You can probably understand how a year at french culinary school could translate to a year of force-feeding. Hours on end in the boulangerie, pockets constantly filled with puff pastry, tasting spoonful after spoonful of sauce, of mouse, of mashed potatoes, and returning home late each night to find a cupboard full of confectionaries, duck confit, and Chablis.
To be frank, it’s caloric cluster fuck.
So while packing up our London apartment over the holidays, I found myself face to face with a closet full of dust covered clothes. And after way too many tries I realized then and there that not even good genes could make me fit into my skinny jeans: if I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life in Cordon-Bleu-size-jeans I was going to have to do something about it.
I have always been a conscious eater and a consistent exerciser, but I have finally hit the age and stage where I need to re-calibrate my scale. Mireille Guiliano, the astute author of “French Women Don’t Get Fat,” refers to it as ‘recasting’ or rather charting a new path towards your food future. This is of course the basis for cleansing, which is in fact a great way to jump start any eating program, but I needed something more. I needed to find something more sustainable and practical than just living life on liquids.
So here is what I came up with:
Vegan 75
The premise: eating vegan 75% of the time, 75% of the year, or even just 75 days of the year- whatever you can sustain.
We all know that sustainability is the culinary buzz word of the moment, but this doesn’t just refer to environmental health. Sustainability is also what’s missing from each diet craze and fat zapping fad. What is sustainable for one may not be for another. Trust me when I tell you that there’s no denying the health benefits of veganomics- and yet even I’m not 100% committed. Why? Because there is plenty of room for love when it comes to food, but no room for logic. So let’s get real.
I’m a lactose intolerant pastry chef who likes nothing more than making ice cream. I’ll be sick for days, but I’ll still keep making it, and enjoying it. I know plenty of folks with similar stories, and that is why we could all benefit from the 75% principle. Take the good with the bad, just more of the good, and by good I mean good for you.
And *good* news: there’s a way you can have your lactose friendly gluten free cake and eat it too! Check out The Cinnamon Snail NYC food truck.
A roving food-cart that is really confusing the most carnivorous of us all, The Cinnamon Snail churns out organic breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert to vegans and just people like you and me street-side each day.
I sampled their vegan delights this past Sunday at the Hell’s Kitchen food truck and flea market. Here’s the raw truth:
Banging flavors and spot-on textures- the hot sandwiches, raw pizzas, and baked goods could completely convert you.
*Update: Word on the street (literally) is that Bethenny Frankel’s foodie-friend Nick was in line at the Schnitzel & Things cart. He doesn’t know what meat he wouldn’t have been missing, but we are sorry we missed him!
Hell’s Kitchen Flea Market (every 2nd Sunday of the month, 11am-5pm) www.hellskitchenfleamarket.com
Darcy Jones
