Chef Spotlight: Jason Sellers Name: Jason Sellers Age: 34 Restaurant: The Laughing Seed Café, Asheville, North Carolina

Do you have companion animals? If so, can you describe them?  
I have furry family members; I think some people call them cats and dogs. Five are permanent, and every so often, the universe sends us another in need of shelter. They are Atwood, Bowie, Galaxy 9, and Lewis; our dog-son is named Zeus (but we find that “Fluffybutt” diminishes his otherwise godly ego).

How long have you been a chef?
I’m a newbie. I have been a professional chef for a year and some change, and I have cooked passionately as a vegetarian for 16 years and vegan for the last five. While in New York, I had the wonderful experience of working at Candle 79, and since moving to North Carolina, the Seed has become my home away from home.

What type of cuisine do you focus on?
I focus on seasonal, organic vegan cuisine in an attempt to elevate whatever is fresh.

Have you or your restaurant received any awards?
The Laughing Seed Café is consistently voted the best vegetarian restaurant in North Carolina.

Do you have a specialty?
Under the circumstances at the restaurant—where we’re all responsible for so much on a daily basis—my specialty has become getting it all done by dinner service, because we don’t close between lunch and dinner. This means looking at what’s fresh and appropriate and making it jive, both for nightly specials and for the constantly changing core menu dishes. On my own, however, I love to culture my own foods, make tempeh, and pursue the never-ending list of incredible food/spice combinations.

What are the most important elements in cooking great vegetarian cuisine?
The most important elements in cooking great vegetarian cuisine are fresh, wholesome ingredients, sound culinary technique, and a veg mindset. For me, food is plant-based; it’s the sole sustenance. And it is absolutely true that one must cultivate a relationship with anything one wishes to make great. Understanding the dynamics of food as its texture, taste, aroma, and color change requires such a relationship.

What is the key to getting meat-eaters to enjoy vegetarian food?
The key is to make food taste good. It’s not smoke and mirrors here. Yeah, I love to replicate the mystique that some claim to experience when they eat a piece of meat, say, by cooking seitan well and then serving it with a bordelaise and mashed potatoes. But if there’s a trick, it’s helping carnivores to realize that plant-based food stands on its own, that it deserves the label “cuisine,” and that, as such, it provides all the nutrients we need in a humane and sustainable manner.

What, in your opinion, does the future of plant-based cuisine hold?
All semiotics aside, the future of plant-based cuisine is the future. We are capable of a future only by realizing our impact on the world now through the food we choose to eat.  Many have said this. So I’ll say this: Plant-based food is necessary; vegan cuisine is sexy.  It is also subversive and revolutionary. The future of plant-based food will definitely be the stage where a society that is becoming more informed about its food chain acts out.  A future where plant-based food is the norm and is widely accessible is a must. A future where a majority of restaurantgoers seek vegan cuisine would signal a transformation, indeed. And what is a future if not transformative?

Do you have a favorite cooking method?
My general cooking methodology is shaped by the season and by the signals I get from my body and mood, so it’s dynamic. But my favorite cooking method, hands down, is crusting. I’m crazy about combining fresh herbs, nuts, seeds, and grains with spices; pairing them with a marinade and the product; and frying it to some result that triggers an out-of-body experience. What an excellent way to combine flavors and build nuance. This is hardcore winter food, though, and is sometimes less of a choice and more of an urge that occurs between October and February.

Where did you train to become a chef?
I trained at the Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts in New York City.

What are your favorite ingredients to work with?
I love to work with seitan, tempeh, dried chilies, local mushrooms, fermented and cultured foods, coconut in all its forms, nuts, fresh greens, spices from the Ayurvedic world, and lots and lots of wine.

In your opinion, what vegetarian dish or type of food is most frequently poorly prepared, and why?
Tempeh is so often mistreated that I swear it makes me depressed. Professionally and privately, I don’t eat tempeh before I’ve twice cooked it, first in a marinade and then to finish. Unfortunately, this eliminates the bacterial-related nutritional benefits of lacto-fermentation. Its good-quality protein remains accessible, however. I think mushrooms are also often poorly prepared. There’s a delicate quality to them that can be highlighted with any cooking technique. But it’s often overlooked, and the result is uninspiring.

If you were stranded on a deserted island and could only eat one kind of ethnic food, what would it be?
If stranded, I guess it would have to be Indian food. It gets me buzzed.

Do vegetarian restaurants face any special obstacles that meat-based restaurants don’t have to face?
While our approach is unique, I don’t think vegetarian restaurants have to negotiate any obstacles that traditional restaurants don’t. If we do, our clientele has certainly found a way around the obstacles. In all honesty, there may be a greater distinction between lacto-ovo vegetarian cuisine and vegan cuisine and a hurdle to be managed while jumping from the former to the latter: How to persuade your guest to order that pasta special even though it will not feature gorgonzola, for example.

Can you give us one great cooking tip for aspiring vegetarian chefs?
As an aspiring veg chef, I can offer some advice that I constantly try to give myself, and that is to rely on your technique and to think forwardly. Food science is the crux of the culinary arts, and careful, well-planned, and consistent technique is what ultimately makes your food delicious and memorable. Timing, heat level, the use of salt and fat, par-cooking, knife skills … it’s all in how a chef treats his or her ingredients. Also, to be a vegetarian chef is to have an agenda other than a culinary one. Take what you do seriously and know that it has an impact; then put that energy back into the food.

What are some ingredients that you recommend vegetarians and vegans have in their kitchens to cook with?
Great pantry items to have are good-quality nonrefined salt, ferments, and cultured foods (e.g., miso, tempeh, soy sauces, vegan yogurts); whole grains and nuts; coconut oil and other good-quality fats; dried chilies; and organic or biodynamic produce.

Are there any newer vegetarian products on the market that you are particularly fond of?
I’m not particularly fond of most of the vegetarian “stand-in” type products, because—and this is related to the earlier question regarding the future of our food chain and our health—many are full of synthetics, products of chemical baths, and mutated faux foods.  Some are trying to improve, though. Earth Balance now offers a baking “shortening”-type product that does not contain isolated soy (the process of which is a nightmare), and Vegenaise (regardless of how one may feel about grapeseed oil) is as widely useful as oxygen. Generally, I say make your own “ice cream” and soysage. Or come to our place and we’ll make it for you!

Have you had any noteworthy comments from or experiences with diners?
Just last night a guest asked to speak to me in the dining room, and as I approached the table, she looked up from her plate and asked, “Who’s the artist?” That was nice. Whenever a regular comes in and says the food was better than it has ever been, I am rewarded. We use comment cards at the Seed; it’s a great way to feel the pulse, because people write without restraint.

• How best to prepare tofu
• How best to prepare seitan
• How best to prepare tempeh
• Your favorite way to work with a certain fruit or vegetable

Tempeh Napoleons
Brunch Soysage