Link to article
www.vegcooking.com/chef-DavidLee.asp Article for those who don't feel like clicking on the link ^_^
Okay picture slaughter house, animals hanging some with heads off some with out heads off and almost all with skin off and dead. hmmmm oh and did I mention the blood that covers the floor. I saw pigs slaughtered when I was younger and deers hanging in the shed that is really very grotesque and morbid. Vegetarian meat alternative. It is helps those who are not veggies to transition over plus what else do you want it to look like?
Chef Spotlight:
David Lee
Age: 46
Q. Do you have companion animals?
A. Snowman the Huge Malamute, Nuit the Elder, and Crazy Cat (M-Cat).
Q. How long have you been a chef?
A. Seventeen years.
Q. What type of cuisine do you focus on?
A. Vegan meats and cheeses, multicultural institutional menu programming, integrating authentic cultural foods into mainstream food service. I spent six years feeding the homeless in downtown Seattle. I love to cook creatively with limited ingredients.
Q. Do you have a personal specialty?
A. Making tasty, charcuterie-styled vegan meats, such as pâté, meatloaf, sausage, that appeal to a broad audience and aren’t attempting to imitate animal meats—I’m not into that!
Q. What are the most important elements in cooking great vegetarian cuisine?
A. Intention, creativity, timing, fats, acids, salts, vegetables, legumes, and grains.
Q. What is the key to getting meat-eaters to enjoy vegetarian food?
A. Creating foods that have an identifiable point of origin; imitation animal meats are the last thing that these consumers want to eat. Like everyone else, they want to eat authentic foods that aren’t trying to be something that they aren’t. When they bite into a hamburger, somewhere in their mind they have an image of cow! When biting into an imitation hamburger patty made from soy, what image is in their mind? A soybean?
Creating foods that fit into their food culture. They want something that they can slap between two pieces of bread and slather with mayonnaise, but not something that they have no idea where it came from (images of “soylent green”—how does one get from a soybean to a brown, hamburger vegan patty)? The meat culture isn’t just about animal flesh; it’s a process of cooking, it’s a way of eating, it’s solid food! People want solid food, something satisfying.
The first definition of the word “meat” in Webster’s dictionary is 1 a: FOOD; especially : solid food as distinguished from drink; b: the edible part of something as distinguished from its covering (as a husk or shell). The word we now know as “meat” came from the old English word “mete,” which traditionally meant the solid part of your meal (the “meat of the matter”—the main part.
Q. What, in your opinion, is in store for the future of plant-based cuisine?
A. The future of plant-based cuisine is undoubtedly the future of cuisine on our planet. While many animal meat eaters malign vegetarianism, the majority are uncomfortable with the fact that the meat they love to eat was once living creatures. And to compound matters, those living creatures were denied the fundamental rights we cherish so much: the warmth of the sun on our backs, the experience of being raised by your parents until ready to fly the coop, being able to walk around.
Q. Do you have a favorite cooking method?
A. I do it all … I like to sauté, steam, braise, slice, dice, marinate, macerate … my favourite new cooking tool is my new high-tech rice cooker—it keeps rice warm for days. I can now have steel cut oats ready to eat in the morning when I rise.
Q. Where did you train to become a chef?
A. San Diego, New York City, Seattle—I was first called “chef” when I was running a hotel kitchen in downtown Seattle preparing 1,500 meals daily to different feeding programs throughout the city. I started a job training program to teach homeless men and woman how to cook! I’m still in training ...
Q. What are your favorite ingredients to work with?
A. I go through phases. Right now, it’s organic, expeller-pressed palm fruit oil.
Q. In your opinion, what vegetarian dish or type of food is most frequently poorly prepared and why?
A. Old school hippie dishes that are part Michio Kushi (macrobiotic), part Tassajara, part Asian, part Middle Eastern—combinations such as salt umeboshi plum, tahini, rice vinegar, Bragg’s, etc.—very early 70s. It’s nostalgic for me, but the cuisine lacks a center.
Q. If you were stranded on a deserted island and could only eat one kind of ethnic food, what would it be?
A. All food is ethnic … I guess it’d be a toss-up between my own culture—Euro-American and Vietnamese—brilliant combination of French and indigenous Viet cuisine that is fresh, complex, and clean.
Q. Do vegetarian restaurants have any special obstacles that they face versus meat-based restaurants?
A. Good vegetarian cooking is much more difficult and sophisticated than meat-based cooking. The challenge is in the details of the cuisine. It’s easier to satisfy customers with the complexities and substance of animal flesh and fats (butter) than with vegetarian cuisine. Other issues are sourcing ingredients and a limited customer base.
Q. Can you give us one great cooking tip for aspiring vegetarian chefs?
A. Believe in what you are doing—cooking is a noble profession. Every veggie meal you cook and serve is for the benefit of all beings and contributes directly to a more peaceful planet.
Q. What are some food ingredients you recommend that vegetarians and vegans should have in their kitchen for cooking?
A. I love whole short-grain Lundberg rice from California, oats, oats, and more oats. Nuts, roasted nuts, maple syrup, rice milk, Mexican papaya, tofu, vital wheat gluten, truffle oil.
Chao Cheese
Pate
Q. Are there any newer vegetarian products on the market that you are particularly fond of?
A. Hmmm … you know, I’m IN the food biz! And honestly, I create the products that I’d like to buy for myself. My latest is Chao Cheese: artisan, hand-formed vegan cheese rolled in fine herbs. It’s creamy and complex. The word “chao” comes from the Vietnamese word for fermented tofu. And White Truffle Pâté: a vegan pâté made from Wild Mushroom Field Roast; walnuts; white truffles; shiitake, bolete, and champignon mushrooms; green olives; pistachio nuts. Both are delicious on a baguette with your beverage of choice.
