Daniel Watkins, executive chef, Holy Carrot: 'We're writing our own rules'
Holy Carrot set to open second London restaurant
+1 Holy Carrot, a vegetable-forward restaurant in Notting Hill, is set to expand by opening a new site in London later this year.
Founder Irina Linovich and chef owner Daniel Watkins have teamed up to extend their offering to Old Spitalfields Market, following the Notting Hill site’s addition to the Michelin Guide.
Holy Carrot, which focuses on sustainability, fire cookery and fermentation, started as a pop-up in Knightsbridge in May 2021, before opening as a restaurant on Portobello Road in July 2024.
Discussing the new opening in 2025, with a date to be confirmed, entrepreneur Irina, formerly an international producer of Vogue in Ukraine, said: “I am thrilled to be bringing Holy Carrot to east London.
“I have always felt the energy and community there is aligned with our vision, bursting with creativity, culture and forward-thinkers.
“East London has always been about reinvention, and we’re excited to add our own chapter to the story.”
Daniel's vegetable vision
Chef Daniel his been working in hospitality for three decades, which has included spells at The Anchor, St Leonards and ACME Fire Cult.
Discussing Holy Carrot in an interview with The Staff Canteen last year, he said: “There's a lot of plant-based restaurants. There's a lot of vegan restaurants.
“I would say what's going to set us apart is that our focus really is on vegetables and then it has a couple of friends and that's cooking these vegetables over fire and then tapping into fermentation, which has been around forever.
“It's a really good tool to help out the other two.”
He added: “I think we're going to see a lot more vegetarian restaurants. We're going to see a lot more plant-based or vegetable-forward restaurants.
“I think there's certainly a very big market and it's going to get a lot busier with these restaurants, because we do need to start having a more balanced, rounded diet.
“I think there's definitely a market for vegetable restaurants, but with good vegetables, not mimicking meat vegetables. Like mushroom wings - mushrooms don't have wings! Or a lot of these kind of products that are just heavily processed to mimic something else.
“You can achieve delicious food by not doing these things, I think.
“There is a lot of creativity to be had.”
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Holy Carrot set to open second London restaurant
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