Episode
From 700,000 Followers in a Month to Global Hotel Menus: Alfie Steiner on AlfieCooks & Going Vegan
- Podcast
- The Recipe
- Published
- Jun 12, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 1755
- Processing state
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- https://episode.flightcast.com/01KTK990P7BVDN7Z6TQ7XGXVB3.mp3
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Summary
In this episode, Theo is joined by the brilliant Alfie Steiner, better known to millions as Alfie Cooks, the self-taught home cook who has turned plant-based cooking into a global phenomenon. From his early days as a university student in Edinburgh taking photos of leftover meals and yellow sticker finds to gaining 700,000 followers in a single month and reshaping how the world thinks about vegan food, Alfie's journey is a testament to the power of passion, creativity, and making delicious accessible cooking that celebrates bold flavours without compromise. With five million followers across social media, collaborations with Wagamama and Novotel, and a mission to make people fall in love with tofu, mushrooms, and vegetables cooked with joy and purpose, Alfie represents a new generation of cooks who prove that plant-based food can be indulgent, exciting, and deeply satisfying. Alfie prepares his beloved Turkish Style Pasta with Crispy Tofu, a vibrant dish inspired by his local Turkish supermarket on Holloway Road and a favourite meal he shares with his fiancée Angelica. Throughout the episode, Alfie shares his remarkable journey from growing up in a foodie household with a father who cooked incredibly well to studying Spanish and Portuguese at Edinburgh University, taking a year out to focus on his mental health, and working as a waiter at Cote where he famously spilled expensive sparkling wine on a date and got torn into by an angry customer. He discusses why stopping eating meat five years ago helped him become a better cook by forcing him to appreciate ingredients that require more thought and nuance, the surreal moment his social media following exploded from a few hundred to 700,000 in a month and he realized this wasn't just a hobby anymore, and why his Turkish su…