ONE of York’s best-loved restaurants, El Piano, is cashing in on a global gap in vegan restaurants.

The Grape Lane-based restaurant, which is 100 per cent vegan and gluten-free, already has a sister restaurant in Grenada, Spain.

Founding director Magdalena Chavez has now set up a franchise model to open further restaurants as interns she has been training come of age.

Magdelena, who has spent 40 years of her life in kitchens around the world, said El Piano was a “pick and mix” of all she’s learnt that she will pass down to her interns.

Frederick Bauer-Staeb will have spent a year as an intern at York’s El Piano by the time he finishes in July, after also working in the Spanish restaurant. Fred will then open his own El Piano franchise, and another intern is also being trained up at the Spanish restaurant. Magdalena said the interns will invest their own money into the franchise and she will support them by moving out with them for a few months to help them set the business up. They will source food locally, base recipes on local ingredients and run the restaurants in the El Piano way.

She said: “I’ve cooked with the poorest of the Earth and the most wealthy. Food is at the centre of what we do, but sustainability sits right alongside and it always has.”

The business uses bio-renewable plastic, PLA, for its packaging, or packaging made from the skins of olives, and it serves its takeaway food in bio-degradable bamboo dishes.

“Looking towards the future, it’s not just about climate change, but how business will operate in a changed climate. We’re not looking for quick fixes. We want to provide a business model that’s going to endure and is very much linked in with its local community,” she said.

The business has grown from a single restaurant in York, turning over £23,000 when it started to a group of about £700,000 turnover.

“The market for what we do is so underdeveloped in Spain.

“There is so little choice,” Magdalena said.

She expects to open a franchise in Malaga next year and is looking at further opportunities in Bolivia and France.