From best-selling books to Oscar worthy horderves, and everywhere in between, a generation of black vegan chefs are coming into their own and blowing the game wide open. Classically trained, ambitious, inventive and full of flavor, they are working with high profile black celebrity vegans to share their love of food and spread the word on the plant based diet in the community.
Lauren Von Der Pool
Lauren Von Der Pool, is the celebrity chef behind raw vegan athletes
Venus &
Serena Williams and vegetarian rapper Common. She's been bringing vegan food to black folks since she was 15 years old, when she started her first business selling vegan food to students at Howard University. Today she travels the globe as a Cordon Bleu trained celebrity chef, soaking up recipes, meeting fellow chefs and generally being fabulous. When she's stateside, she works to combat the
food deserts that plague urban centers by teaching high school kids about nutrition in her home town of DC and has become a spokesperson for Michelle Obama's
Let's Move campaign against obesity. She is inspired and inspiring as an
author,
advocate,chef and entrepreneur with a genuine passion for plant based cuisine.
Ayinde Howell
Chef Ayinde Howell has many strings to his bow. Not only is he a successful chef who has mastered the art of the mac n' yease, but he is also a poet, actor, writer, musician and czar of his own vegan web mecca,
I Eat Grass. Growing up in a
vegan household, he's been practicing his skills for years and he's made lots of friends along the way. His Hillside Quickies Sandwich Shop was favorite with Def Jam vegan Russell Simmons and his first e-book venture,
10 Ways to Get Your Protein, includes a foreword by vegan songstress India Arie. And his Kickstarter funded,
Wildflower Pop-Up Vegan Restaurant, was the talk of 2012 in towns like New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. His passion for food and drive adventure definitely make him one to watch.
Bryant Terry
Bryant Terry is probably the best known chef on this list. His bestselling book,
Vegan Soul Kitchen lays out a blueprint for how to cook the food that you grew up on, without the flesh, and has helped him spread the word on ham-hock free collard greens on television, at universities, and online. He describes himself as a 'food activist' and works tirelessly against obesity and
food injustice that causes what he calls a 'quasi apartheid in the food system' in America. With his most recent book,
The Inspired Vegan, he took an interest in gardening and became a spokesperson for urban farms with food education initiative
Nourish Life. There is much anticipation around his upcoming title, Afro Vegan, and with Terry's track record it's sure to be a next level read.
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