“In my former role at Cranks Health and Vitality Restaurants and at my clinics around London I’ve seen a number of vegetarians and vegans whose diet is mainly carbohydrate based and low on essential fats such as omega 3 and key amino acids” says Yvonne.
When Yvonne’s vegan husband Tony was approached to write another cookbook Yvonne felt it was important that she get involved and oversee the nutritional value of the recipes. She insisted that he use some key ingredients that provide essential nutrients, such as selenium, zinc, magnesium, iron, iodine, calcium and B vitamins.
Tony protested that vegans don’t care so much about nutrition and that their most important criteria was ethics, taste and texture. Yvonne argued that Tony shouldn’t be writing the book for vegans, he should be writing recipes that appeal to everyone and people new to veganism will need to be reassured that the dishes are nutritionally complete.
The cookbook took twice the time to write than normal but eventually the pair managed to agree recipes that satisfied both Tony’s culinary demands for desserts full of chocolate decadence and mouth-watering main-courses and Yvonne’s professional criteria for food as a preventative medicine.
In the end they’ve managed to create a cookbook that’s not only full of mouth-watering rich vegan cheese and cream flavours, unbelievably lush desserts and lots of healthy snack and breakfast ideas but also be low carb, low sugar, low salt, low saturated fat, low cholesterol, full of protein, essential fats, amino acids, vitamins and minerals and anti oxidants.
It prompted one UK Health Magazine to announce “vegan food has been reinvented” and the BBC to use Tony and Yvonne’s recipes for a new vegan recipe section on their website.
Despite fierce competition from new vegan cookbooks by Moby and Alex the vegan chef from Supersize Me, the American version of the vegan is very doing well.
It’s hoped it will be a Vegan bestseller by World Vegan Day November 2005
“The proof is in the pudding” says Tony