Introduction

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environment, with a growing interest in adding plant-based meals to their weekly repertoire.

Vegan food is kind. The ethical and envi- ronmental costs of factory farming have become impossible to ignore. Not eating meat is a more effective and immediate solution than campaign- ing for the rights of animals on their way to the slaughterhouse. Young people seem to know this inherently; they’re quick to question why some animals are kept as pets and considered friends while others are eaten. My school-age kids don’t always eat vegan meals outside our house, but they do stick to a vegetarian diet easily—and very much on their own.

For many people, becoming vegetarian is a great place to start. If you choose to eliminate dairy and eggs, too, you’ll be doing that much more for your health and the environment. Both the commercial dairy and egg industries employ highly questionable practices to keep produc- tion up and costs down. Animal fats like those from eggs and dairy clog our arteries and leave us feeling sluggish. Fruits, vegetables, and whole grains—what I call “real food”—leave us feeling light and energized.

Family and friends may wonder about some of the new foods you’re eating. Having grown up in the South, the new foods I started eating did not go unnoticed. My family of origin started calling the cuisine I ate “Ann’s food,” as if it were something really strange. On visits home to Memphis, I’d make meals in my mother’s kitchen—meals that she enjoyed eating, but with some reserve. At some point during the meal, there would always be a reference to “Ann’s food.”

Many years later, after my first restaurant

opened, my family started to embrace the food I ate. On trips to Los Angeles, my parents would eat at Real Food Daily and see how crowded the restaurant was. “There must be something to this food,” they thought, “if all these people are eating here.” I have won over many skeptics by enter- taining with such dishes as my version of Bangers and Mash: Apple-Sage Field Roast Grain Sausage with Mashed Potatoes and Celeriac Root (page 178). My extended family and friends might not eat plant-based meals all the time, but they look forward to the ones we share—and I enjoy proving that plant-based meals are far more satisfying than they had imagined.

Vegan food is delicious. A plant-based diet encourages creativity in the kitchen, with a seasonally rotating palette of fresh, colorful produce ripe for use. Prepare the best local and s easonal ingredients with a variety of cooking methods, and you’ll have more interesting and diverse tastes, textures, and colors on your plate.

For inspiration, I often turn to recipes that come from traditions around the world. Recipes with a long culinary history are always heartfelt endeavors: There’s a reason people pass them down from generation to generation. Consider India, with its many traditional vegetable dishes made sultry with exotic combinations of spices that lend layers of flavor and heat; the Far East, with its creative uses of tofu and tempeh, and its rich condiments like miso and tamari; and Mexico, with its earthy way of combining in- gredients like chiles, beans, and corn for just the right balance. You’ll find these traditions reflected in such recipes as Curried Red Lentil Soup (page 105), Szechuan Noodles with Hot Spicy Peanut Sauce (page 163), and Southwestern Salad