Peter learned everything he knows in pub kitchens across Liverpool and went on the make his own success story
Peter Baines from Meatless Meal Preparation.(Image: Andrew Teebay)
A Liverpool dad who feared he would “lose everything” when his new restaurant was forced to close turned his nightmare into a success story by thinking on his feet. Peter Baines, who describes himself as a “proper council estate kid from Liverpool”, grew up in Speke in the 1980s and he has been “grafting in kitchens since he was big enough to hold the pan”.
Speaking to the ECHO, Peter said he applied for a bar job in Halewood when he was 20 years old, but when he turned up for his first day he was told they only had a vacancy for a member of kitchen staff. He said: “I’ve always been able to cook so I just took the kitchen job and thought ‘why not?’.”
Learning the trade in pub kitchens, Peter crafted his culinary skills which he later used to cook for his teenage daughter when she decided to become a vegan at 17.
On a trip to Amsterdam he visited a vegan junk food restaurant and tried a plant based burger which ignited an idea to recreate a similar restaurant back home in Liverpool.
Peter Baines from Meatless Meal Preparation has decades worth of experience in the industry(Image: Andrew Teebay)
In 2019, Peter decided to take “the biggest gamble of his life” and follow his dreams by opening vegan restaurant Meatless on Smithdown Road.
The dad used his own savings and money borrowed from his mum to launch his business. He said: “It wasn’t just me – my mum backed me. She only went and took out a loan for me on her house. A massive gamble. And for the first few months we were smashing it – absolutely flying.”
Peter, 45, said that when he opened his restaurant he had “£10 left to his name” and faced the added pressure of having put his mum’s house on the line, so failure was not an option.
But soon after launching his independent venue, the Covid-19 pandemic and resulting lockdowns plunged the hospitality industry into crisis.
Peter said he remembers thinking “we’re going to lose everything in the blink of an eye without us having a fair crack of it.”
Peter Baines from Meatless Meal Preparation runs his brand from Garston(Image: Andrew Teebay)
But when Peter was faced with the closure of his fledgling restaurant, he decided to change his business completely and started offering a meal prep service after customers flooded his messages telling him how much they missed his plant based food.
The service meant customers could order freshly made vegan meals which would be delivered to their door, to enjoy throughout the week.
Peter, who was expecting to become a dad again at the time of his restaurant’s closure, started delivering his meal prep dishes to customers across Liverpool, marking the beginning of Meatless Meal Prep Co.
Now the company has a nationwide reach, delivering dishes “from Bootle to Brighton”. In 2022 the restaurant on Smithdown Road was permanently closed to enable the Meatless team to focus on the meal prep side of the company.
Operating out of a unit in Garston, Peter has continued his hard work in the kitchen. The dad said he wakes up at 4am each day to collect stock, prepare ingredients, cook and deliver the meals.
Peter said: “Let me tell you – no one’s doing what we’re doing. Our menu changes every week, dead fresh, packed with plant based protein and healthy as anything. And we’ve got variety, lots of variety. You’re never eating the same thing twice, unless you really want to.”
Peter’s loan from his supportive mum has been completely paid off, and he’s achieved the success of his business with no outside investment. He said: “This is our business. Ours.” You can order from Meatless Meal Prep on their website, where there are weekly menus available to view and purchase.