Ep. 205: Chef Vegan Vicki - Lung Cancer Survivor to Vegan Chef
PLANTSTRONG Podcast
Rip Esselstyn
4.8 • 2.3K Ratings
🗓️ 13 July 2023
⏱️ 68 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Chef Vegan Vicki is a proud Cleveland native who, in 2008, was diagnosed with non-smoking lung cancer.
After surgery, she started researching ways to get healthy and avoid a recurrence of this or any form of cancer. No surprise, her homework led her to a whole foods, plant-based diet and she ended up losing almost 100 lbs!
This transformation changed everything in her life and she went from working in the insurance industry to becoming an iconic chef.
In this inspiring conversation, she shared how she started her cooking journey at the Cleveland Veg Fest and Taste of Black Cleveland events, offering mouthwatering vegan soul food that no one else was making at the time. As you can imagine, she faced initial resistance and skepticism towards vegan food; however, she persisted, gained recognition, and eventually became the first vegan to be in a major sports arena at the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland!
Today, as founder of Koncious Kuisine, she’s also a private vegan chef to several families and members of the NBA and NFL, and continues to run pop-ups in the arena and all over the Cleveland area.
Episode Highlights
10:10 Her surprising diagnosis and Medical journey in 2008
15:00 How she went from the Queen of Longhorn Steakhouse to a plant-based diet, thanks to a stranger in a grocery store
22:15 From insurance to iconic chef?!
35:00 From initial skepticism and reluctance, to all-out stardom with her vegan soul food
38:00 Where does she find her inspiration and what's it like cooking for the stars?
41:36 Vicki’s favorite mouth-watering sandwich
45:00 More rapid fire questions with Vicki - her best scrambled egg substitute, sweet potato pie, risotto and more
50:00 Vegan Vicki’s favorite cookware
Episode Resources
Follow Vegan Vicki on Instagram - @koncious_kuisine
Article on Vegan Vicki in VegNews
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | If you've been looking for a no-calorie beverage that checks every single box, this is for you. |
| 0:07.4 | At PlanStrong, we have brought our whole food philosophy to the world of tea |
| 0:13.2 | by creating a line of family-sized, premium, full leaf tea bags that brew pictures |
| 0:20.4 | of refreshing iced tea using functional ingredients with real benefits. Our most popular is our |
| 0:26.6 | raspberry habiscus, and it's made with real raspberries and habiscus flowers. Just like all of our |
| 0:34.0 | products, we never use artificial ingredients or so-called natural flavors like other brands. |
| 0:41.1 | And here's some great news. If you look up the benefits of habiscus tea on nutritionfacts.org, |
| 0:48.4 | by of course the incredible Dr. Michael Greger, they'll tell you, in my comparison of the |
| 0:54.6 | antioxidant content of 282 beverages last year, habiscus tea came out numerouno. Within an hour |
| 1:03.5 | of consumption, people who drink the tea have a nice spike in antioxidants levels compared to |
| 1:09.3 | drinking water. And you recommend sipping on it throughout the day. Well, lucky for you, |
| 1:15.6 | we've made, in my opinion, one of the most delicious raspberry habiscus teas that you could ever |
| 1:21.4 | ask for. It's on the Esselston Table three times a day during the summer, and I hope that you'll |
| 1:27.5 | check it out for your family. You can view all of our products designed to complement your lifestyle |
| 1:32.8 | at planstrongfoods.com. And if this happens to be your first order, go ahead and save 10% |
| 1:39.8 | when you use the code strong 10. Thanks so much. |
| 1:44.8 | I'm Rep Esselston, and welcome to the planstrong podcast. The mission at planstrong is to further |
| 1:50.9 | the advancement of all things within the plant-based movement. We advocate for the scientifically proven |
| 1:57.7 | benefits of plant-based living and envision a world that universally understands, promotes, |
| 2:04.2 | and prescribes plants as a solution to empowering your health, enhancing your performance, |
| 2:10.6 | restoring the environment, and becoming better guardians to the animals we share this planet with. |
| 2:16.4 | We welcome you wherever you are on your planstrong journey, and I hope that you enjoy this show. |
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