I never give Heather Mills credit for anything. Not one thing. She has literally donated millions of dollars to hungry kids, and I still hate every single thing about her. But if I had to give her credit for something – aside from the feeding hungry kids (vegan food, but still), she’s either really putting her heart and soul into her new vegan restaurant or she knows a good picture op when she sees one. I’ll let you guess which one I’m going with.

Heather was photographed in painter’s overalls on Saturday working away on the restaurant, which she hopes to open next month. There were also plenty of snaps of her ordering other people around, but she seems to actually be putting some muscle into it. She’s also continuing to save the world, one vegan burger at a time.

An animal rights activist, charity campaigner and advocate for amputees, Heather Mills has rarely shied away from hard work. The former model abandoned her glamorous background again today to put on overalls and a cap to paint and scrub the newly whitewashed walls of her vegan cafe V-Bites in Brighton.

A small army of friends and Heather’s young daughter Beatrice helped out on the renovations, but the 41-year-old appeared to be doing the bulk of the work as she rushed around with pots of paint, brushes and rollers. She is hoping the cafe will open next month, and plans to cook on Sundays, serving up her specialty of roast – but of course minus the beef.

The animal rights campaigner is a vegan – someone who’s strictly against eating any animal or dairy products – and has established a range of vegetarian food products which still bear her name. Sir Paul McCartney’s ex-wife, who clinched £24million in the divorce, bought the former Big Fish Cafe for £140,000 earlier this year.

Heather is determined to change people’s perceptions of vegan food. ‘They just think that it’s boring nut roasts and lots of hippy people who they think haven’t washed for months but they do, but that’s not what being vegan is about,’ she told an audience at last month’s Brighton Foodies Festival in East Sussex.

‘It’s about being animal friendly, saving the environment and the planet. The biggest contributor of global warming is the consumption of meat and dairy, but of course they are not going to tell you that.’ Heather cooked dishes such as a leafy green and beefy stir fry (no beef, soy bean patty instead) and creamy sweetcorn chowder.

[From the Daily Mail via Gossip Rocks]

The chowder sounds okay, I’ll give her that. But that leafy green soy bean patty stir fry I could probably do without. Heather had a lot of protest when she first bought the restaurant, which was a much beloved local fish shack that had been around for ages. Depriving Brits of fish and chips is a dangerous gamble indeed, especially when you’re replacing them with soy nuggets.

Not surprisingly, Heather is stubbornly sticking to her plan, and it’ll be interesting to see how it turns out. She’s an immensely unpopular woman in Brittan, serving fairly unpopular food. Now if somehow her recipes are unique and particularly good, she could still end up doing alright. I have a few vegan friends, and they don’t have a lot of decent dining out options. I’ve learned vegans will go to a lot of trouble to have a decent, exciting meal every so often. They will possibly even overlook Heather Mills. Though they’re known as a highly principled, ethical sort, so probably not.

Images thanks to WENN.com .