The Vegetarian Epicure Update - Vegetarian Cooking

Veteran veggieheads who list off their favorite cookbooks will surely mention at least one of Anna Thomas' titles, whether it's the groundbreaking Vegetarian Epicure or her most recent book, The New Vegetarian Epicure. VeggieHeadOnline was lucky enough to chat with Anna about being vegetarian and epicurious, and her new project.

VeggieHeadOnline: Your biography on your website said that you were born in Germany to a Polish family, them immigrated to the US as a baby. Did your family hang on to the Polish and/or German way of cooking, with the heavy sausages, etc? How did your change to vegetarianism come about? How did your family react?

Anna Thomas: The cooking in my family, when I was a child, was traditional Polish - plenty of meat, plenty of butter, dairy products, but also salads and vegetables prepared in interesting, old-fashioned ways. I remember my mother's cucumbers in sour cream and dill, the great vegetable salad we had at every big party and which I still make every Christmas, the beet soup, and a liberal use of mushrooms which I happily continue. Also, great pastries, cookies, cakes.... So, it was a mix. I moved away from meat pretty early, and no one gave me a hard time about it. I just didn't eat meat when I didn't feel like it, and around the time I went to college I ate meat much more rarely. Eventually I stopped. It happened gradually. Over time, everyone in my family, old and young, came to appreciate my style of cooking, and their way of eating gradually shifted to a lighter, less meat-heavy one.

VHO: What made you decide to write a cookbook when you were a aspiring filmmaker? Can you believe that The Vegetarian Epicure is almost 30 years old? Why do you think it became such a must-have in a vegetarian kitchen?

AT: I wrote a cookbook because I just couldn't find one I wanted to use. I was not eating meat any more, but I didn't find the existing material on vegetarian cooking very appealing. It felt very self-denying, sort of grim. I like good food, and wanted to cook and eat things that were delicious. I started developing my own style of cooking, and then I started writing it down. On the suggestion of friends who liked eating at my house, I decided to make it a book. Just a whim, really. And yes, it's hard to believe that that was all thirty years ago. But I think the reason it became so popular was because it truly was and is a book about good food, not about some kind of diet or regimen. It's about wonderful flavors, about things being what they are rather than an imitation of something else, about the joy of preparing food, the pleasure of eating it. And it doesn't lecture.

VHO: I remember it was one of the first cookbooks my sister and I got when we became vegetarians, and I just loved how it wasn't necessarily about "health food," but delicious and rich food that just happened to be meatless. It is such a wonderful celebration of vegetarian cuisine. What inspired the following book, The Vegetarian Epicure, Part two?

AT: I had traveled a lot, eaten marvelous foods in other countries, and really expanded my horizons, so I had a lot more to say, and great new recipes.

VHO: Did you raise your children to be vegetarian? Was that a challenge?

AT: No, I did not raise my children as vegetarians. I always provided lots of good vegetarian food, and that's mostly what we ate at home, but I set no hard and fast rules. As you already know, if you've read my books, I don't believe in telling people you must do this, or you can't do that. I think it's a bad idea to force a way of eating on someone. Of course, I tried always to provide a healthy range of foods for my children, and I discouraged junk food, but I try not to be fanatical, as I think that just backfires. If they wanted to order meat when out in a restaurant, I let them, and didn't make a fuss. Over the years, they both went through phases of eating vegetarian. Now, as teenagers, they do eat meat, but on the whole I think they eat much more vegetarian food and a much more plant-based diet in general than most people do.

VHO: Another feature of your books I particularly like is that you veggify ethnic dishes. I am actually part Polish myself, and your recipe for pierogi in the first book was such a great discovery. It's just one of many examples of how you adapt an ethnic recipe for the veggiehead. What is your process of developing these recipes? Have you found a particular meat dish that just can't be made meatless?

AT: I just play around with things. There's no specific method. I think that something will be tasty, and I try it out! Of course, some dishes can't be made meatless, but why should they? There's so much to choose from in the world of fresh fruit and vegetables, legumes and grains, cheeses and nuts and wines..... A pumpkin can't be meat, and a steak can't be a vegetable - who cares? There's no need to copy every traditional dish in a vegetarian version.

VHO: Do you think it is a particularly exciting time to be a vegetarian, considering the public acceptance and endorsement of vegetable-based diets from health experts, celebrities coming out as vegetarians, and the kinds of difficulties going on in the meat industry and the environment that people are really stopping to think about their food? Do you think we're evolving as humankind toward a vegetarian diet?

AT: It's a very exciting time, because there is so much more to choose from. Many restaurants now have vegetarian choices, and not just one or two. The quality and variety of produce available in stores has really improved, and there are great resources in terms of cookbooks - mine are not the only ones! I do think many people are stopping and thinking more about their food, though I'm not sure if we are evolving as humankind - that's a bigger question than I can answer!

VHO: Are you working on a new cookbook currently? What is the next step in the Epicure series?

AT: Yes, I'm working on a new book. It's about very seasonal food, the freshest, most approachable kind of cooking, using produce at the very peak of its ripeness and availability. I'm also writing about all sorts of things that interest me - how to stock the pantry, the importance of shopping in the farmers' markets, how my food is influenced by travels and by friends - all sorts of things, which will make it a highly personal book. But then, all my books have been personal - they've all been about what I like, how I cook, what interests me. As long as other people find it interesting and useful, I'm thrilled.

For more information about Anna Thomas' books, and to sample some of her recipes, visit www.vegetarianepicure.com .