Call me Ishbel is a plant-based food, catering and educating business which was founded by Miggs Ishbel McTaylor in 2015 to guide and nourish people who want to pursue a plant-based lifestyle.
Her professional career as a chef started when she made the decision to take control of her own and her family’s health and allergies.
‘Many memorable events are designed around food, because of allergies, feeling excluded during these occasions has been a huge part of my life. My extended family includes people living with celiac disease, peanut and other food allergies, fodmap and salicylate intolerances. This is a common situation for many people. Initially the thought of excluding animal based ingredients from our diet seemed limiting, but I want to show you it is not’
Training and Education
Miggs is an accomplished, professionally trained chef who gained a diploma in Culinary Arts and Certificate in Patisserie from City & Guilds and Weltec, Wellington, New Zealand.
Not long into her traditional chef training, she discovered The China Study, completed the Plant-based Nutrition Certificate through E-Cornell, and realised that her future lay in specialising as a plant-based chef. Complementing her Plant-Based credentials, Miggs also successfully completed a Certificate in Human Health and Nutrition (a non-plant-based course) using only plant-based answers.
While traditional culinary training briefly touched on a vegan diet, the Forks over Knives Ultimate Cooking Course, Professional Plant-based Certification Cooking Course and the Essential Vegan Desserts Course offered by the Rouxbe Online Cooking School have completed her training in plant-based food. Taking her root to stem focus to the extreme Miggs has also completed certificates in organic horticulture and landscape design.
Worklife
After Weltec she worked as a baker, temporary head chef and in large-scale fine dining catering in New Zealand before moving back to Scotland to spend time with her extended family and get to know the country where she was born.
In Edinburgh, Miggs and her husband ran a high-end BnB offering freshly-made breakfasts to suit the dietary requirements of their guests from around the world.
During this time she was also a free-lance chef for luxury catering companies serving an area from the Borders to the Highlands, and spent time as the head chef for a long-established vegan restaurant.
Miggs has recently expanded into food photography and styling for cookbooks, which combines knowledge gained during her previous careers in Floristry and Fashion.
Since Miggs and her family returned to New Zealand in 2018, she has continued working as sole chef in a restaurant that offered a plant-based menu alongside a traditional one, but now solely focuses on plant-based dining and catering, adapting dishes to plant-based versions, and delivering plant-based cooking classes.
For more details about what we do click here.
