Vegetarian Star

Amanda Cohen of Dirt Candy

Readers at Mother Nature Network nominated their favorite green chefs across the country and Dirt Candy’s Amanda Cohen is one of 40 young chefs who’s taken her passion for food and created both a menu and a restaurant that embodies sustainability.

From MNN:

“Made entirely of recycled and/or sustainable materials, and with as many omnivorous customers as vegetarian, Dirt Candy is a place where you don’t have to brag about your lifestyle, hold certain political beliefs or do anything besides eat all your vegetables.”

(more…)

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Teany

Teany, the tea and vegan cafe created and previously owned by vegan rocker Moby, is rumored to be opening this week.

Village Voice stopped by to find cakes in the display cases and chairs scattered throughout the New York City restaurant.

Teany was damaged by an electrical fire last year.

Moby once remarked that Teany was so great because both meat eaters and vegans were just as excited about the offerings.

Did you frequent Teany and do you agree?

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NBC New York reports that repairs and renovations are almost complete for Teany, a tea and vegan cafe founded by Moby.

Several months ago, an electrical fire closed Teany’s doors, but a partner of the cafe says he expects Teany to reopen within a week.

The partner also hinted that Teany might be expanding their brand, so if you live in “any city that will appreciate vegan cooking,” you may be in for a pleasant surprise.

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Amanda Cohen of Dirt Candy

Moby‘s prodigy from Teany has been named 2009 Chef of the Year by Metromix.

Although they love Amanda Cohen, Metromix isn’t too keen on the vegetarian food she cooks at her restaurant, Dirt Candy.

Just take a look at these two questions they fired at Amanda during an interview.

Does vegetarian food get a bad rap?
It does, and people can’t look behind what vegetarian food is about and not what it’s not about. The reality is that most people probably, at least once a week, have a meal that doesn’t have meat or chicken or fish in it. They just don’t call that meal “my vegetarian meal of the week.”

And then they just get real honest about it.

Well, we gotta say it: Most vegetarian food is pretty terrible.
That’s a hard thing for me to agree to [laughs]. But I think vegetarian food has a built-in audience, and [people] don’t necessarily have to try to go outside of that audience. So whether or not that makes the food good or bad, it has its audience. …There’s very few restaurants in this city where they’re expected to state their politics before you even walk in the door. But that onus is put on vegetarian restaurants, and I think it creates a world where it’s hard for vegetarian restaurants to necessarily make exciting and different food.

New Yorkers, what do you think?

Does Dirt Candy change the reputation of vegetarian food, for Metromix and everyone else?

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We’ve heard before the Bored To Death star Jason Schwartzman loves Erin McKenna‘s NYC bakery, Babycakes.

Tribecafilm.com recently spoke with Schwartzman who confirmed BabyCakes was still his baby, along with some other New York hot spots.

“Oh, my God! Well, Babycakes is heaven on earth, shall we say? I love the cupcakes and the food and the cookies and, in fact, Babycakes always sends me cookies when it’s the Super Bowl for my guests and stuff, but what I also love about Babycakes is their M.O., like the way Erin McKenna (who owns it) did it—she had a dream and made it come true. It’s really inspiring.”

“So besides Babycakes, my other favorite places are—you know the store Opening Ceremony? What I like about Opening Ceremony is, I don’t particularly look great in all those clothes, but it’s nice because it’s a place where it’s kind of going to like an art house movie theater, where you can just see lots of different movies and see what lots of people are up to and what they’re thinking… I mean, they have very wearable clothes, but they have extremes of all different kinds of things—things that are very forward and very beautiful and great designers that you wouldn’t see in other places. So what I like about it is just going through there and flipping through the clothes and saying, Wow, so this person had this idea to take this color, put it with that color, and stitch it like that…”

“Film Forum is another place, and I like the place teany [a vegan restaurant and tea shop co-owned by Moby, currently closed because of a fire]…. I’d say Babycakes, Opening Ceremony, Other Music, and I like Southside Guitars and Rivington Guitars.”

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restaurantgirl.com

It’s been open for less than a year, but Amanda Cohen‘s Dirt Candy, has already won praises from customers, chefs, and food connoisseurs.

Cohen is the first New York based vegetarian chef to win the Rising Star award from starchefs.com, an esteemed culinary website.

Starchefs.com based its decision on media, past winners and an advisory board to name Moby‘s former chef at Teany the winner.

“It’s really exciting to see vegetarian restaurants around the country getting recognized and appreciated, and I’m proud to be a part of that,” Cohen said.

Ever wondered how the named Dirt Candy came to be?

Why, vegetables are the sweetest things on the earth, don’t you know?

They’re candy from the ground.

“Vegetables are amazing,” Cohen said. “Made out of little more than water, sunlight, and dirt they wind up growing into a candy store full of color and flavor. And that’s what I want Dirt Candy to be: nature’s candy store.”

And if serving vegetable dishes wasn’t enough for the environment, Dirt Candy is made from recycled and sustainable materials and is certified by the Green Restaurant Association.

Suddenly the 5 second rule about eating food that touches the ground no longer applies.

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restaurantgirl.com

“This year, we’re starting to make our own raspberry ice cream at Dirt Candy and will use Cascadian Farm berries. They’re never bland-they have a pure raspberry flavor that rivals fresh berries. In fact, they’re so sweet, hey need little or no added sugar, even if you eat them plain.”

—Amanda Cohen, former chef for Moby’s Teany and owner and chef of Dirt Candy vegetarian restaurant in New York city.

Amanda was one of several chefs asked by Vegetarian Times what organic products could be found in their kitchens.

Cascadian Farm not only has the organic raspberries you need this summer, but all the other vegetables you need to eat until your pesticide-free heart is content.

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Earlier we brought you the news that Teany, the cafe and restaurant Moby co-founded with ex girlfriend Kelly Tisdale, was badly damaged by a fire.

At the time, Moby wasn’t sure what Kelly’s plans were for re-building, but now it looks as though Teany may be up and running in a couple of months.

On his online journal, Moby gave this update:

“teany burned up the other day, but apparently kelly is working hard to repair it and get it re-opened. so there’s a good chance that teany will re-open at some point in the next month or two. i will put news here on moby.com as i find out about it.”

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