The most important things to know about me: I was born and raised in Brooklyn, I love cats and I love to feed people, myself included. I’m a cooking show addict and I also love to watch Law & Order with my mom and make Instagram stories about eyeliner from time to time. I split my time between Omaha and Brooklyn.

I’ve been writing cookbooks since 2005. I also do food photography, write short stories, play guitar and, oh, I have two restaurants also. NBD.

I started cooking when I went vegetarian as a teenager. The first vegan cookbook I ever cooked from was the Tofu Cookery, by Louise Hagler. It was a really important cookbook for my family, because we never really cooked together before that. We’d make Barbeque Tofu, or Tofu Balls And Spaghetti, and it really brought us closer. It was then that my love of cookbooks began!

My friends and I also formed a kitchen posse. We cooked for any old reason: birthdays, holidays, road trips, touring bands. We’d stay up all night making an elaborate seitan roast, wake up in the afternoon and make pancakes, go to an anti-fur demonstration then start all over again!

People often ask if I’m self-taught, and I guess that, yes, technically I’m self-taught. But really I’ve picked things up from all of the awesome and skilled people I’ve worked alongside over the years. From the guy at Food Not Bombs who showed me how to slice 10 pounds of broccoli in under 10 minutes, to the prep cook at a Brooklyn restaurant where I was a waitress who taught me to slice onions – the world has been my cooking school. And sometimes I’m just plain spying – like in my twenties when my roommate would make her secret maple potatoes and I would pretend to talk to her about some guy, but really I would be stealing all of her potato knowledge.

It’s been 30 years since I formed that first tofuball and I’ve never looked back. I’m so ecstatic to see vegan cooking gaining ground every day, one dinner at a time. It’s been awesome to be a part of it. Even so, my mom and sister and I still make those same tofuballs. Some things never change!