In the last decade, vegan cuisine has come a long way. The once-ubiquitous dry, packaged veggie burger is no longer the poster child for a vegan or vegetarian diet. It has grown into a sophisticated, innovative cuisine that has been praised by publications such as Food & Wine Magazine and many others. Today, our guest Dreena Burton, who has been at the forefront of vegan blogging and cooking for a long time, has been recognized for making healthy food taste delightful. Her cookbooks are the defining moments of almost fifteen years of recipe creation that bring wonders to your table – hearty, healthful eating that looks and tastes fantastic.

Dreena Burton has been vegan for more than 25 years, during which time she has written five cookbooks reflecting her experience as a plant-powered chef and stay-at-home mom of three beautiful children.

Burton pursued her true passion for authoring recipes and cookbooks after working in marketing management for several years. She had made appearances on television and radio and contributed to sites including KrisCarr, Forks Over Knives, Engine 2 Diet, and PCRM.  Dreena has also written for Yoga Journal, VegNews, alive magazine. She has won several blog awards, including VegNews, VegBloggy, and Vancouver's Ultimate Mom Blog.

In today's episode of the Plant-based profit show, Dreena provides guidance and answers for everything from pleasing picky eaters to filling a vegan pantry to packing school lunches and dealing with difficult social situations, all based on her personal experiences. She shares stories from her journey towards a plant-based diet, including how an unhealthy relationship with food goes back to when she started dieting at just nine years old. Dreena tells us that she always thinks about their nutrition and taste buds as a mother of three girls. Her delicious dishes can please and inspire even the pickiest diners and offer lifelong vegans the imaginative, healthful cuisine they've always desired. Dreena has become a master at helping families navigate and embrace eating plant-based through her cookbooks.

•       LinkedIn- Dreena Burton - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dreena-burton-878ab727/
•       Facebook – Dreena Burton - https://www.facebook.com/DreenaBurtonPlantPoweredKitchen/ Instagram - Dreena Burton - https://www.instagram.com/dreenaburton
•       Official Website – Dreena Burton's Website - https://dreenaburton.com/

·        Twitter – Dreena Burton - https://twitter.com/dreenaburton

Do you ever have trouble determining whether or not your favourite dishes are as healthy as you think it is? Eating healthy can be a frustrating and often overwhelming challenge, thanks to false advertising and an endless supply of "healthy" items on the grocery shelf. We exist in a world where we can't agree about what truly defines health. We live in a skeptical world when it comes to health trends. We must simplify everything and get to the fundamentals, eating healthy whole foods – and that’s exactly what Kimberly & Jasmine Chamberland, the mother/daughter duo brings to our table with Big Mountain Foods.

Kimberly founded Big Mountain Foods, a plant-based and allergen-free food company based in Vancouver, in 1987. She takes pride in using real, fresh ingredients in all of her products. Each item is vegan, gluten-free, nut-free, and soy-free, as well as non-GMO certified. Kim’s mom was a devote of the Hare  Krishna movement and raised her on a vegetarian diet.

Jasmine grew up around Big Mountain Foods as her mother started the business in her early twenties making veggie burgers. After years of watching Kimberly work, the veggie-patty machine with so much love, care, and attention Jasmine realized that she needed to be a part of it as well. 

They proudly offer plant-based products that are delicious, healthy and a lot of fun to eat. The wonderful thing about Big Mountain Foods is that it isn't just about a product you can get at the supermarket. Every day, Jasmine goes to work believing that she is contributing to the betterment of the world. Their items aren't just another vegan option; they’re part of a movement that's empowering people to feel healthier and positive about themselves and their environment.

In today’s episode of the Plant-based profit show, Kimberly talks about the biggest challenges in bringing specialized products to the marketplace and the hurdles that she went through in establishing a female-owned company. Jasmine gives us more insight into Canada’s Big Mountain Foods and how they recently expanded into a new manufacturing facility in Vancouver. They speak about how they get a long shelf life without adding a preservative and tell us ways to finance the significant expansion without funding. We are eager to converse more about the outstanding achievements this mother-daughter duet brought to the stores.

When we talk about being a vegan, we often think of our health as being all bright and fresh. Today, we are going to meet someone who had a different experience. Our guest today, Maria Cebrian, had been a vegetarian and vegan on-and-off for ten years before fully committing to the lifestyle five years ago. She would go vegan for some months, only to start to feel a bit tired or foggy. If we have to put it the right way, she was never a perfect vegan and was often nutrient deficient. Our guest Maria decided to go vegan when she heard about how animal agriculture impacts the environment and how animals are treated – she knew this wasn't right.

When Maria's co-worker, Hava Horowitz, shared her idea of creating a multivitamin specifically tailored for vegans, she absolutely loved it. That was precisely what Maria needed to solve all the nutrient deficiencies. That's how an all-in-one pill that was good for both vegans and the planet came to the world with the name Terraseed Multivitamin.

In today's episode of the Plant-based profit show, Maria recalls her early vegan being days where everything seemed blurry. Her life felt dull because of all the nutrient deficiencies. She later describes how magically they came to the blooming idea of multivitamins, but the thought of adding more waste to the world made them rethink their decision. She says in the show that it was both a real hassle and a bummer. They knew they had to do things differently. And a question of how to get everything a vegan needs in just one pill a day without generating more waste rose. The answer came in the form of a beautifully designed, fully compostable packaging, becoming that most sustainable supplement available. In January 2021, Tarraseed became the first vegan company ever selected into Techstars Startup-Accelerator Program.

Later in the show, Maria talks about her passion for mountain running and her memorable experiences. Moving forward, Maria gives away some fascinating details about her multivitamins and her ambassador program – her innovative social media techniques and everything she has learned.

If you're considering opening a vegetarian or vegan restaurant, you'll be riding a much larger wave than a ripple. The number of people moving to a plant-based diet worldwide is steadily increasing, and they're making different choices at the grocery store and in their dining habits. But veganism has evolved as more than just a hot food trend – it is now a worldwide movement. In this podcast, our guest James McInnes, the Founder and CEO of Globally Local, will go over some of the most critical details to consider before starting a plant-based restaurant or café, as well as some innovative ways to connect with other plant-based food entrepreneurs.

James founded Globally Local in 2014 as a grassroots vegan company that delivered organic vegetables and fruits from local farms to consumers' doorsteps. In 2015, after partnering with future wife Vasiliki – the couple started to create vegan meal kits, through which they discovered that people enjoyed their vegan fast food recipes. 

In 2016, Globally Local brought what is now known as the Famous Burger to the London, Ontario Ribfest, where it quickly sold out due to high demand. The success of this vegan option caught the attention, and the resulting chaos drew widespread media coverage across North America. Soon after, the food truck was introduced, bringing vegan fast food to neighbourhoods and vegfests across Ontario, where customers flocked in droves. The couple opened Canada's first vegan fast-food restaurant in 2017. They opened the world's first 24-hour vegan drive-through six months later.

In 2018, the company scaled quickly by opening a food manufacturing facility, where it produced its own proteins and dairy alternatives, allowing for price parity with conventional fast food. 

After becoming the first vegan fast-food chain publicly listed in April 2021, they have recently announced plans to open five new Ontario restaurant locations this Summer. Globaly local is currently being traded on Toronto’s TSX Venture Exchange, a stock exchange for emerging companies. In our conversation, James takes us through the extreme challenges they have faced in the last year, preparing the company to go public during the pandemic.

In today’s episode of the Plant-based profit show, McInnes shares the stories of his earlier life and past businesses and how their hurdles prepared him for the company he runs today. He discusses their commitment to producing high-quality fast food and veganism, as well as the many fascinating facts about Canada's first fast-food chain that you might not know. 

SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS

•       LinkedIn- James McInnes - https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-mcinnes-he-him-86894a2
•       Facebook – James’s Globally Local - https://m.facebook.com/globallylocal/  
•       Instagram - James’s Globally Local - https://www.instagram.com/globallylocalfastfood
•       Official Website – James’s Globally Local Website- https://globallylocal.ca/

·        Twitter – James’s Globally Local - https://twitter.com/glfastfood   

Nafsika Antypas is an entrepreneur, activist, TV host and nonprofit founder. In less than five years, she went from new vegan to executive producer and host of her own TV series Plant-Based by Nafsika and the founder of the vegan cheese line Nafsika's Garden. This week I speak with her to hear more about her mission to bring veganism to the masses as the buzz surrounding the first and only mainstream vegan lifestyle TV show grew.

Changing one's way of thinking overnight takes a lot of determination. It is only possible when one is driven by a deep intent – a vision that shakes the individual to their core and gives them a new sense of meaning. Nafsika, had a similar epiphany nearly a decade ago when watching Vegecated on Netflix while breastfeeding and decided to go vegan overnight. 

In 2014 she founded the non-profit People Against Violence, supporting victims of violence seeking guidance and assistance through a 24-hour hotline staffed by licensed counsellors. However, as a committed vegan, Antypas believes that the best way to make the planet a more humane environment is to encourage people to go vegan.

Nafsika earned her certification as a Fitness & Lifestyle Coach in 2017, and she now helps people live a healthy, more compassionate lifestyle. Because, as Nafsika claims, "one cannot live a life of love and compassion if not practicing it every day."

In today's episode of the Plant-based profit show, I speak with Nafsika about what made her decision to become vegan and her motivations, projects, and success in bringing plant-based inspiration to households worldwide. She explains how she aims to unite plant-based food with entertainment, and for her, veganism is not just a diet; it is a way of life. She goes on to shares some valuable advice she would give someone who is considering changing to a plant-based lifestyle and quick notes on daily meals. Nafsika tells how she enjoys spending time with her family, including two young, healthy boys, and happy to educate just about anyone who would listen about why it's more beneficial to switch to a plant-based diet.

Our guest today, Ashley Nickelsen, was born and raised in the often-forgotten NYC borough, Statin Island. She was an only child and the love of her parent’s life. Ashley says her family was lower middle class and often talked about the family having “money issues.” Her father was a hardworking and grateful man who worked three jobs to keep everything afloat.

She was a self-proclaimed “Over involved college student” as she poured all her time and energy into her job as a Resident Assistant while studying for her degree in biochemistry and food science at NYU. The love for her role as a resident assistant led her to pursue a master’s in counselling while taking on a job as Student Resident Director. 

Ashley has fought two significant fights of her young life as she lost her precious parents to cancer within a few years of each other. As depressed as a young girl in her 20s can be due to caring for two suffering parents, Ashley became hooked on snacks high in sugar and dangerous for her health.

With a background in food science & nutrition and in search of a better snack to feed herself and her parents, she developed a bar that not only had a clean ingredient profile but also served a purpose. She wanted a snack that boosted energy recharged the brain, and lowered stress levels.

As a tribute to her parents, who were battling, Ashley came up with the first Protein Bar with a Purpose™. When it came to naming the bar, she wanted to honour her parents in some way, so she decided to incorporate the family mantra her parents would often say, “Be BOLD, TENACIOUS & RESILIENT,” otherwise known as BTR in her house.” That’s how it all began. As a simple idea in a hospital cafeteria and – BTR Bar was born.

In today’s episode of the Plant-based profit show, Ashley takes us through her journey of founding and growing her young business as a solopreneur. She also shares some of her innovative social media marketing techniques and exciting news on future launches.

It fits well when we say that Ashely’s entire career has been dedicated to her parents and every inspiration, they have given her.

Our guest today is Derek Sarno is the Executive Chef and Director of Plant-Based Innovation for Tesco, the world's third-largest food retailer. Derek is the co-founder of Tesco's Wicked Healthy variety of foods and Good Catch Foods, two companies that have been built to promote global plant-based culinary creativity and innovation. Sarno was also the former Senior Global Executive Chef at Whole Foods Market, where he supervised national recipe production and catered all of the company's main executive leadership events. Derek has operated many highly acclaimed restaurants and catering companies since graduating from culinary school. He learned to meditate and cook various foods at a Tibetan Buddhist monastery where he spent a few years farming. Derek, passionate about food and veganism, strives tirelessly to make the movement more appealing to today’s world.

In today’s episode of the Plant-based profit show, Derek talks about his love for food and journey to a plant-based diet. He further shares how he co-created Wicked Healthy with Chad (his brother) and how their relationship as kids has evolved over the years. He gives us more insight into the importance of spirituality and meditation in his decision to become a plant-based chef. Moving forward, Sarno tells us about the innovative Wickedly meaty projects and other exciting endeavours he has on the horizon.

Derek's entire career has been dedicated to making the planet a better place through cooking. His genuine sincerity and inspirational drive shine through in this episode!

•       LinkedIn- Derek Sarno- https://www.linkedin.com/in/derek-sarno-bb96763
•       Facebook – Derek Sarno - https://www.facebook.com/derek.sarno
•       Instagram - Derek Sarno - https://www.instagram.com/dereksarno/?hl=en
•       Official Website – Derek Sarno’s Wicked Healthy Food - https://wickedhealthyfood.com/
•       Twitter – Derek Sarno - https://twitter.com/wickedhealthy?lang=en