knowing that she was not alone in her quest for vegan delights was all the motivation she needed to keep pushing, Megan says. Perhaps more than this, she was inspired by the knowledge that she was helping people: “Veganism isn’t just about the diet. It’s a whole lifestyle that’s geared to making you feel better, and because of that, it helps people who have a range of food allergies. When a mom tells me that her child wasn’t able to have a birthday cake before she found my bakery because of her allergies, it all becomes worthwhile.”
Veganism has grown tremendously since the Gypsy Kitchen first opened its doors five years ago, giving Megan more scope to grow the business. She loves helping people progress along their vegan journey with workshops, and hopes to one day open her own vegan culinary school along with a second franchise. In the meantime, she has started a vegan consulting company. “I truly believe that the time has come to give vegans options beyond a veggie platter when they go out to eat! We all deserve better.”
Details: thegypsykitchen.co.za
Megan’s tips for going vegan
Giving up all animal products all at once can feel very daunting – which is why Megan recommends the ‘1% rule’. “Every week, do something small to change your habits. Try swapping out dairy for nut milk in your coffee, or find a recipe that’s not too intimidating to make for Meat-free Monday. The change may seem difficult at first, but once you start to feel the difference in your wellbeing, it becomes much easier to keep up.”
Text: LISA WITEPSKI. • Photographer: NICOLE MOORE. Details: nicolemoorephotography.co.za • Location: PREMIER HOTEL QUATERMAIN. Details: premierhotels.co.za
