# How Lyme Disease Led Me to a Michelin Star: Chef Kirk Haworth on Plant-Based Cooking

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-recipe-7544191/how-lyme-disease-led-me-to-a-michelin-star-chef-kirk-haworth-on-plant-based-cooking
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-recipe-7544191/how-lyme-disease-led-me-to-a-michelin-star-chef-kirk-haworth-on-plant-based-cooking.md
Podcast: [The Recipe](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-recipe-7544191)
Published: 2026-05-15T11:50:00+00:00
Episode link: https://episode.flightcast.com/01KRE37GZ5AX40AYY7QVZ7AE2C.mp3
Audio file: https://episode.flightcast.com/01KRE37GZ5AX40AYY7QVZ7AE2C.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-recipe-7544191/episodes/how-lyme-disease-led-me-to-a-michelin-star-chef-kirk-haworth-on-plant-based-cooking
Duration seconds: 2238

## Resource

In this episode, Theo is joined by the brilliant Kirk Haworth, chef and co-founder of Plates London, a restaurant that achieved a historic Michelin star for its holistic plant-based methodology and was crowned the 2024 Great British Menu Champion of Champions. From growing up in Northcote with his father, chef Nigel Haworth, to battling Lyme disease for six years and rebuilding his life through food, Kirk's journey is a testament to the transformative power of resilience, creativity, and cooking with purpose. After working in legendary kitchens including The Square with Phil Howard and The French Laundry in California, Kirk stepped away from traditional fine dining to create something entirely new, a restaurant that celebrates bold, inventive plant-based cooking without compromise, proving that vegetables can be just as exciting, indulgent, and technically brilliant as any meat or fish dish. Throughout the episode, Kirk shares his remarkable journey from growing up in a hospitality household in Lancashire to moving to London at 21 and struggling with the intense, isolating environment of Michelin kitchens like The Square, getting bitten by a tick in Australia and developing chronic Lyme disease that left him unable to walk up stairs or work for years, and spending six years moving from doctor to doctor trying to find answers whilst living back at home with his dad. He discusses the moment he had to stop cooking entirely to focus on his health, why changing his diet and cutting out processed sugars transformed his life, and how his illness inspired the creation of Plates, a restaurant that would never have existed if he hadn't got sick. Kirk also opens up about his mission to create a positive kitchen culture where his team works only four days a week, why he believes e…

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