A D V E R T I S E M E N T
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
ADVERTISEMENTS
<< Prev. Page 1 | 2
Benjamin acknowledges that some vegans can be over the top about diet and, as a result, some people see vegans as almost cultlike.
“Vegans do live with a strong commitment to health and the environment,” she says, “but Al and I teach, we don’t preach. We’d love society to see vegan as another food option. For instance, when someone’s going out to dinner and they’re deciding whether to eat Italian, Chinese or Thai, it’d be wonderful to have them adding vegan into that choice.”
One of the services Culinary Awakenings most frequently provides is a kitchen and pantry transformation. This involves Chase and Benjamin going into home kitchens and making suggestions about the items the residents could get rid of. Next, the client goes shopping with Chase.
“Everyone enjoys this,” he says, “and almost every client comes away with a wealth of information they’d never had before — even those who are already health-conscious.”
Once the shopping is finished, Chase and the client prepare a nutritious, tasty and eye-appealing meal.
Culinary Awakenings serves four groups of clients: traditional food professionals such as chefs; businesses and their employees through its culinary wellness program; eco-entrepreneurs, including businesses such as bed and breakfast establishments that want to offer their customers healthy food choices; and the public.
Vegan dishes are cholesterol-free and high in fiber, and they can eliminate, reverse or prevent heart disease and diabetes. A vegan diet also has proven to be effective for battling obesity, osteoporosis, and some other major health concerns.
“People sometimes worry that if they become vegans, they won’t get enough protein and calcium,” Benjamin says. “But those are both available from a plant-based diet. People can also appease a sweet tooth. Al makes incredible chocolate pudding, pecan pie and all kinds of other wonderful treats. There are plenty of great recipes out there.”
Chase says that he and Benjamin live what they teach. “We don’t just have this business to make a living. It is how we conduct our lives both personally and professionally.”
• Blossoming Lotus, 925 N.W. Davis St., 503-228-0048
• Bay Leaf Restaurant, 4768 S.E. Division St., 503-232-7066
• Papa G’s, inside the Daily Grind, 4026 S.E. Hawthorne Blvd., 503-233-5521
• Proper Eats, 8638 N. Lombard St., 503-445-2007
• Vege Thai, 3274 S.E. Hawthorne Blvd., 503-234-2171
• Vita Cafe, 3024 N.E. Alberta St., 503-335-8233
<< Prev. Page 1 | 2
I have taken Chef Al's 12-day culinary arts program -- and it was one of the most transformative experiences of my life. His food is beautiful, nourishing and gathered and prepared with respect for the farmers and the earth. And it is ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS! Chef Al: Please start a recipe blog. I will buy a subscription today!
(email verified)
Tue, Aug 14, 2007 at 11:53 PM
Thanks for publishing this terrific article about Chef Al's outreach in the community. The vegan lifestyle offers an array of benefits for people and the environment, and it shows compassion and respect for farmed animals, ten billion of which are slaughtered every year in this country.
To learn more about vegetarian events right here in Portland, check out Northwest Veg's website at nwveg.org.
(email verified)
Wed, Aug 15, 2007 at 04:47 AM
Thank you for publishing this article... as Chef Al's partner, Marketing Manager for Culinary Awakenings and professional taste tester (somebody's got to do it, it might as well be me!), I am pleased to see that the Portland Tribune took the time to notice a hard working vegan chef who is bringing his talents and skills to those who are looking to increase their health, wellness and culinary repertoire.
Kudos all around... It makes a huge difference!
(email verified)
Wed, Aug 15, 2007 at 08:16 AM
Nice Story about Chef Al. I am also a 'Chef Al' student. I took his week long course and came right home and transformed my kitchen. We have been trying to eat healthier and vegetarian at our house. But as a person who also grew up in my grandmother's restaurant cooking those traditional high fat comfort foods, my imagination needed a little boost. Thank you Chef Al! I have a great time trying out all kinds of vegan and vegetarian recipes. Dinner is never boring around our house! We live about 50 miles from Portland and now the first thing I think of when we go to Portland for a meal is trying a different vegan or vegetarian restaurant every time we dine out there, which is more often now.
(email verified)
Wed, Aug 15, 2007 at 10:26 PM
Thank you for the information-filled article about Chef Al and how tasty vegan food should be! Portland is a great place to live; we're cutting edge in offering a welcoming community with lots of resources available for everyone interested in finding out more about the environmental, health and compassionate benefits of this way of living and eating.
Re the rainforest and soy mentioned in an earlier comment, I believe the majority of soy grown in the US and Brazil is fed to livestock.
(email verified)
Thu, Aug 16, 2007 at 09:57 AM
Great article - we have so many public health issues in this country and not enough emphasis on how much difference a plant-based diet can make! Thank you for the article!
(email verified)
Fri, Aug 17, 2007 at 02:06 AM
Thank you everyone for taking the time to post at this site. It makes a difference.
PS: I forgot to mention in my last posting that the amount of water used per one pound of meat is 2,500 gallons not 25,000 gallons and that the Culinary Institute of America is in Hyde Park, New York not New York City.
(email verified)
Fri, Aug 17, 2007 at 06:21 AM
Being vegan is great for the animals who suffer unspeakable cruelty and deprivation. Their deaths are even more horrible and extremely violent; there is no such thing as humane slaughter, that is an oxymoron. Sparing non-human animals such gruesone violent deaths provides health for humans. Everyone wins!
(email verified)
Fri, Aug 17, 2007 at 09:54 AM
This was a great introduction to Chef Al and his talented and adoring wife Donna. I have had the great pleasure to become personal friends with both Al and Donna and have been incredibly fortunate to have supped with them on many occasions. Al's culinary creations are indeed out-of-this-world and I can personally attest to being blessed to have eaten some of the most delicious raw and vegan organic food that I have ever tasted. Al's attention to detail also carries forward to the way in which the food is presented with exquisite care for a visual complement to an enticing aroma and sumptuous flavor. Chef Al's gastronomic delights can best be described as "works of art."
It would be great to see additional articles following up with some of Chef Al's other talents. In fact, wouldn't it be nice if the Portland Trib provided Chef Al with some space among its pages on a regular basis for him to share other aspects of his journey along his path to culinary awakening?
For those readers who would like to know more about how to restore health and wellness to their lives, I would invite you to go to Chef Al's web site at www.chefal.org and check out the array of classes that you can take. Its an investment that will pay off in both quality of life as well as nutritional enrichment and culinary satisfaction.
(email verified)
Fri, Aug 17, 2007 at 11:40 AM
Benjamin acknowledges that some vegans can be over the top about diet and, as a result, some people see vegans as almost cultlike.
“Vegans do live with a strong commitment to health and the environment,” she says, “but Al and I teach, we don’t preach. We’d love society to see vegan as another food option. For instance, when someone’s going out to dinner and they’re deciding whether to eat Italian, Chinese or Thai, it’d be wonderful to have them adding vegan into that choice.”
I am not wanting to seem critical here, but veganism is not about just food or diet; it is not about another food option; it is about eliminating suffering. While many vegans do live with a strong commitment to health and the environment, if one's concern is about these and not about eliminating non human animal suffering then one is not a vegan, but a person who eats a plant based diet. There is a difference....and a big one at that. It is not about personal purity, but about eliminating suffering. For example, a person does not eat, wear, etc. animal products; however, raises chickens, slaughters them and feeds their flesh and eggs to their family: this person is not a vegan...because being vegan is not about personal purity...it is about eliminating suffering....this person is contributing to and enabling others to eat, etc. animal products...and cannot therefore be vegan. Just as a person who themselves do not consume animal products, but buys these products for others....this person is not a vegan....because of the suffering issue. Most vegans do not appreciate their stance being watered down in such a way.
Kuddos to anyone who is elevating their thinking when it comes to eating....eliminating disease to oneself and the environment; however, if the animals are not your concern, you are not a vegan. This is in fact, the definition of who a vegan is. Veganism is radical... just as those who refused to own a slave were considered radical in their time. The time will come when those who are true vegans will no longer be the radicals.
(email verified)
Fri, Aug 17, 2007 at 01:44 PM
Thank you CFY for that response. The article was originally designed to cover the sustainable issues and became a nice piece on Chef Al's work. And of course, it does not cover ALL of our reasons for being vegan. Please do not misunderstand -- the animal suffering is right on top with the other issues. My own personal journey started for health reasons, moved to the environmental concerns, then to the animals. Now the animals are first and foremost because I am armed with information.
Chef Al stated in the article “Animals are often cruelly treated, separated from their young, and their food is full of unhealthy additives that harm them and the humans who consume their meat. I wanted to educate others so they would be aware of the impact of their food choices." Besides the words stated here, the impact of their food choices also meant animal suffering. And sometimes no matter what information you put forth about animal suffering, people still make those choices to eat meat.
So in short, our concerns are your concerns and we appreciate your putting your words to keyboard. And yes I do agree with the radical point. The most amazing movements of our times and history have been out of radical actions.
We too hope that this way of life becomes the mainstream and until that day we will continue to bring our work to as many people as we can.
In peace,
Donna
PS: At this time, the best voice for the animals are the movies "Mad Cowboy"; The Witness", "Peaceable Kingdom" and "Earthlings". If those don't bring the point home I don't know what would!
(email verified)
Mon, Aug 20, 2007 at 11:13 AM
I'm just curious and since this page is officially filled with vegans, I'm going to ask. Why are vegans against egg and milk products? I understand the mass production of them goes along with animal cruelty but not all egg and milk production include animal cruelty. My mother has a small hobby farm and I grew up eating egg and dairy products right from our animals. We try to keep roosters off the property (when you buy chicks you can't tell their gender) because they're obnoxious and we don't want an out of control chick population, which means we're not eating undeveloped baby chicks and the goats are happy and healthy.
I'm also curious about swearing off all meat. I decided to become a vegetarian because I was going to go to Brazil for a year to study (which is what I'm doing now) and I learned about how cattle production and ranchers(along with soy, which I try not to eat but is included in so many products here) were destroying the environment. I understand the animal cruelty argument but I question it as I feel that it only covers the extreme situation of the commercial meat industry. As the commercial meat industry is right now, it's horrible. But if the meat industry were more humane (i.e. a regular cattle rancher who butchers a handful of cows for their family and community a year)and meat simply became a food option to be had a couple times a week rather than a main course at lunch and dinner (and some times breakfast), what would your stance be? Looking at the the human body, we are meat eaters and it is natural for humans to eat meat. The problem I find is that in places like the US, Brazil, Argentina, etc... the industry is so huge that animals become warehoused and the industry simply sees a live animal as a potential filet. If a dairy farmer raises a few beef animals a year, the animal will live healthy and happy until it is butchered. I was raised doing 4-H and FFA and the people I knew truly loved their animals and I believe that how most of them raised and used their animals was quite humane.
Now, I do not try to justify or go against eating meat to any extreme because I do see both sides of it regardless of my personal food choices. I'm just in search of educated reasons for such an extreme point of view and life style such as veganism. Also, what do vegans get calcium from?
(email verified)
Thu, Aug 23, 2007 at 10:34 PM
Find a paper
Enter a street name
or a 5 digit zip code
Browse archive
The Estacada News
Sustainable feed
Facebook
Digg
Del.icio.us
Newsvine
Stumbleupon
Reddit
Re: Awakening to the vegan scene
Right on! Kudos to the News Times for writing about this. I went vegetarian a few months ago after really thinking about the resources that go into meat production vs plant production and the environmental effects of meat production. Anyone interested in learning a little about it should look up cattle ranchers in Brazil and what it's doing to the Amazon...though soy is doing the same to the Amazon so it's not just meat. But it's a real eye-opener to see how our food choices can harm or help the environment.
"Leah R"
(email verified)
Tue, Aug 14, 2007 at 11:02 AM