Deliciously Ella to open vegan restaurant in Mayfair

Ella Mills has revealed plans to open her own vegan restaurant in Mayfair, 15 months after her deli was forced to close because of the coronavirus pandemic.

In a lengthy Instagram post, the 30-year-old known as Deliciously Ella online, said bookings for ‘Plants’ in central London are open from 16th June. 

The daughter of former Labour minister Shaun Woodward and supermarket heiress Camilla Sainsbury shut up shop at her Mayfair delicatessen, called Deliciously Ella, blaming the coronavirus crisis in March 2020.  

The menu includes pan-fried oyster mushroom scallops with carrot jelly, asparagus ceviche,  cauliflower schnitzel and vegan pancakes with dark chocolate sauce. 

Everything is made in house, including cultured vegan butter, cashew crème fraîche, and crushed walnut parmesan.

Posting on Instagram today, Ella explained how her husband – Baroness Tessa Jowell’s son Matthew Mills, ‘took a big leap’ by becoming CEO of Deliciously Ella and that it had ‘always been their dream’ to open up a restaurant.

Alongside a drawing of the new restaurant, the heiress wrote: ‘Welcome to Plants. Bookings for our restaurant are now open! 

‘Within weeks of dating Matt and I started talking about working together. 

READ RELATED: Twitter users go into meltdown after poll classed Magnums as an 'ice lolly' and not an 'ice cream'

‘Matt took a leap of faith, quitting his job to become the CEO of deliciously ella, and we began to turn my recipe website and cookbook into a proper family business. 

‘When we first starting thinking about what we could do, our dream was to open a restaurant. 

‘At the time, central London restaurant rents were too expensive for us, so we opened a small deli instead. 

‘Our deli on Weighhouse Street has been a home for us, but we’ve always felt it could be so much better if we could do more of a restaurant experience. 

‘We’ve been closed for most of the last fifteen months and have spent a lot of that time reflecting on how we could make that initial dream a reality. 

‘In that reflection, and due to a change in planning rules, we decided to take a leap of faith and turn the deli into a restaurant, with a huge kitchen, a brand new menu, table service, outdoor seating and plant-based cocktails.  

‘Pouring so many resources into this in the midst of a pandemic has been daunting in many ways, but as we get closer to opening, the excitement is really building. 

‘So today, let me introduce you to ‘Plants by de’, our home of plant-based food; and a place to showcase how innovative and delicious plant-based food can be’.

 Ella closed her deli last year, saying it was ‘impossible to operate’ in the coronavirus climate.

Mother-of-two Ella grew to fame after launching blog Deliciously Ella while a student at University of St Andrews in 2012.

She has since published six recipe books.  Speaking to the Sunday Telegraph last Ella reflected on her quick growth.

‘I wasn’t ready for how quickly Deliciously Ella grew. People look to you for the answers that you’re still figuring out yourself.

‘I was petrified, honestly, I really was. I found it really terrifying, and I was almost too scared to have an opinion, because you can’t make everyone happy.’

Ella is widely associated with clean eating but claims it’s never the way she’s described herself that way. 

As well as the burgeoning empire, Ella is the great-granddaughter of Lord Sainsbury’s, and her mother Camilla is the heir to the supermarket fortune.

Her father is the former Labour MP and Northern Ireland secretary Shaun Woodward.  

 As well as dissociating herself with clean eating, Ella added to the Telegraph that she finds the word wellness ‘very charged’ and prefers to think of herself as a ‘well-being writer’ as ‘it doesn’t have quite the same level of different nuances and connotations.’

Source: Food Recipes and News