Vegetarian Star

Art Smith and Tal Ronnen

Chef Art Smith was personally invited to cook for the Dalai Lama this past weekend in Toronto at a VIP guest luncheon hosted by The Canadian Tibetan.

Chef Smith served Southern Fried Vegan Chicken with Local Greens and Apple Cobbler with Buttery Short Crust, Whipped Cream and Candied Spiced Pecans.

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“Whenever you see an item on sale in the produce department that your family enjoys, buy double of that. Bring it home, salt some water, put in the vegetable of choice, count to 30, take it out, cold-shock it, put it in a big plastic food storage bag and throw it in the freezer. You make your own homemade frozen veggies. They are even better than what you get in the store. You can tailor the cut or size when you are putting them away, and, especially if you’re shopping at farm stands, you’re never going to get that flavor of summertime corn unless you’re bringing it home and scraping it off the cob yourself.”

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Bobby Flay is hesitant to put veggie burgers on the menus of his restaurants because he feels he doesn’t know how to prepare them to be palatable. However, keeping his word that he is “sensitive to vegetarian needs,” Flay will be adding a vegetarian dish to the menu at Bar Americain Mohegan Sun in Uncassville, CT. And no, the dish isn’t just steamed broccoli.

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Rachael Ray

Rachael Ray and her dog Isaboo can be found on the cover of the October 2010 issue of pet magazine Tails Inc.

Inside, Ray discusses her charity, Rachael’s Rescue, which donates money she earns through her dog food line Nutrish, to North Shore Animal League, ASPCA, Bad Rap, and Vet Pets, with the remainder of the money going to smaller organizations dedicated to animal rescue and welfare that doesn’t involve euthanasia.

Ray fell in love with a pit bull, Boo, in her twenties. From there, she vowed only to own the breed so many  people are banning and shying away from.

“I’m committed the rest of my life to having only Pit Bulls. People are so ignorant, and they’ve outlawed them in so many communities and some states, that I just think it’s my mission in life to prove to people that there’s no such thing as an evil animal. There are only evil humans.”

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Okra Fries. Credit: The Sweets Life

Taking a risk with a vegetarian or vegan dish on a mainstream reality TV cooking competition isn’t as frightful as it used to be. Chefs are smarter, judges are open and almost no one faints to hear there’s no four or two legged flesh as the main centerpiece.

On a recent The Next Iron Chef, the competitors were given the task of turning classic diner food into something head turning (but not stomach turning). Chef Maneet Chauhan didn’t just give burgers a twist, she made the veggie burger a classic! Although the judges weren’t thrilled with the patty, Chauhan’s okra and squash blossom french fries were a hit.

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Tim Love Jane Velez-Mitchell. Credit: Eatocracy

Chef Tim Love has anything but love for the vegetarian diet. Hoping to silence the veggie hoopla, he hopped onto CNN’s 5@5 to list the reasons why he thought cream of broccoli can’t compete with chicken fried steak. However, Jane Velez-Mitchell, host of HLN’s Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell jumped into the ring and fired back with five punches of her own as to why veg is the only way to go.

When Love said:

“Eating vegetarian may seem like the healthier option (and, probably, often is), but when it comes down to it, meat, in moderation, provides much needed protein, iron and amino acids. As long as you don’t go overboard and eat one of those 15-pound burgers you see on TV, you should be fine.”

Jane said:

“If huge amounts of protein were the key to perfect health, America would be the healthiest nation on earth because we eat a lot more meat than people in most other countries. But, we’re not the healthiest. Two thirds of us are overweight or obese and the crisis is accelerating. The drumbeat of protein is a selling tool – pure and simple – and we’ve all bought into it. Americans are getting more protein than they need.”

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Credit: CBC Radio

Anthony Bourdain and Jonathan Safran Foer have taken a stab at the meat versus vegetarian debate before on Eric Ripert’s Turn and Burn. Now, the chef and author are together again for a debate posted at CBC Radio.

Foer’s primary reason for going vegetarian was because of the conditions of factory farms, citing they go against the values most people hold, whether they’re vegetarian or not.

Bourdain kept referencing to eating meat as a way to welcome other people and experiencing cultures outside your home. So while being vegetarian at home is okay, he’d prefer people not turn down meat dishes as guests.

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Chocolate Pecan Pie

This is for Veg Star’s fantastic graduate students out there, in the middle of another grueling semester.

When a writer at Riverfront Times wanted to conduct a, ahem, “scientific” experiment on vegan goods, she tested the hypothesis that “Vegan baked goods are always readily identifiable as being vegan.”

In other words, this skeptic wanted to prove that vegan desserts are cardboard, pasty, granola pyramids of disaster. Sure hope she didn’t bet her thesis on it.

Materials for vegan chef and author Bryant Terry‘s vegan dessert included a coconut pie crust made from coconut oil in place of butter, a chocolate pecan pudding filling with non-dairy rice milk, maple syrup and arrowroot powder, a fantastic thickener for pies, puddings, gravies and other dishes that doesn’t add fat.

Results: “I don’t understand how that is vegan.” (In non-scientific terms: How the heck does it taste so good?)

Conclusion, experimenter notes and recipe below.

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