SpoonMe brings back vegan cuisine after year-long hiatus
Karen Sylvana prepares vegan meals in the kitchen./Robert Michael Evans
By Hallie Bradley
Eating healthy isn't just a diet ― it's a lifestyle that SpoonMe's founder Karen Sylvana wants to provide to everyone through satisfying fresh meals.
After a year-long hiatus, SpoonMe is back with pop-ups and private catering. Canadian entrepreneur Sylvana started SpoonMe in 2016 to showcase her passion for food and to educate people on delicious, healthy vegan meal options. After a few pop-ups in 2016, the company quickly garnered a following among Seoulites both local and foreign, and launched a weekly meal service through Shuttle, a popular local delivery service. The company continued to expand its reach by partnering with catering company Crave, to launch four vegan bowls that became available on Market Kurly, an online grocery delivery platform. Suddenly the one-woman kitchen was a full production business running six days a week and delivering food nationwide.
“A highlight of that first year in operation was landing a contract with NBC during the 2018 Olympics and stocking their grab-and-go station for two months,” Sylvana said.
Though the premium plant-based meal service was growing, Sylvana said that scaling up her operation, though a great learning experience, also made her realize she could no longer utilize her creativity.
She found little opportunity to change and create new dishes, which was the initial spark that led her to start the business. Thus, for the past year, she stepped back to figure out which direction she wanted to go in with her nutritious well-balanced meal company. Now, SpoonMe is no longer a meal-to-go service but will instead return to its roots with exciting new pop-ups.
The first SpoonMe pop-up will be hosted at Buukstage in Itaewon on Feb. 21 and will be a collaboration with chef Julien Hiotis.
“Though chef Hiotis isn't vegan, he took an interest in SpoonMe and has really helped me tweak the menu,” Sylvana said, adding that she loves these kinds of collaborations where everyone is able and wanting to learn something from each other.
Karen Sylvana eats a healthy meal while working./2020-02-12(코리아타임스)/2020-02-12(코리아타임스)
The event will provide a three-course dinner for guests for 35,000 won. There are two seating options with the first being from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. and the second from 8 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. The featured courses are a creamy kohlrabi soup topped with smoky chickpea croutons and chili oil, a bowl of savory peanut miso aubergine, roasted sweet potatoes, pickled red cabbage, baked tofu, sauteed bok choy and seasoned brown rice topped with a sriracha lime aioli. The meal will finish with meringue nests topped with coconut whipped cream and drizzled in salted dark chocolate for dessert.
Visit buukstage.com to buy tickets for the event and don't miss the creative, healthy, and delicious eating options that SpoonMe is known for.
“SpoonMe is about breaking down stereotypes and stigmas a lot of people still associate with vegan food and I want people to just think about it as a good meal and forget about whether or not it has meat in it,” Sylvana said. While providing more delicious plant-based options for vegans and vegetarians is a major goal, she said she's happiest when she can impress her carnivore friends.
For those who can't join the Feb. 21 event, follow @SpoonMeSeoul on Instagram to keep up to date with future events. There will be a brunch pop-up in the spring and there's even an idea to bring back some of the original SpoonMe bowls in a SpoonMe Throwbacks pop-up which long-term fans are sure to love.
Contact Karen Sylvana at info@spoonmeseoul.com for more information on private catering opportunities and event catering.
Hallie Bradley is a writer based in Seoul and runs the popular site thesoulofseoul.net.