Who is The Friendly Kitchen?

Great vegan gluten free recipes!

The Friendly Kitchen is a French blog where you can find amazing, easy to make, gluten free and vegan recipes: from cakes to tarts, from risotto to crêpes, there are so many and they are so good!

How do I know it?

Because I know Fanny Mijon, the founder, and I tasted them!

I liked her food so much that I asked Fanny to tell us more about herself, her passion for cooking, veganism, gluten free and bunnies !

Yes, bunnies, and they are the cutest I have ever seen!  If you look at her Instagram page, you will understand why 🙂

So here she is, Fanny, beautiful, uber-talented and so nice, in this interview to Baci di Dama, in one of my favourite Parisian coffee shops!

Chiara: Where does your passion for cooking come from?

Fanny: I have always loved cooking since I was little. When I was 19 years old, as a student, I lived in a little studio and I had two alternatives: eating junk food or start learning to cook properly and I opted for the latter, of course! I had always enjoyed cooking and sharing food with my friends and family, it was always a good excuse to gather and to eat together.

When I finished university, I started to work in fashion but I didn’t like it.

At the same time, I became vegan and that was a complete revelation for me and a great starting point.

I needed to create new recipes, to reinvent the way I used to cook food, use different ingredients so I started to buy books, read, learn…

I am a self-taught cook and pastry chef: veganism is new in France and there are not professional schools to learn, so for me it was all about being very creative, inventive and intuitive at the same time.

At the beginning it was hard but when you finally nail a recipe down, what a great satisfaction that can be!

It was my growing passion for cooking that made me quit my job and I started thinking whether I wanted to open up my own restaurant or work into one.

Chiara: How did you meet with Justine of the Comptoir Veggie and started to work with her?

Fanny: In 2016 I created my blog the Friendly Kitchen where I share my recipes and it helped me to become well-known; it’s like that that I met Justine and she proposed me to work with her as a cook at Comptoir Veggie in Paris.

Chiara: Now you have just started working for VG Pâtisserie

Fanny: Yes, I am very excited about it! I work on developing their savoury menu and I have the chance to work with an amazing team.

Chiara: Most of your recipes are gluten free, why?

Fanny: I used to have stomachache all the time and doctors kept telling me it was stress.

When I started to eat gluten free, I started to feel way better.

Today I vary what I eat, sometimes it’s gluten free, sometimes it’s with gluten. I love using other cereals and grains that have no wheat; I love using rice and chickpeas flours, buckwheat, corn starch and almond flour. This is how I found out what it works the best for me and for my daily well being.

Chiara: When you turned vegan, was it hard for you to replace cow milk and eggs in your recipes?

Fanny: Replacing milk was quite easy, I like soya milk and my favorite French brands are Lima and Provamel. For the eggs, I use silky tofu, and it’s my favorite! For one egg, I generally use 50/60 gr of silky tofu. In some recipes I also like to use linseeds or apple purée, it works beautifully in my muffins.

Chiara: Which is the best vegan dish that you have ever eaten so far?

Fanny: The raw pizza that I ate at the restaurant Moon in Sicily. In London, I love Wild Food Café very much.

Chiara: And in Paris, which is your favorite restaurant?

Fanny: Le Potager de Charlotte, I just love it!

Chiara: Which is your next challenge?

Fanny: I would love to propose a gluten free option of each cake or dessert that I make; at the moment I am working on a cookie recipe and also I would love to make great gluten free vegan tarts!

Chiara: Thank you so much Fanny and… can’t wait to eat those!