Masterchef Star Gregg Wallace Learns About Vegan Protein With Tesco’s Plant-Based Director, Derek Sarno

Masterchef star, Gregg Wallace, is learning all about the world of vegan protein with Tesco’s plant-based director, and co-founder of Wicked Healthy, Derek Sarno.

In a series of Instagram stories posted on Sarno’s account, Wallace and Sarno, along with a BBC film crew, check out Tesco’s new selection of Wicked Healthy meal deals, as well as the inside of Smithy Mushrooms, one of the UK’s leading exotic mushroom suppliers, and a company whom Sarno works closely with. Many of the Wicked Healthy products are mushroom based.

The plant-based director is somewhat of a mushroom enthusiast, including fungi in many of his recipes, the chef even makes vegan oyster scallops from king oyster mushrooms. Filled with iron, and vitamins, and low in calories and sodium, mushrooms are a highly nutritional, and filling, source of protein. Whole Foods in New Jersey, also believes in the appeal of mushrooms, including a fungi farm actually inside the store.

Tesco, the UK’s biggest supermarket, is currently leading the way in terms of vegan food, thanks to Sarno. The Wicked Healthy plant-based ready meal range launched at the beginning of the year, with great success. The supermarket even credited its new vegan selection with boosting its revenue. New lunch options, seen on Sarno’s Instagram, are on their way, and earlier this month, the chain launched the first-ever store-bought vegan steak in over four hundred of its locations. Swedish vegan meat producer, Oumph!, also secured placement across stores earlier this year.

“Tesco is the perfect partner for us,” said Anders Wallerman, co-founder and CEO of Food for Progress, Oumph!’s parent company. “Not only because of their size, but also because they are at the forefront of British grocery chains for good and durable products.” 

“For too long, vegans have been overlooked, with many offerings that are available seemingly created to appease rather than truly please,” Sarno stated at the beginning of the year. “My intention was to appeal to the hardest core meat eaters. Everyone wants to eat more veggies and we’re making it dead easy to do so.”

For Derek Sarno and Wicked Healthy recipe inspiration, find out more about the new Wicked Healthy book here.

Image Credit: Gregg Wallace | Wicked Healthy