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Sarah Kramer’s professional cooking career vegan when she whipped up a “zine”—typically a small, self-published magazine—filled with recipes to give as a Christmas present to her family and friends one year. Her zine took off and evolved into How It All Vegan, the bestselling cookbook that won a VegNews award for best cookbook in both 2003 and 2004. Following the success of her first cookbook, which is often referred to as “the vegan bible,” the vegan goddess with a vintage style and relaxed approach to cooking created two more tantalizing tomes: The Garden of Vegan and La Dolce Vegan.
 A self-taught chef who inherited her adventurous approach to cooking from her parents, Sarah said she believes that veganism is not just about food, but is a positive, compassionate lifestyle choice. Living by the philosophy that it only takes one tiny spark to start a fire, she boasts that she has a pack of matches and is ready to burn! When not testing new recipes—or running a tattoo shop with her husband, Gerry—Sarah conducts live cooking shows at events throughout North America, pens a regular column for Herbivore magazine, and runs GoVegan.net, a popular vegan Web site. She has been a guest on TV shows including Canada AM and W-5 as well as many radio shows on stations like National Public Radio and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Priding herself on “making things simple,” Sarah has a knack for serving up simply spectacular dishes, like 5-Minute Roasted Red Pepper Pesto and Pasta, Chocolate Banana No-Bake Pie, Nori Sushi Rolls, Sweet Potato and Apple Kugel, and Voracious Vegan Pâté.
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Chef Spotlight:
Sarah Kramer
Chef’s Web site: GoVegan.net
Do you have companion animals? If so, can you describe them?
My husband, Gerry, and my dog, Fergus. Both are silly, sassy, funny little guys who make my days happy ones.
How long have you been a chef?
I have been cooking since childhood. My parents are very into food, and their fearlessness to try new things in the kitchen rubbed off on me and my brother, who is also a chef.
What type of cuisine do you focus on?
I like to focus on healthy, easy-to-make vegan dishes.
Have you received any awards?
GoVegan.net and the cookbooks have won many awards. To name a few, VegNews named me “Favorite Cookbook Author” in 2005, and How It All Vegan won best cookbook from VegNews two years in a row and also a few M-Awards for favorite book and for favorite literary event in 2005.
Do you have a specialty?
I’m all about making things simple. Give me a complicated recipe or something in your life that you find difficult, and I’ll find an easy way to make it work.
What are the most important elements in cooking great vegetarian cuisine?
Fearlessness. I think it’s important to make mistakes and to keep trying until you get it right. The more mistakes you make, the more you learn—and the more you learn, the better you will be in the kitchen.
What is the key to getting meat-eaters to enjoy vegetarian food?
Patience. And serve them a good meal. I find that I can get my point across a lot easier with a good dish as compared to a thousand hours of conversation and debate.
What, in your opinion, does the future of plant-based cuisine hold?
The vegan landscape has changed so much in the last few years. When I wrote HIAV in 1999, there wasn’t much out there in the market place for vegans, and in the last few years, I’ve observed a real shift in the way that the “conventional” world views veganism.
“Vegan” is now a word that most people understand; there are now products on the shelves that are labeled as “vegan.” We still have a long way to go before veganism is part of mainstream culture, but I believe that with lifestyle magazines like Herbivore and books like Vegan Freak, we are well on our way to world domination. (Laughs.)
Do you have a favorite cooking method?
Fast. I like to get in and out of the kitchen as quickly as possible so that I can get down to eating.
Where did you train to become a chef?
I trained at home with my parents. No school, just the school of hard knocks. Anyone can cook. It’s not rocket science.
What are your favorite ingredients to work with?
I love manipulating tofu. It’s such a versatile ingredient for desserts, entrées, shakes, side dishes—the possibilities for tofu are endless.
In your opinion, what vegetarian dish or type of food is most frequently poorly prepared and why?
Tofu. It seems that most people don’t know what to do with it, and that’s why a lot of people don’t like it. It’s important to remember that tofu is like cake flour. You wouldn’t eat a spoonful of cake flour without adding other ingredients to it to give it flavor and turn it into a cake.
Tofu is the same as flour; it’s an ingredient that is hopelessly flavorless until it’s been seasoned and prepared properly. Tofu will soak up whatever flavor you surround it with, so whether it’s sweet, savory, or spicy, make sure you add something to it.
If you were stranded on a deserted island and could only eat one kind of ethnic food, what would it be?
Japanese. I love brown rice sushi rolls, steamed edamame, miso soup, and noodles! Yum. I could eat Japanese every day for the rest of my life and never get sick of it.
Can you give us one great cooking tip for aspiring vegetarian chefs?
Buy yourself a “stand-alone” oven thermometer for your oven. Almost all internal oven thermometers I’ve ever encountered are off by a few degrees. My oven is off by 25 degrees, and my girlfriend’s oven is off by 50 degrees. That makes a big difference when you’re baking, and it can be the difference between a perfect cake and a ruined one.
What are some ingredients that you recommend vegetarians and vegans have in their kitchens to cook with?
Earth Balance margarine is 100 percent vegan and fantastic for baking. I also always have a surplus of flax oil, soy milk, oats, chickpeas, rice, grains, and noodles in my cupboard.
Are there any newer vegetarian products on the market that you are particularly fond of?
I am so thrilled that Earth Balance margarine is 100 percent vegan and proudly says so on the package. It’s also a quality product for baking.
Have you had any noteworthy comments from or experiences with your fans?
Every single day, I get e-mails or letters from fans commenting on the books and how much they’ve helped them transition smoothly into a vegan lifestyle. It’s impossible for me to have a bad day when so much praise is being heaped my way everywhere I go.
Choose one area to give some specialty tips for. How best to prepare tofu:
Choose your tofu wisely. Different types of tofu do different things:
- Soft tofu is good for desserts, puddings, and shakes and as an egg replacer in baking.
- Medium or firm tofu is good for making cheesecakes and stir-fries and as a filling for a lasagna, etc.
- Extra-firm tofu is good for stir-fries, kebabs, barbecuing, etc.
How best to prepare seitan:
Seitan and mock meats are so easy to make yourself. I offer easy, step-by-step directions in La Dolce Vegan.
Your favorite way to work with a certain fruit or vegetable:
My name is Sarah, and I’m a kale-aholic. I throw kale into everything—chop it up finely and toss it in with my salads, stir-fries, soups, etc. It’s important to get those dark-green, leafy vegetables. Your body will thank you.
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Chef: Kimiko Ikeda
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