News Cookbook alert: Shannon Martinez’s ‘Vegan Italian Food’ coming soon

Shannon Martinez – the trailblazing chef behind Smith + Daughters in Melbourne – has a new vegan cookbook hitting the shelves on October 29th.

Vegan Italian Food, Shannon Martinez’s latest (and, as always, highly anticipated) cookbook, is serving up an opulent yet grungy celebration of “Italian peasant cooking” – and everyone’s invited. 

With over 100 plant-based twists on Italian classics that are guaranteed to have you drooling all over the page, Vegan Italian Food will prove to be an instant classic for existing fans of Martinez’s elevated yet indulgent approach to plant-based food – and equally appealing to new readers seeking easy wins for their next dinner party. 

Long considered a luminary in the Australian plant-based dining scene, Shannon Martinez has been a chef in Melbourne kitchens for over 25 years, and last year won Gourmet Traveller’s Restaurant Personality of the Year award.

Not only that: She’s also the owner of Australia’s most prolific (and hatted) vegan restaurant, Smith + Daughters, sister establishment Smith + Deli, and the executive chef at Lona Misa, an ultra bougie Latin-inspired plant-based restaurant in South Yarra. If that wasn’t enough, she also recently expanded her portfolio to include a new vegan-friendly eatery, Friends of Fire, at Marvel Stadium! (We never thought we’d see the day… 🤯)

Martinez already has a few best-selling books under her belt, including Smith + Daughters: A Cookbook, Smith + DELIcious: Food From Our Deli, and Vegan With Bite. 

She lovingly describes her new release, Vegan Italian Food, as an “ode to Italian cooking”, and “vegan food in its purest form”. It’s almost double the size of her previous cookbooks, and here’s just a taste of the savoury decadence in store:

“… dried beans, pulses, and legumes cooked to a pulp, infused with aromatics and wiped up with soft, crusty bread … bitter leaves braised to within an inch of their lives in healthy glugs of olive oil.”

Many of the dishes are wholesome and traditional in nature, but fans of the more ‘meaty’ and ‘cheesy’ vegan options at Martinez’s restaurants will be satisfied too – she’s included recipes for plant-based meatballs, cacio e pepe, and salami, as well as other hearty, flavour-packed fare that, in true Martinez fashion, dares anyone to underestimate the richness of vegan cuisine.

In between publishing mouth-watering cookbooks, winning awards, catering for A-list celebrities, and making guest appearances on Masterchef and My Kitchen Rules, Martinez has also somehow managed to find time to orchestrate an exciting reinvention of the Smith + Daughters empire…

Back in August, her beloved Collingwood restaurant officially relaunched as the Smith + Daughters Social Club, switching from a set menu towards a tighter offering that’s “heavy on the snacks”. 

“I’m not going out and spending money. No one’s going out and spending money,” says Martinez, going on to explain that the restaurant’s revamp is aimed at making vegan dining more accessible and affordable in the current cost of living crisis. “We’re bringing the casual vibe back … My main focus for this change is to give people value for money, [and] freedom to come whenever they want to.”

(Not possible, Martinez – because we want to come every single night 😭)

Vegan Italian Food will be officially hitting the shelves on 29th October, courtesy of Hardie Grant Books – but you can pre-heat the oven pre-order a copy right now if you can’t wait that long to secure one. 

Keen for even more cooking and dining inspiration? Check out some of our other favourite plant-based cookbooks and vegan restaurants in Melbourne.

Header image: © Hardie Grant