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Self-taught cook Alice Leonard runs Angel Food, a New Zealand company dedicated to raising the profile of good vegan food. Chef Alice places an emphasis on producing an indulgent and healthy experience. She does not use hydrogenated oils, or any artificial flavourings, or colourings. In addition, all of her baked goods are gluten-free and vegan! What got you into being a vegan baker and was there a moment, a sort of epiphany, when you realized that this is what you want to do? I've only been vegan since mid-2004, but I very quickly became very passionate about the vegan lifestyle. I went from omni to vegan in six weeks, after I met my husband Billy (he's been vegan for more than 30 years). I'd never known a vegan before. I'd been vegetarian and semi-vegetarian in my late teens and most of my 20s, but I'd never understood veganism. I'm embarrassed to say I thought vegans were just being difficult and attention-seeking! Then, as soon as I met Billy, a whole new world view opened up for me, and I was horrified to see and admit the suffering that I'd been responsible for. Sorry, this is a long answer to your question! In 2005, as a sideline to my work as a freelance writer, I started importing Cheezly soy cheese from England, because there was no good vegan cheese here at the time. In 2006 I was browsing the internet and visited the website of vegan bakery Sticky Fingers in Washington DC. I love the way they make all their vegan goodies look so delicious and desirable that they have plenty of omnivores buying their products. I think it's a great way of breaking down barriers people have in their dietary habits. What is Angel Food? We started Angel Food as a wholesale bakery, providing vegan and gluten-free cakes and cookies to organic stores and cafes. Once that was on its feet, we always intended to open a retail bakery. Unfortunately, the wholesale baking side never found its feet! There just isn't enough demand here yet, especially when you're dealing with fresh baking and high delivery costs. So Angel Food at present is back to being a distributor - of Cheezly soy cheese, our own brand of dairy-free fudge (which another company makes for us under contract) and kits for making your own fresh vegan marshmallows! We sell the kits by mail order (www.angelfood.co.nz/confectionery) for NZ$10 including postage anywhere in the world. We will soon have them in stores in New Zealand and, by the end of this year we intend to have them in vegan mail order stores in the US, if not in 'real' US stores! Our other exciting new product is a vegan meringue mix, which I'm just putting the finishing touches to now. The chocolate almond variation (with a touch of cocoa, plus chocolate drops and almond slices) is my favourite treat at the moment! Do you have a favorite product and what is it? Rapunzel organic vegetable stock powder! Our Austrian friend Manu used it when she stayed with us, and I realised what a useful item it is to have around. It's like salt but with some depth of flavour - and all the herbs and veges in it must add nutrients too, right?! And every time I see the jar on the shelf, I think of Manu. What tips do you have for aspiring vegan bakers? Experiment and persevere! Keep practicing, and share the results with lots of people. What trials have you faced operating a vegan food company and how have you overcome them? Cashflow has been our biggest challenge, although of course that's quite normal for a new business. We've met the challenge by refocusing the business on to a path which should prove more financially rewarding. I'm a very determined person, but at the beginning of this year I saw a quote somewhere about balancing determination with discernment, and I've really taken that to heart. I think that, as a vegan, knowing the world can be so much improved by people changing their diets, I feel a responsibility to spread the word. But if I wear myself out, I won't be able to do that effectively. So I'm trying to take a longer-term view of things now! Offering people compassionate, healthy cuisine is a true joy. Is there a special moment that stands out for you? Two special moments! We had a stall at a New Year's Eve festival here in Auckland and a little boy with dairy allergies came up with his mum. He was so amazed that there was a table full of cakes for him to choose from! That was very gratifying. And then, at the first Green Party conference we catered in March this year, one of the Green Members of Parliament said that we had completely changed her opinion of vegan food. She'd eaten bad vegan food before, and thought badly of all vegan food ever since. I almost swooned, because this is precisely Angel Food's purpose! For you, what is the key to having fun in the kitchen? Meeting challenges creatively. I like new ingredients (tonight we had samp for the first time). I like new parameters, which force me to work out new ways of doing things. Because of a liver problem, my husband Billy can't eat anything with oil in it (no tofu, no nuts, no seeds, no avocado, etc) so as well as learning to cook vegan, I've learned to cook virtually fat-free. I also have a 12-year-old son, Mack, who's proving to be a most excellent cook and aspiring food critic! I love finding new foods and recipes he'll enjoy. (I cater for Billy and his liver by cooking our main meals without oil etc, but Mack and I will often have some tofu or fake meat or guacamole on the side. I feel we're getting the best of both worlds that way!) What kitchen equipment do you use the most at home and what is the one item you feel you can’t do without having(not counting a stove/oven!)? Our kitchen is small, so any items of specialist equipment have to really earn their space. But I am utterly besotted with my Kenwood Major mixer. I'm constantly using it for trialling meringue and marshmallow ideas, as well as whipping up cakes and smoothies. I recently bought a grater/slicer attachment for it, and it's quite a thrill to see how quickly you can slice vegetables for salad or for cooking. What staples do you keep around your kitchen? The constants include brown rice, white sushi rice, pappadum, nori, blue peas (for cooking and sprouting), quinoa (must try sprouting that), sunflower seeds, red lentils, cans of a few different types of beans for quick meals, and peas in the freezer. We've got a temperate climate in Auckland, and we've got a garden, so we're able to grow salad greens year-round. I've been adding wild greens (otherwise known as weeds!) to my salad lately and enjoying the extra flavours. How do you organize your kitchen? Not very well! Billy's the organiser in our house. He recently alphabetised our spice collection, and just as I was drawing breath to tease him about this, I realised how wonderful it is to be able to find what you want first time. How much time do you usually spend in your kitchen? I usually spend an hour or so preparing dinner. If I'm working on a new recipe for Angel Food then I may be in the kitchen all day - because developing new products is one of my favourite things to do! Do you allow other people to help you in your kitchen? Absolutely! But as I said, it's a small kitchen, so one of us will have to go and chop vegetables at the dining table (only a couple of steps away; we can still talk to each other). What two dishes do you find yourself preparing at home most often? These are both Angel Food recipes which I usually use at home. QUINOA TABOULI 
300g quinoa (all white or with up to 25% red)660g water 30 ml vegetable stock powder Bring the quinoa, water and stock powder to the boil, turn heat down low and simmer for 15 minutes. Tip out on to a roasting dish or similar, and stir to let it cool quickly (so it doesn't stick together). Once cool, mix in the following ingredients: 1/4 cup parsley, finely chopped 2 spring onions, finely chopped 1/4 cup coriander (cilantro?), finely chopped 1 small carrot, finely grated (in summer I'd use a red capsicum instead) 1 can black beans, drained Pour over a simple fat-free dressing from the juice of one orange and one lemon, mixed with 1t cumin (whole seeds toasted in a dry fry pan and freshly ground is best). Toast 1/2 a cup of sunflower seeds in a dry fry pan until they start to brown. Turn off the heat, and immediately pour over 1T of tamari or soya sauce, stirring the seeds as you pour (you may need 3 hands for this!) so the seeds are evenly coated. Serve the toasted seeds on the side or sprinkle over the top. GOLDEN MACAROONS (based on a recipe by Ron Pickarski) 
100g toasted thread coconut85g dessicated coconut 125g finely grated carrot 100g rice flour (white or brown) 185g sugar 50g vegetable oil 1/2 t vanilla essence Zest of one orange Mix all of the above, starting with a spoon and finishing by hand. Add enough juice from the orange to make a mix that holds together (how much you need depends how juicy the carrot is). Form into a dozen 60g balls. Fan bake at 160 celsius for 20 - 25 minutes (until starting to brown). You can also freeze the raw dough and bake from frozen (30 - 35 minutes). Do you have any advice on kitchen management? Marry someone who's happy to do the dishes most of the time. What do you usually prepare when you entertain guests at home and do you have any advice on entertaining? I usually make a mild vegetable curry - it's easy to make fat-free, you can make it ahead of time, and it works well with lots of little dishes of condiments. And poppadums are one of my favourite foods! Thank you very much! *PRIVACY POLICY - Contact information is never, ever given or sold to another individual or company By subscribing, you agree to our Terms of Service. |
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