I was born in Alberta, Canada and was at best a mediocre student throughout my life not because of ability but lack of interest.  I played hockey and while I didn't make the NHL, just like a million other kids I assumed that one day I would.  I started cooking at a young age, finding that it came rather easy to me even though I did put my family through some horrid meals.  

 

I studied one year of Business Management and one year of Kitchen Management before starting my apprenticeship to be a Cook.  Most of my early years was spent in catering for large groups and discovering that being somewhat dysfunctional was a benefit in the food industry.  I moved to Victoria, BC where my newly discovered love of Organics and Vegetarian foods developed even further.  And soon the "big city" of Victoria was too big so I moved to Egmont, BC.  Population 300.  And fell in love as it has one of the most beautiful landscapes I have ever seen in the world.  

 

Like most cooks along the way, I became jaded, to many heart breaks and long hours and soon felt that I needed a change, I couldn't keep going the way I was.  So I moved to a little Yoga Centre on Salt Spring Island.  I focused back on myself and my love of organics and vegetarian foods.  I found good friends and love and not long after starting I was wed and living in Berlin. 

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We came back to Canada, trying my hand at a pub and a bistro but never finding my place and realizing that I just couldn't cook meat anymore.  We moved back to Germany, were I worked at a retreat center in Hesse, followed by a move to France to work at a Buddhist center.  

 

We moved back to Berlin and along with a very patient wife, started VeggieVillage.  

 

I started cooking for a living in 1998 almost 20years ago with about half of that time, being a vegetarian.  I have had some amazing successes and some devastating failures, I have owned businesses and worked for others and at every step I learnt not only how to be a better cook but more importantly I learnt how to be a better human. 

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Sometimes, I get asked "why are you vegetarian?"  The answer isn't as complicated or as life transforming as some.  I remember reading (I believe the Dalai Lama but I could be wrong) that when a person eats an animal they are absorbing the karma of the animal.  That made sense to me.  And soon, I was looking at slaughter houses and large cattle farms differently.  I saw the pain and the desire the animals had to be happy.

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I felt that I didn't have the right to get in the way of this.  But I am if anything understanding.  Every person's journey to becoming vegetarian or vegan is different as is their reasons for being vegetarian or vegan.  The one thing I know is that sinking my feet in the sand and forcing others to be a vegetarian, won't work.  So, I do VeggieVillage, a site dedicated to teaching everyone that eating a vegetarian diet can be tasty, easy, fun and loaded with variety and most importantly sustainable.

 

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