From Yummy Plants:
Like every fine artist, Master Chef Alan Roettinger transforms the ordinary into the sublime. As a young man Alan started out as a sculptor, tried photography, and then discovered that the culinary arts provided him with unlimited opportunities for creative expression. He has been hooked on cooking ever since.
When asked about his approach to meal-making, Alan said, “Go to the market and see what’s available. Start with fresh food. Be creative. Don’t stick with the status quo. Trust your palate. Challenge yourself—that’s when growth happens.” To make it easy for us, he shared his list of staples for the vegan pantry, including greens, dried beans, whole grains, nuts, and seeds as the basics.
Alan is a respected private chef, public speaker, and author of two cookbooks, Omega 3 Cuisine and Speed Vegan, with a third cookbook in progress. As if this were not accomplishment enough, he has recently published a book of his aphorisms, Wise Cracks, and shares his musings about the delights of living joyously in his blog.
Alan wrote Speed Vegan to make gourmet vegan cooking accessible. “My goal,” he said, “is not to impress anyone with my skills, but to encourage and empower the average person to cook delicious food and eat at home.” The quick, easy recipes offer tasty surprises such as Chocolate Pots de Crème.
Responding to a question about why he became a vegan, Alan replied, “I actually don’t consider myself ‘a vegan.’ My diet is vegan. I’m a human being. Human beings are omnivorous—meaning we can eat anything. I’m refining my choices as I go, in order to enjoy optimum health. And ‘vegan’ is not enough, by the way; Oreos are vegan, for example, but I don’t ever eat them. I’m eating a plant-based diet now because after dropping the animal products, I experienced a dramatic improvement in general wellbeing, mental focus and energy. I have no reason to go back to the way I was eating before.”
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The path to a vegan lifestyle is not always a straight line! Read about Master Chef Alan Roettinger’s discoveries as he explored the wondrous world of food and the joys of a plant-based lifestyle.
Like every fine artist, Master Chef Alan Roettinger transforms the ordinary into the sublime. As a young man Alan started out as a sculptor, tried photography, and then discovered that the culinary arts provided him with unlimited opportunities for creative expression. He has been hooked on cooking ever since.
When asked about his approach to meal-making, Alan said, “Go to the market and see what’s available. Start with fresh food. Be creative. Don’t stick with the status quo. Trust your palate. Challenge yourself. That’s when growth happens.” To make it easy for us, he shared his list of must-have staples for the vegan pantry: whole greens, dried beans, whole grains, nuts, and seeds. Legumes and whole grains combined provide a complete protein. Quinoa, a nutritious seed, is a whole protein all by itself and a good source of calcium iron, magnesium, manganese, zinc, phosphorus, thiamine, riboflavin, Vitamins B6, and E. (you can shorten this as much as you want, but quinoa supplies negligible calcium, if any).
Alan is a respected private chef, public speaker, and author of two cookbooks, Omega 3 Cuisine and Speed Vegan, with a third cookbook in progress. As if this were not accomplishment enough, he has recently published a book of his aphorisms, Wise Cracks, and shares his musings about the delights of living joyously in his blog “Vegan Ascent.”
Alan wrote Speed Vegan to make gourmet vegan cooking accessible. “My goal,” he says, “is not to impress anyone with my skills, but to encourage and empower the average person to cook delicious food and eat at home.” The quick, easy recipes offer tasty surprises such as a Hazelnut Dip with hot paprika and cayenne or a Warm Wild Mushroom Salad. Check out “Stocking the Vegan Pantry” in Speed Vegan for tips on sauces, seasonings, grains, oils rich in omega-3 fatty acids, and more.
Responding to the question, “What was your ‘aha!’ moment that made you decide to eat a vegan diet?” Alan replied, “I had just finished writing “Speed Vegan,” and was still eating everything. I’d been eating well, carefully choosing organic whenever possible, making sure my beef was grass-fed, and all that. The whole vegan thing had always seemed a bit extreme to me, which made it easy to dismiss—like wall-to-wall tattoos or massive body piercings. But I knew I was going to have to promote the book, and this thought came, “Well, I should at least try this and see if it works for me.” I did, and that was that. But it was never ideological for me. I’m all about what works, and although my diet is now vegan, I don’t consider myself “a vegan.” I’m a human being. Human beings are omnivorous—meaning we can eat anything. I’m refining my choices as I go, in order to enjoy optimum health. And “vegan” is not enough, by the way; Oreos are vegan, for example, but I don’t ever eat them. I’m eating a plant-based diet now because after dropping the animal products, I experienced a dramatic improvement in general wellbeing, mental focus and energy. I have no reason to go back to the way I was eating before.”
Thank you, Chef Alan for writing cookbooks that encourage our creativity and tease our taste buds as we each find our own plant-based diet path to the good life.
