About Douglas McNish: World Class Chef, Consultant, Author, Activist
Doug McNish is an internationally award-winning Executive Chef and Restaurant Consultant, best-selling Author, passionate educator, celebrated activist and pioneer of society’s plant-forward future with over two decades of expertise launching and developing successful businesses in the food industry.
Doug’s Mission
Chef McNish’s mission is to make Veganism more accessible to the public on an international scale by using his skills, knowledge and passion to help emerging and established brands bring gourmet, healthful plant based options and products to their customers. He achieves this goal by offering his hard-earned talents as a gastronomer, menu developer, business consultant, restaurateur, public speaker and educator with collaborators across the continents, maximizing their business’s profitability and popularity. Interested in collaborating? Read more about Doug’s professional food and business services here.
As a world-class Executive Vegan Chef, Restaurant Consultant and Educator, Doug McNish has partnered with renowned, elite brands and trailblazing businesses around the globe in his mission to make plant based cuisine beloved by the masses. McNish’s classical chef training and insistence on using the best ingredients allows him to create fine dining–style vegan and raw dishes that prominent food critic James Chatto called, “rich, dense and packed with flavour”. You can read more about Doug’s Strategic Partnerships here.
Making Veganism And Plant Based Cuisine Go Global
McNish graduated from George Brown’s culinary program and apprenticed at the Donalda Club, a private golf club in north Toronto. In 2004, McNish toiled at Jump Restaurant as a Chef de Partie, and later started a three-year stint at Couture Cuisine, being promoted from cook to a full-time manager. As manager, he oversaw 15 cooks at chef Arpi Magyar’s boutique catering company until his career took him into consulting, where he worked as Executive Chef for acclaimed restaurants such as Raw Aura Organic Cuisine.
Chef McNish has since led the charge in many successful plant based business endeavours, with collaborations spanning Toronto, Melbourne, New York, Switzerland, Stockholm and beyond. Chef Doug McNish is an expert and consultant on every aspect of restaurant business operations, kitchen staff training, menu and recipe development.
One of his most recent successes involves his work with Neon Tiger, which he helped to establish as Charleston, South Carolina’s first plant based restaurant. Neon Tiger went on to win the title of Best New Restaurant in Charleston 2021, beating out its conventional culinary contenders. His first restaurant, Public Kitchen, was widely referred to as “one of Toronto’s favourite restaurants” by local media, as well as the popular Mythology Diner and Evviva Breakfast and Lunch’s highly celebrated vegan menu.
Grateful And Growing: Chef Doug’s Career So Far
In 2017, Chef McNish was granted the title of Best Chef in Toronto by local media outlets, and has been crowned the “Iron Chef” in multiple live cooking competitions. He has since appeared on national and international media networks showcasing his culinary knowledge and expertise, with several appearances on the popular television showBreakfast Television. He has been invited to lecture at notable industry events such as The River Gorge Remedy Conference in Washington, as well as local events located in Maui in collaboration with the Vegetarian Society of Hawai’i.
In addition, Doug authored a bi-weekly column published by The Growth Op titled Plant Food, in which he combined his respect for the healing properties of cannabis and whole foods, plant based diets, providing infused recipes and industry-related commentary.
Author Of The “best” Vegetarian And Vegan Cookbooks
Chef McNish’s skills have been recognized across continents, and even on a global scale. Three of his four cookbooks, including best-selling publications Eat Raw, Eat Well, Vegan Everyday and The Classics Veganized, are recognized as being among the Best Vegetarian Cookbooks in the world, each earning the internationally acclaimed Gourmand Award in 2012, 2015 and 2021, respectively. This great honour is granted to the most innovative and groundbreaking works published in over 175 countries and regions, and Chef McNish is blown away with gratitude that he was chosen to receive the honour three times.
In addition, Chef Doug is particularly proud of one career highlight, in which he was asked to develop the menu, organize the catering and oversee all kitchen operations during the 2020 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. There, his gastronomic masterpieces were appreciated by hundreds of global dignitaries and decision-makers in a bid to call attention to sustainable lifestyle choices.
World Class Chef, Consultant, Author, Activist
Now, as an Executive Vegan Chef, Restaurant Consultant, Media Personality and more with over 23 years of experience in the food and service industry, McNish has dedicated his career to helping the world harness the power of plants. In doing so, he hopes to use his knowledge, skills and passion to spread the message and cuisine of veganism, enriching as many lives, businesses and diets as possible.
You can keep up with Doug online by following him @dougmcnish onTwitter, Instagram and LinkedIn where he shares his ongoing projects, informative and inspiring content and his love for everything vegan and plant based cuisine.
