She is the country’s leading connoisseur of vegan dining – and yet one of Shannon Martinez’s favourite smells is the sweet, musky tang of jamón hanging in a Spanish delicatessen. It is, she says, the scent of her childhood, reminiscent of her grandmother Rosa’s house in Preston. Rosa arrived in Australia from Andalusia in 1962, with her husband Antonio and four children (a fifth would later be born here and go on to become the first chef in the Martinez family).
“She was the reason I started cooking because her food was outrageous,” says Martinez. “And of course, like most grandmothers, nothing was written down. We eventually got her recipe for her famous chicken wings and none of us could get them to taste like hers.”
Finally, Martinez realised her mistake; she was trying too hard. “As a chef, I’m going out and buying the best of everything. She would never have done that… We’re all trying to make it too boujee.”
That’s the secret to Spanish food, says Martinez. It’s not meant to be posh. It’s best when kept rustic, simple and social. Today, memories of Rosa’s cooking continue to inspire her but Martinez jokes that she’s relieved her grandmother isn’t around to see what she’s done to her dishes, unconvinced Rosa would approve of her trailblazing vegan updates.
Martinez, who is famously not vegan herself, is driven by the challenge of recreating traditional dishes for vegan diners. Spanish flavours, she says, are some of the hardest to master.
Here, she shares the dishes inspired by
