TANYA'S BLOG
About My Work
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This tells you a little about my work and why I'm doing it.

Early family influences of gourmet eating with my European foodie parents and a love for animals that I beleive I was just born with, was the beginning of my metamorphysis to become a chef and restauranteur serving cruelty-free cusine.  In junior high I began asserting my beliefs and  by the time I was 18 I knew being vegetarian was the right thing to do and the better thing to do was to make the common foods known as vegetarian cuisine taste a lot better than they were presented to me at the time, that time being the late 70's.
 
Time spent cooking between going to concerts and studying biology in college led to the discovery of fresh tempeh and seitan. These two foods eventually won my heart!

As I learned more about these foods and cooking them I realized how new these foods and this eating style were unknown to most, and given the choice I think they would want to eat a great tasting vegetarian meal. My duty became to give the choice and that would be by creating a place where carnivores and vegetarians could meet, greet, flirt and share some good food. People still have to choose but at least they had to have the choice, hence...
Native Foods!

Junior High "Friends of Animals" club
friendsofanimalsclub.jpg
Circa 1974

If you love animals called pets, why do you eat animals called dinner?

The beginning of my life's mission!

My responsibilites have increased since being President of this club! The first Native Foods restaurant opened up 10 years ago in Palm Springs California, now there are three others...Palm Desert, Westwood Village (L.A.), and Costa Mesa!

Check out some of my favorite links

www.nativefoods.com

organicconsumers.org

www.vegsource.com

www.farmsanctuary.com

www.peta.org

www.janegoodall.org

Here's a list of some of interesting books I've read or browsed:

The Native Foods Restaurant Cookbook (a little self promtion :-) )

Mad Cowboy by Howard Lyman

Food Inc. by Peter Pringle

Dominion by Matthew Scully (former speech writer for Prez Bush)

The China Diet by T. Colin Campbell

Diet For A New America by John Robbins


Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser

The Web of Life by Fritjof Capra

Free the Animals by Ingrid Newkirk

Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda

If the Buddha Dated by Charlotte Kasl, Ph. D. (hey if there's a better way...gotta try it!)

Bury the Chains by Adam Hochschild-great book about the people that began to stop slavery and really the beginning of activism as we know it today. Hochschild started Mother Jones magazine.

Help my other cause....Let's try to stop the abuse of elephants! First learn more about them by visiting the website of the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennesee.
 
Please don't ever go to circuses with live animals as the entertainment.

www.elephants.com

Sanctuaries are cool, zoos are old school! Stop the LA Zoos new elephant exhibit, let's send Ruby to a sanctuary!

Bless the beasts...eat veggie meats!!