BRIAN’S VEGAN JOURNAL
SURVIVING
THE FIRST MONTH Brian Hernandez’s search for better plant-based products and recipes continues as he learns to embrace—not just survive—his vegan journey.
J
anuary flew by! Between gearing up for live U.S. Pizza Team competitions at
two brand-new trade shows and planning the team’s April trip to the World Pizza
Championships in Italy, I haven’t even had a chance to remember that I’ve been vegan for almost a month …. he lied knowingly through his teeth. In truth, I’m reminded at every turn that I’m taking on this challenge, and you know what? It really hasn’t been that bad.
As 2021 ended on New Year’s Eve, I went to sleep nervous about the journey ahead. In my mad scramble to research recipes and learn how to make fake meat, I overlooked the fact that I hadn’t really mapped out a journey: meal plans and prep calendars, etc. In true form, I was gonna wing it. But this got me thinking about what I need to do in the next month. Not only just be vegan but plan out my route to the end so I’m not flying by the seat of my pants for every meal. To make sure I get all the nutrients, I got my daily RDAs and researched where to find them in nature. You can eat totally vegan and still eat terribly. As a completely hypothetical example, a bag of Skittles is vegan, but I should still limit my intake—I mean, one should limit one’s intake. I quit drinking in June and have lost 55 pounds since then. I’m making lifestyle changes. Exercise. Sensible diet. I thought I might try going vegan. I honestly haven’t noticed much of a change at this point. But that’s a good thing. No disruption in lifestyle. Through endless label reading, I’ve noticed that most ingredient lists conclude with allergens, like wheat, soy, milk and nuts, making it easy to identify blacklisted items. It also sometimes says, *Contains less than 2% of an item, and further down it states, *May have come in contact with certain items. So you have to pick your level of commitment. I won’t eat anything on the 2% list but draw the line at may have come in contact with. This approach could apply to a pizzeria. If you offer vegan, do you have a separate station like a true gluten-free operation, or do you add a line on the menu that says, “*May have come in contact with surfaces used by all the scary things like wonderful meats and cheeses”? Many true vegans don’t want any cross-contamination from any surface or tool used for meats. I’ve spoken with operators that offer a vegan version of every menu item. Others only offer vegan cheese. Some have a limited number of vegan pizzas or dishes. It’s a big commitment. I’m planning to speak with more vegan pizzeria operators and dive a little deeper into what they offer and how they do it successfully. Plus, I’m sure they’ll have some delicious recipes I can try out.
Hernandez used some of the leftover Impossible Taco Salad meat and made a rather tasty taco and white onion pie.
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