“You are just a guy that just likes to cook.” My brother-in-law told me that about 10 years ago. He was right. I am a guy that just likes to cook. That is why after 15 years in corporate America, I dropped out and started a personal chef business. It let me explore my passion for cooking and gave me the flexibility to help raise our family.

Five years ago I went vegan… 100%. I picked up a new client who asked if I could cook vegan items: real food, not just pasta with marinara. I said, “of course” (a trick of the trade, I tell everyone that) and then started to panic. I had been cooking vegetarian food for my wife and me for several years (my wife had been vegetarian since before I met her in 1999). I was a vegetarian at home but a full on meat-a-vore when we went out to dinner. Lamb and pork were my favorite go to meats. I thought bacon and cheese made everything better.

Since I don’t serve any meal to my clients that I don’t taste first, I told my wife that we were going vegan for 3 weeks. I would do some menu research. We would try some new vegan dishes. I would have a new client. I found some recipes to try, and dove into the deep end. My first vegan dish was nachos with faux cheese sauce. It was f*^#ing revolting. It didn’t taste like cheese or any close approximation to cheese. Who eats this kind of stuff?? Could I actually cook vegan food that people and my family would eat??

But as I did more research and dug a little deeper, I found out that a plant based diet is quite good for your health. It is low in fat and cholesterol while being high in fiber and full of all the things most professionals tell us to eat on a daily basis. There are also a whole host of other compelling reasons for going vegan: animal cruelty, unsustainable farming techniques, mass produced foods pumped full of all sorts of chemicals and additives, and the idea of saving enough of this planet for future generations.

But just as I don’t talk to friends and family about religion and politics, I am not going to use this venue to stand on my soap box and preach to the world about the horrors of eating animal products. Everyone has their own opinion about how they want to lead their lives and what they choose to put into their bodies. We enjoy that freedom, “so what exactly am I trying to accomplish with this blog??”

Remember, I am “just a guy who likes to cook.” But I don’t like to cook and eat stuff that tastes disgusting or has weird textures or just doesn’t even come close to being edible. I chose a vegan lifestyle to be a healthier person. But I want to enjoy eating those vegan foods. So this blog is about making delicious plant based meals that even a die-hard (like myself in a former life) carnivore would be more than happy to eat and most likely come back, ask for seconds, and ask for the recipe as well.

So I give you my twist on vegan cooking. Enjoy yourself and don’t be afraid to embrace the tofu inside all of us!! Just remember, life is too short to just eat meat.

Love, Bob aka The Grassfed Carnivore