Vegetarian Star

British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver made waves in the UK recently for criticizing the quality of foods in his native land from school lunches to the dinner table. Now he wants everyone to understand the conditions pigs endure before they arrive on their plate.

Oliver and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) are calling upon the European Union to set minimum welfare standards for pig farmers and demand more honest labeling of foods that indicate how the pigs were reared. Unlike free-range chicken, there is currently no definition of free range pork.

Throughout the month of January, Oliver will be uncovering investigations revealing how pigs are treated on some farms in the UK, which includes undesirable practices such as castrating pigs without anaesthetic and preventing pregnant animals from moving.

The RSPCA hopes the program, titled “Jamie Saves Our Bacon,” will incite people to start buying pork reared in more ethical environments, such as a similar program by chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall did to increase the sales of chickens reared with higher welfare standards.

Hopefully, Oliver’s attention to the matter will produce a U.S. Prop 2-like overhaul in the UK.

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Update 1/7/09: Ani actually won 3 categories, as her book, Ani’s Raw Food Kitchen, placed first for best raw vegan book of the year. Woohoo!

Remember that awesome vegan chef, Ani Phyo, who catered Maroon 5’s vegan Halloween party? Who knew that most of the guys in Maroon 5 were vegan before she came along? We sure didn’t!

She’s won two categories in the Best of Raw 2008 poll!

Ani won for Best Raw Chef and Sexiest Raw Vegan Woman (hubba, hubba, giggity, giggity). And although she is sexy, brains are what really count, and she won second place for her intellectual efforts as a Raw Vegan Educator.

Congrats to Ani!

With celebrities like Eva Longoria and Fergie making New Year’s resolutions to eat healthier and raw, Ani just might find herself catering more vegan parties to the stars soon.

via Ani Phyo

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If Newton’s 3rd Law applies to news, then if we bring you the Best Of Veggie 2008, ultimately, we have to discuss the worst. And they’re really bad. But in order of fairness, here goes…

#5: Andre 3000 Is Cheap-After bending over backwards to get him a vegan meal prepared, Andre’s waiter didn’t even get tipped! The carnis already say we’re weird and demanding. Now they’re gonna call us cheap. Thanks Andre.

#4:Amazing Race Sheep Butt Eating Incident-Vegetarian Terence Gerchberg was athletic, smart, and a promising part of the duo Terence and Sarah on Amazing Race this past season. So sad that he got taken out by sheep ass.

#3: Paula Deen’s Ham Delivery-25,000 pounds of pork nastiness delivered in the name of charity. At least we got Heather Mills donating veggie burgers to balance off this Karma.

#2: Gordon Ramsay Vegetarian Children Nightmare-The celebrity chef said his worst fear is one of his children coming home and telling him he or she is a vegetarian. In fact, this would cause Ramsay so much distress, he said he would promptly put them on a fence and electrocute them. Nice.

#1: Sarah Palin Thanksgiving Turkey Slaughter-Palin gave the meaning of “know where your food is coming from” a whole different twist as she did an interview with turkeys getting killed just over her shoulder. Wonder how many converted (to vegetarianism) after seeing this, uh, miracle?

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Bryan Adams exposed himself to Rachael Ray. Geez, we thought he was a gentleman.

Actually, he still is. He just opened his refrigerator to the celebrity chef for her Everyday with Rachael Ray magazine in the December/January 2009 issue, where you’ll also find his favorite Pineapple-Ginger juice recipe, which he drinks every morning.

His fridge is obviously stocked similar to what we told you was in his shopping cart, such as wholesome vegan foods like medjool dates.

Those who follow him know he’s been a vegan for 20 years and he even switched to a completely raw diet for awhile, which he claims during that time he never got sick.

“I didn’t even have a headache—it was unbelievable,” he said. “So now I still try to eat raw about 50 percent of the time.”

So take that, Bijou Phillips, who recently said she was going back to Atkins to lose weight and being a vegan made her sick all the time.

Adams has a self-portrait in front of his fridge-probably to remind him of how gorgeous his body looks so he’ll keep eating vegan.

Read his interview with Rachael Ray, and hear how he’d love to invite her over for a 30 Minute Meal of cheeseless rigatoni pasta with pesto sauce.

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Image: Greg Gayne/FOX

Gordon Ramsay has an on again, off again fondness for vegetarians, and he recently visited a vegan restaurant in Hollywood, Sante La Brea, that was in need of a makeover for an episode of “Kitchen Nightmares” which aired November 20th.

Before we get any further, we’d like point out a serious WTF flaw in the menu. Although they claim to be a vegan restaurant, they serve fish and chicken, something which confused Ramsay, to say the least. Don’t worry Gordon, this confuses us too.

Apparently, the restaurant offers many vegan options on the menu and any entree can be made such by requesting unchicken or tofu. However, there are items with real chicken in tofu sauce, which doesn’t seem to make any sense, but that’s probably one of the reasons why Gordon was there to rescue them.

Here’s the lowdown on what happened:

Gordon is fed a turkey melt, which he is not impressed with and feeds to a dog. Turkey, yuck! Good for him. But he didn’t necessarily have to insult the dog like that.

A plate of tofu with overcooked vegetables and overcooked, lumpy rice does not impress him either. “Shocking. My God!” he exclaimed. Rotten eggplant is just one of the many delightful wonders he finds in the kitchen refrigerator.

Humorous highlights include Ramsay playing a joke on owner Dean Hamoui by having the police handcuff him so he can’t do everyone else’s job, forcing the employees to learn for themselves.

It was a happy ending and Hamoui was quoted in Eater, saying the best thing about working with Ramsay was, “The fact that he fixed things up. There are plenty of problems that I wanted to fix, and when Gordon came he actually put the lid on all those problems—my sons straightened out, Mark [the manager] quit coming with crazy ideas. I needed someone to help me put it back on the map.”

via Reality TV Magazine

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The relationship with the Veg Star and celebrity chefs has been a roller coaster lately. Love, hate, love, hate.

Awhile back, we hated Gordon Ramsay for his less than kind remarks about vegetarians and what he would do if his children became one. Then, we loved Rachael Ray for putting an entire chapter of vegetarian recipes in her new cookbook and featuring hottie vegan rocker Bryan Adam’s Juice Recipe in Everyday With Rachael Ray. Recently, Paul Deen made us steam when we found out she delivered 25,000 pounds of ham to a food bank.

But we’re feeling love again, thanks to Wolfgang Puck.  Puck’s catering company provided the vegetarian meal for the 15th Annual Lint Roller party, which several vegetarian celebs attended, including Lisa Edelstein and Emmylou Harris. The event served to raise money to assist in providing better treatment for animals, including helping getting rescue dogs adopted.

But this isn’t Puck’s first time around the veggie block. Last year, he created an Animal Welfare Program for himself and his 137 restaurants and catering venues, which consisted of various measures to support the humane treatment of animals and offer only all-natural and organic food.

Some highlights of the program were eliminating foie gras from his restaurants. Foie gras is produced when ducks or geese are stuffed to the point of where their livers swell 10 times the normal size. He also increased the number of vegetarian options on the menus and vowed not to use eggs from laying hens confined in battery cages.

He’s catered vegetarian meals for big events in the past, including a party in Beverly Hills that kicked off the 2007 Genesis Awards, which recognizes news and media organizations that produce work which brings awareness to animal issues.

Puck’s not the only one wanting to drink to the occasion. Thanks to the Wolf for bringing back the veg love for celebrity chefs!

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Knew it was going to happen sooner or later. Just when we are feeling love for the celebrity chefs, such as Rachael Ray and Cat Cora, one had to come along and ruin the warm and fuzzy feelings. Thanks Paula Deen.

The queen of southern cuisine went to Washington, D.C. and with the help of Smithfield Foods, donated 25,000 Lbs. of ham to the Capitol Area Food Bank. 25,000 Lbs. of meat! Yuuuuuuuuuck!

Deen said that when people think of her, they think of food. “So it’s only appropriate that when I come visiting, I bring food,” she said. “That’s what southerners do.”

Not to sound like stalkers or anything, but we look at what regions our fans are coming from (through stat counter and IP addresses) and we know we have plenty of southern folk out there who read our site. It is time for y’all to speak!

Don’t southerners like veg food too? Yes, we know fried chicken is thought to be the national bird for some folks who cook southern, but she could have at least thrown some brown rice, whole grain cereal, and whole wheat pasta in there.

This is a stark contrast to our darling Heather Mills’ donation of over a million dollars of soy meat to a food bank in the Bronx. And it brings up a good point that we’ve touched on before: Can those in poverty access healthy veg food like everyone else? If you can’t get healthy, meatless items at the food bank, what’s a financially struggling person to do?

Note to blogger: File under So Not So, Never Going To Be, Totally Far From It, Not So Vegetarian

via News 8

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Rachael Ray is really feeling some love from vegetarians and vegans lately.

First, we learned of how her brand new cookbook that she calls BOB, features an entire chapter of recipes devoted to meatless cooking.

Now, she’s featuring vegan musician Bryan Adams’ favorite juice recipe in the December ’08/January ’09 issue of Everyday With Rachael Ray.

Adams must stock up on a lot of pineapples, ginger, and peaches when he goes to the grocery store.

Best of all, the Pineapple-Ginger Juice recipe is completely sweetened by nature.

May we suggest drinking this to wash down your Thanksgiving Tofurky feast this year?

via Rachael Ray Mag

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