Plant Chat: Jason Wrobel, Vegan Chef
Jason Wrobel is a certified raw food chef and host of Cooking Channel’s How to Live to 100. Jason specializes in vegan cuisine and turns up the flavor on powerful ingredients in order to improve health and increase longevity. Jason is a graduate of the Living Light Culinary Arts Institute and has worked as the Head Raw Food Chef at the award-winning Cafe La Vie in Santa Cruz, California. Jason hosts The J-Wro Show on YouTube, which showcases healthy recipes and lifestyle transformation tips. His first DVD, Simple Vegan Classics, is a best-seller and has taught thousands of people how to prepare easy and nutritious plant-based dishes.
Be sure to tune into Jason’s show, How to Live to 100 airs on Fridays at 9pm ET on Cooking Channel. You can also connect with Jason through his Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook accounts.
I recently had the pleasure to sit down and talk to Jason about his diet on a “typical” day, his own favorite recipe, the inside scoop on his new television show, and more! Read on to hear what this fun-loving plant-powered mover and shaker had to say.
What originally inspired you to become a raw vegan chef?
Growing up in Detroit, I noticed a lot of disease and health challenges in my family. As a teenager, my grandfather passed away from cancer and that planted a seed of curiosity in me to find a different way of eating and living. I gradually started adding more plant foods to my diet and eventually went to the Living Light Culinary Arts Academy in 2005. I’ve been working as a raw food and vegan chef professionally ever since – taking that original seed of inspiration to teach people how delicious, innovative, healthy and easy plant-based cuisine can be.
What do you eat in a typical day?
As if there is such a thing in my world! On most days – I start the morning with a glass of clean, filtered water and a green smoothie. For lunch, it’s pretty light. Maybe a quinoa bowl or soup. For dinner, it varies, honestly. In the summer, I love a simple kelp noodle primavera or in winter, perhaps a yellow curry with tempeh. I try to eat as locally and seasonally as possible, while honoring my body’s requests for specific ingredients or nutrients. Once you start eating clean – your body will give you very clear signals for what it needs.
What is your personal favorite recipe?
That’s a tough one. It’s like asking me what my favorite band is! Right now – it’s got to be either my Tortilla Soup or Vegan Caesar Salad. Both super flavorful, simple to prep and loaded with a tons of healthy raw ingredients and superfoods.
You’ve lived on both sides of the United States – New York City and Santa Cruz. How do you find the plant-based community differs from East to West Coast? What things in particular have you learned from each coast?
The plant-based community is pretty similar on both coasts. Your naming the two biggest markets for vegan cuisine – New York and California – and both are constantly pushing the envelope in terms of culinary prowess, innovative recipes and burgeoning small businesses. I think in New York, it’s a little more “serious” – as the restaurant world is just so competitive. Northern California and Los Angeles feel much more laid back to me.
We’ve heard that you’re a wonderful live speaker. Can we expect a Ted Talk from you sometime soon?
That’s actually a goal of mine – a Ted Talk about longevity and nutritional strategies to live a long, healthy life. And somehow including a “Gallagher” moment where I cover the audience in plastic tarps and get really messy with a recipe on stage! Haven’t seen that at Ted yet.
How did you get your start on the Cooking Channel? And what has the experience been like, gearing up for your television show?
I co-created the general concept for a show with a great production company and we pitched it to Cooking Channel a couple of years back. They took a bite and we shot a 30-minute special. The special did so well that we are now in season one of How to Live to 100. Gearing up for the series was definitely a challenge, with creating mostly all-new recipes, memorizing scripts, working with the other actors and shooting several shows back to back. It’s amazing that I get to engage in both my passions – acting and food – and feel so grateful to have the opportunity to bring an innovative type of cuisine to a mainstream audience.
What is one of your best tips to get people eating a more plant-based diet?
Start gradually. Eating one or two meatless meals a week is a big step for a lot of people. Also researching great recipes and nutrition information is key to a healthy, balanced plant-based lifestyle. And start substituting ingredients like butter, eggs and dairy milk for healthier options with less fat and cholesterol, like coconut oil, ground flax or chia seeds and almond milk. It’s never been easier to make healthy recipes at home by switching out a few readily-available ingredients.
Do you have a couple of tips for making raw vegan cooking more easy, as people are often overwhelmed with the idea?
It depends. More people are open to the idea of trying vegan or raw food now thanks to several things: many more restaurant options and packaged foods on the shelves, celebrities trying out the lifestyle with phenomenal results and a general increase in awareness of eating more mindfully, consciously and nutritively. Again – by picking up a few simple cookbooks, taking a class and switching out common ingredients for their healthier counterparts – you’re off to a great start. And remember, lasting change is often gradual. Start slowly, pay attention to how you feel and be gentle with yourself.