Awakening to the vegan scene

Chef shows shoppers, eaters another way

By Nancy Hill

Pamplin Media Group, Aug 14, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (13 Reader comments)

Al Chase was a conventional cook until his father’s heart attack and increased environmental awareness sold him on vegan cuisine.

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A first course of summer vegetable salad with pumpkin citrus dressing, incredibly moist Anasazi corn bread with maple coconut butter, a scrumptious dessert of cacao nibs, Medjool dates, hemp nuts, and agave nectar — sample local chef Al Chase’s vegan cuisine, and you may wonder why you’ve ever eaten any other way.

“Vegan food isn’t simply meant to be nutritious,” Chase says. “It should also be delicious and fun. And it’s good for the planet as well as the individual eating it.”

Chase buys his produce locally, which not only supports local organic farmers but also cuts down on fossil fuel usage.

Chase acknowledges that he did not initially consider nutrition and the environment when he embarked on a career preparing food. In fact, it’s tough to pinpoint exactly where his cooking career began.

A biographer might say it was in childhood, when he hoisted himself up on a chair to help his mother make traditional family meals — meat and high-cholesterol foods were typical staples of supper.

A sociologist might report that Chase’s career began when he was 12 and his father, a trucker, had a heart attack. Unable to continue in his profession, his father opened a deli. The young Chase worked alongside his father in the upstate New York family business, making comfort food high in calories and fat.

A teacher certainly would attribute the beginning of Chase’s career to the culinary arts training classes he took through New York state’s Board of Cooperative Educational Services program, which teaches trades to public high school students.

Those in the culinary arts are likely to insist that Chase’s career began when he graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in New York City.

Chase believes all these experiences led to his joy of preparing food, but he attributes his real culinary awakening to his move to California about a dozen years ago.

“My father suffered his third heart attack just as I was beginning to experience the West Coast’s dedication to healthy cooking. Finally, I put two and two together and realized that what we eat directly affects our health,” he says.

Chef’s also a teacher

Chase slowly began to eliminate meat from his diet. Soon after that, the one-time French classical and nouvelle chef began to feel he could no longer cook meat.

“I’d learned too much about health and environmental issues to do that any longer,” he says. “For example, it takes 25,000 gallons of water to produce one pound of meat. The rain forest is being destroyed for factory farming and to raise cattle.

“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.”

Pairing his love of cooking with his knowledge about health and sustainability, Chase created what was then called the Institute for Culinary Awakening, a mobile teaching organization, and traveled all over the country teaching organic plant-based cuisine to chefs, businesses and individuals.

While living in Santa Fe, N.M., he met his future wife, Donna Benjamin, who joined him in his educational tours. Two years ago, the two settled in Portland and shortened their business name to Culinary Awakenings.

“We aren’t a school,” Benjamin explains. “We work with people in their homes, chefs in their kitchens, and businesses on their campuses to teach healthy ways of purchasing and preparing food.”

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