Excerpt from the Introduction
As far back as I can remember, food has been at the center of my family’s life. My mom was an outstanding cook, and there was always a soup or pasta sauce boiling away, so we always had a reason to invite people over. Whether it was birthdays, holidays, or even just sunny days, our dinner table was always crowded. She was from a family of 16 siblings, so we never lacked guests hungry for her dishes that comforted the stomach as much as they comforted the soul. During our meals, conversations would spark around the table, with plenty of jokes and secrets being shared. It was as obvious to me then as it is now that food is the best way to bring people together. Around delicious food, tongues become untied, conversations go from small talk to knowing banter, and tablemates go from strangers to friends.

As a young teenager, I became comfortable enough in the kitchen to start preparing some of our family meals myself. I was so proud to serve dishes like boeuf bourguignon, which, if not perfect, was at the very least prepared with love. At 16, I became the de facto private chef for my group of friends. They favored my food over fast food, which was no simple feat, considering the way teenagers crave burgers and pizza. Cooking for my friends and family at such a young age taught me that creating memorable moments together was more important than the food itself. I also learned that for creating those special moments, no restaurant meal could ever rival a dinner shared with friends and family in the comfort of your own home. There’s so much less pretension with home cooking—it’s all about delicious, comforting food and quality conversation with family and friends! During my career in the restaurant industry, I continued to cook the same rustic food I liked to cook at home. I was offered positions in pretentious restaurants that served flashy food, but no thanks. I always favored authenticity and imperfection over precious, perfectly plated food lacking flavor.

When I was a professional chef, I traveled to Cambodia and Thailand. As many chefs do, I traveled to experience new flavors and techniques that I could incorporate into my cooking. To my surprise, while there certainly were many flavors I hadn’t experienced before, there was a satisfying, rustic quality to much of what I ate that made me feel like I was right back at home. The way food was served also felt a lot like home: it was all about sharing. My time in Southeast Asia further reinforced that cooking is about bringing people together, not showing off. I also learned how to better balance flavors and how important acidity is to making other flavors shine. Since my travels, if a dish tastes like it’s missing something, I turn to lemon juice or vinegar. It almost always does the trick!

In the not so distant past, it was all the rage in vegan cooking to make everything taste like soy sauce and soy sauce only. unfortunately, soy sauce was often the only seasoning vegan cooks used, so there were a lot of bland, dry, uninteresting meals being served. one time, I was even served a single roasted sweet potato as a whole meal! Enough! After I adopted a vegan diet, I continued to cook dishes that were full of flavor and perfect for sharing with my friends and family. The bland, boring dishes of old-school hippy vegan cuisine would have no place in my kitchen.

In this book, I’ve drawn from all my experiences and lessons learned as a teenager, traveler, and professional chef to create recipes that show that vegan cooking can be just as appetizing and satisfying as any other style of cooking. Take my recipe for Vegan Fried Chicken, for example. You would never guess that it’s made with mushrooms, and when people taste it, they won’t believe it’s not chicken! They’ll have the same reaction to the Tofish & Chips, Tandoori Tofu, Cheesy Mushroom Gratin, Orange Tofu, and so many of the other recipes in this book. You don’t even have to tell your family and friends the meal you’re serving is vegan—it’s just delicious food that they won’t be able to stop eating. These are dishes that will truly please everyone, even those who have never tried vegan food, because they share the common denominator of all the world’s best cuisines: flavor. If a dish is full of flavor, it doesn’t matter whether it’s vegan or not. It’s just delicious.