Deliciously Ella - Ella Mills Woodward and Plants By DE

[Meg78]

I always thought the deli idea was born from her wanting ready made food on tap so she could conserve energy, very confused about the restaurant though, who on earth wants gourmet avocado on toast?!

Please don’t attack me for this, but the one thing I’ll defend her on is the illness she’s dealt with. Whilst I don’t agree that shes “cured herself with food” it CAN make a huge difference to the overall symptoms, I have the same conditions, and I’ve found the same results, since she’s never gone back to having refined sugar or white carbs I can see why she thinks she’s cured as the symptoms don’t creep back, but from the amount of time she spends in bed, and the choices she makes over convenience foods, I feel perhaps she’s moderating her energy output without actively realising she’s doing it, and the high carbohydrate food choices (everything is toast or pasta or potatoes) she’s again propping her energy levels up with fast fixes. She isn’t cured, she’s found a way to adapt that works for her body. I don’t know if she realises she’s doing this, but I get annoyed when people rubbish her claims because if I stick to a diet like that I feel massively better too, so I do see what she’s saying, and I can see how it would help others to try it too. Surely it’s got to be better for them than frozen pizzas and potato smiles?

 

[purple-rain]

Very good thread on Twitter:

Thanks for posting! A good, sensible thread. I agree that food is deeply political and I think brands like DE that have such a strong media presence do have the responsibility to represent this. I'm vegan myself, but I'll be the first to say that there's such a lack of perspective in the online vegan community (or bubble, more precisely) about the huge structural privilege that it is to have access not just to the resources/education to understand how to follow a vegan diet/lifestyle healthily, but also the food itself. I know it's become a popular refrain that 'beans and rice and potatoes are the cheapest foods on the planet!' Sure. But I'm also sure if people had to subsist on chickpeas or potatoes without expensive (imported) tahini and harissa and avocados etc etc. to dress them up in, I daresay a lot of us (myself included) will soon fall off the train. What they're really forgetting is that it's not just about eating plant-based but a particular quality of life they're pedalling while being vegan: the insta-worthy, glorified avo on toast, daily juices that can cost a paycheck to make, and so on. I like some of DE's recipes and I like her attempt to demystify plant-based eating, but as with most vegan bloggers, I have a huge issue with the complete lack of engagement with the socioeconomic asymmetries that afford this kind of lifestyle, the unchecked privilege, and the lack of any cultural contextualisation for the food they make. Most of these content creators rely heavily on soups and stews with strong Middle Eastern, Indian, Southeast Asian, etc. roots and there's barely ever any attempt to nod to that. These cultures have historically had these 'vegan' dishes for centuries, just without a glorified Euro-American instagram packaging. I know cultural contact and hybridity are just part and parcel of interacting in a globalised world, and I appreciate people engaging with different cuisines, but I wish they'd educate themselves and make an attempt to expose their audience to it as well. There was a good thread on Bon Appetit and the use of sumac a couple of days ago - not sure if I read it on GG or Tattle Life, but it's worth a read!

 

[Calabria]

When that photo was taken they didn't have the girls.

And even if they did, what’s the problem with being nude around her daughters?

 

[Yel]

Or how about just don't go there if you can't afford it I mean, nobody complains about steaks that can cost ££

You may need to excuse yourself from tattle if you don't like it.

Trying to shut down and belittle other people's opinions is not what we do here.

Out of all the vegan places in London it's perfectly fair to say her portions are small and expensive. Although probably not that different in value than by Chloe, but they didn't last long in London.

 

[Clover123]

It does feel a little weird that she keeps banging on about buying out their investors, her customers don't really care, it's just an excuse for her to humble brag!

Additionally it doesn't feel like as much of an impressive boast as both Ella and Matt come from inconceivable amounts of wealth. Part of me wonders if they are taking care to say "family owned" because they had a lot of family help in buying their investors out they're peddling such a ridiculous fake life like they started from working class backgrounds and it really grates!

 

[Silentcritique]

Anyone else shocked she has flown to Italy while pregnant?

Like most people I can’t imagine stepping foot on a plane for a while, and I’m happy to stay in the UK as long as I need to to avoid COVID and keep other countries safe too. I know foreign economics rely on tourism but pregnant people were advised to shield. I know that is over now but seriously! Flying seems like the riskiest thing right now somehow...

 

[Pablomamma]

I’ve met this woman a few times. She’s up there as one of the top 5 twats I’ve ever encountered. Cold, nasty, humourless. I walked away wondering if she had a soul in her body. Her husband is a wet letttuce with a nose job. Her family has a private island. Her food is shite too.

 

[Penny for them]

This is like the polar opposite to what my postpartum experience was so it all just screams smoke and mirrors. Who has the energy to be studying like 3 weeks after birth.

There is a privilege there which is not acknowledged. Who does cooking cleaning washing childcare 3meals a day for 1year old,who baths,dresses entertains the little one,dresses yourself walks the dog lets dog in and out of house to toilet,picks the toys up,thinks about every single thing to cope with and deal with a newborn in arms feed
Feed feeding. There is absolutely no way you could do
Anything other than life if you are without these privileges. How the other half live as they say x

 

[stardust21]

Ah yes! She does such good things for climate change, which is why she felt the need to take a plane for a 4 hour train journey. Such a sustainable eco-queen!

 

[orange club biscuit]

I have friends who were in her year at uni and they’ve implied her health issues weren’t anything to do with her eating too many sweets if you catch my drift!

 

[whathastheworldcometo]

There is a major issue in our food supply chain that means that eating majority fruit and veg diets, especially organic, is out of reach for most people. The average household in the UK is 2.4 people and the average food spend is £97 per week, which includes eating out. A meal at Ella’s restaurant will set you back £70/£80 for two people. That’s nearly the average households entire weekly food spend on one meal.

Fruit and veg cost nearly 50% more per calorie than ultra processed foods. If you have a limited amount of money to dedicate to food, of course you will opt for buying a readymeal for £2 instead of spending your income on multiple ingredients to make a meal.

(...)

For Ella to preach about the environmental impacts of meat and processed foods etc, is in my opinion really fucking shitty. Simply because she does absolutely nothing to alter the obstacles that exist for most people. She has 2million followers on Instagram, she could easily be running campaigns to help improve public health diet. But all she wants to do is latch on to the latest popular thing to say so her audience boots her ego.

She doesn’t give a fuck about the environment. She’s made it perfectly clear her diet was completely based on health benefits. She doesn’t give a fuck about people otherwise she would acknowledge and try to help people who can’t access what she has…

All in all, slating Ella doesn’t mean you’re jealous of her. I slate Boris Johnson all the time and I’m not jealous of him

You phrased it so well.

There are many things she could do if she wouldn't be that profit oriented:

1) Make vegan food accessible and enjoyable
- Jame Oliver did this "school dinner" campaign to encourage kids to eat healthily, she could also do something like this. Introduce vegan days at school? Sponsor vegan dinners for the elderly? Give free lectures?
- Instead of running an expensive restaurant in Bond Street maybe operating a cafe that offers cheaper meals that are filling, a vegan lunch bowl for six pounds or something like this
- Maybe not put almond butter in everything, but identify more affordable options

2) Promote local food
- Instead of shilling her own products she could promote local farmers to give them more visibility
- Promote recipes with more local ingredients instead of ingredients that need to be imported (avocados, bananas, etc). Yes, it is more difficult, but that's the skill

3) Donate money to worthwhile causes

4) Change her life style
- Staycations
- Be more minimalistic and down to earth, create less waste
- Volunteer

The bottom line is: this is not their style.

They want to create a brand to appeal to fairly well off health oriented people and the environment stuff was just a bandwagon that she jumped on to make more money.

 

[Yel]

The big problem I've got against people like her is they don't own the nepotism and instead fake this narrative to make them seem approachable and sell the lie that anyone can make it. It's always been the same - the 0.1% of the population in certain families hold most of the power. Don't try to pretend you're in your situation through work. I think the plz like (bbc3 show) kale character with powerful family connections was loosely based on her.

I don't know why anyone buys her overpriced products, they're twice the price of the naked bars and three times the price of the Lidl brand for the same fruit and nut ingredients. She said she bought out energy balls first as they were so popular, nothing to do with them being easy to package and sell?

She released a book (her second maybe?) that was just juices and smoothies. Her line then was also because they're so popular everyone wanted a juice book, when obviously it was a cash grab and a piss easy book to make. Who needs a whole book saying to blend/juice fruit and vegetables?

I followed her for a bit, but unfollowed when she was on holiday somewhere far flung and exotic and she messed up her selfie timer so got a bikini shot of her and her friends toned bodies from behind. She captioned this with something along the lines of "sometimes in life things just go wrong!" Obviously shared it because she looked great, but seriously if accidentally taking a digital photo a bit early is something going wrong in life you have nothing to complain about.

 

[Grace1718]

She’s an insufferable bore. Their family life doesn’t appeal to me at all it’s like she’s trying to prove something all the time . Defo crazy eyes these days and looks about 40 as lost so much weight. Your family are minted Ella regardless of whether you “work every hour” you will be fine. You would think she has come from nothing how she goes on . She came along at a good time … the right time got a good break but she won’t remain that successful. Her cereal bars are shite …. Dry and boring. Cereals are ok but very over priced. All the same boring recipes on the app. Chickpeas , thahini, pesto , lentils , repeat lol . I of course cancelled before the free trial was over so I didn’t pay. She’s trying to prove that she’s doing things differently and spending soooo much time with the girls while being a full time bad ass business woman. Let’s be honest the nanny is doing 85% of the heavy lifting and she is just lying to herself that she’s “doing it all” . Can’t stand people like her so far removed from reality … do a day as a nurse Ella and let’s see how u survive and spend your days off doing childcare for without your nanny

 

[stardust21]

“We work 24 hours a day 7 days a week”… ”but please buy our app which tells you to meditate daily and make time for yourself”

 

[LivdedLizzy]

I think the thing that annoys me the most about DE is her complete lack of integrity and humility.

Nowt wrong with formula feeding- but saw on her stories today that she formula feeds as she was unable to keep her milk supply up after returning to work so soon after birth. (I mean, It wouldn't take an expert to understand that returning to work so soon after birth would affect your ability to breast feed)

Just find it quite ironic, considering she bangs on about having the perfect vegan diet and being the perfect mother- the reality is it's not that quite simple or easy. I dont think she would get the irony of banging on about clean plant based diet when she gives her child formula *cough* cows milk *cough*. The irony also being she returned to work so soon to keep on top of her brand, when she didn't need to (she has a lot of money and so does her husband!) So to preach this vegan diet to everyone else

Again, this isn't a dig at formula feeding. More that she has no integrity and shes obviously kept it quiet until now as it doesn't fit in with her brand of vegan based diet and parenting.

Reality isn't black and white. It isn't perfect. I really hope this was a bit of a reality check for her that you cant have it all and perhaps you shouldn't be so sanctimonious.

 

[PineappleQueen19]

It’s interesting they are now targeting corporate memberships with their wellness app. I can totally see big corporates like banks signing up for it as for a relatively small sum per employee you can tick off the ‘what are you doing about mental health and well-being for your employees’ question.

can you imagine the poor souls approaching HR on the verge of having a breakdown because their line manager is a psychopathic monster and the HR rep going ‘yes but have you tried the meditation on the deliciously Ella app? And there is a great podcast about managing stress’

 

[Jas119]

The wealth really doesn’t fit in with the brand. I haven’t followed her for some time now but I was a big fan in the beginning. From her story I thought she was just a normal girl who had grown a very humble blog. When I found out how privileged she was, the story just didn’t seem authentic.
I think she doesn’t draw attention to it because of this.
Plus she comes across like she has absolutely no idea how the average person lives. She probably has no idea how privileged she is compared to others, so feels it’s not relevant.

 

[stardust21]

Ok, just to let everyone know - I am not Ella, or Matt, neither do I have any connections with the family whatsoever. And I am not trying to provoke anyone, or have a go at anyone on this thread. I simply think some arguments are unfair, and are just caused by envy. This is the truth. But whatever the reason for some posts/ comments is, I did not meant to offend anyone. I’m just opening conversations, not creating issues

The “your jealous” argument is pretty silly here on Tattle. In the main people come here because they trusted and followed someone and then start to realise that person is a hypocrite and like to find they aren’t the only person who sees this.

I went to Ella’s restaurant as Mr Stardust surprised me and there was plastic in my meal. I got some money off (like a £5er ), but I haven’t left a negative review anywhere despite it making me feel a little sick to see them serving the same meal to other customers right after I’d found the plastic…and if I was jealous of her I probably would have done that considering it’s probably not the best look for the business… But in full honesty the reviews that legitimate customers are leaving are fair enough. The portions were tiny and you can get much nicer meals at other restaurants that are vegan for equivalent value in central London. I went hoping that it would be like Acorn Kitchen use to be in Bath, but the fact is DE’s restaurant wasn’t good. The food was pretty boring apart from the Mac and cheese which was probably the smallest portion I’ve ever had in a restaurant. It was massively overpriced. It’s trying to be a Michelin starred restaurant and failing.

And I honestly can’t see how there is any argument other than it being ridiculous for someone to say that they’re a revolutionary and making people feel guilty for eating meat when they A) take long haul flights In a family of 4, plus probably the nanny and B) give absolutely no time for the multitude of barriers that many people face when trying to eat the way she does.It is a privilege to be able to cut out meat and ultra-processed foods from your diet not something to make people feel guilty about if they can’t.

 

[Tweetypie]

Heaven
It’s all just heaven
Im being fed coconut water and peanut butter in heaven
Oh do fuck off

 

[Blahblahbuzzy]

I find it a bit depressing that she films herself making a coffee every. single. day.