Here's to the local restaurants, to the chefs, owner, operators, the staff, the ones who love being in the weeds night after night.

When we go to work each morning, that's who we have in mind.

From where we source our food to how we deliver it.

Here's to them, the ones who are out there cooking for us every day.

Restaurants are the heart of everything we do.

We are Performance Food Service.

Proudly supporting Food is Love Support for Food is love is provided by Wild Alaska Salmon and Seafood 100% fishermen family owned, independent seafood sourcing.

Catching, processing and delivering seafood directly to the consumer's front door.

From caught to bought, wild salmon direct from the fisherman.

Information at WildAlaskaSalmonandSeafood.com Coming up in the fine dining world of the 80s and 90s, vegetarian options were rare.

Dare I say nonexistent?

It was a time that getting a request for a vegetarian dish was seen as an insult to the kitchen.

Fast forward and a lot has changed.

Vegan and vegetarian diets are now common and have long since proven they are more than just a fad.

Most restaurant now happily offer more than one vegan option, and the attitudes in the kitchens are more educated and understanding than before.

In the past, I've admitted that I'm from the old school and I'm proud of my Classical French training.

That is a big portion right here.

But I'm also open minded too.

And everybody says we we're hunter-gatherers.

That's how we evolved.

No, we were gather-hunters because it's a lot easier to sneak up on a strawberry than it is a bison.

And clearly I have a lot more to learn.

As a chef, I need to stay curious in order to evolve.

For me, that means looking beyond a good meal to learn more about who made it and what inspires them to cook.

"La comida es amor" Every great city has great food.

I'm going on a journey around the world right here in St. Louis.

I'm on a quest to find passionate chefs who cook from the heart to prove that food is love it's going to be delicious!

Food is love.

Love your food.

St. Louis is positioned almost in the middle of things.

It's called the heart land, the Midwest.

It's home to agriculture and barbecue, seemingly a world away from the West Coast, where decades ago attitudes about meat were already changing.

But it's no longer just the West Coast.

In fact, St. Louis is home to the nation's first center for plant based living A plant based nutrition and culinary education center run by Caryn Dugan or STL Veg Girl If you know her from Instagram in need of someeducation myself, I'm here to understand the difference in vegan and vegetarian and maybe to get some cooking ideas.

I'm in Kirkwood.

I'm going to a plant based food instructor, if you will, today.

It's very new to me, the whole vegetarian thing, because it's never really been on my radar.

I'm open to anything.

I just hope I'm not going to have any kale.

One of the things that always comes to mind when I meet a vegan or vegetarian, I mean, what would possibly make you say no to a big steak and then start eating vegetables only?

I can remember on Sundays we had this little black and white tv in the kitchen and my dad and I would fry up one of two things, Bologna or spam.

And we had it on white bread with Velveeta, with either ketchup or mustard.

So such great memories.

And do you think that I want to get rid of that?

No way.

There are people who come into this plant based lifestyle because they've had a heart attack or they're trying to reverse their type two diabetes, and they're coming into it kicking and screaming.

They don't want to give up their burgers or their brisket or their bacon or their cheese or whatever, but they do want to walk their little girl down the aisle.

And they know that they're not going to be able to on the path of which they are traveling, they have to change what they're eating in order to reverse and truly treat the root cause of their disease.

There's other people who come into this plantbased or vegan lifestyle.

They're doing it for the animals because they don't want to wear the clothes, the fur, the wool, the leather.

And they also care very much about the environment.

Right.

So there's the ethical vegans, and then there's the plant based people who are doing it for health.

So people also who come into this lifestyle, this vegan lifestyle, by way of, again, because of the animals and the environment, typically, that is the group of people who will eat the impossible burger, the beyond meat burgers, the more processed foods.

And listen, there's no, do whatever you want, but they're not going to reverse their type two diabetes, their heart disease, their hypertension, they're not going to lose weight.

Their skin isn't going to clear up all of these wonderful health benefits that you see happening very quickly if you stick with a plant based, low to no oil, unprocessed diet.

I mean, what happened in your life that you wanted to go this route?

Fast forward.

My dad was diagnosed with cancer and we lost him in 2008.

And then ten weeks after that, I was diagnosed with cancer.

Caryn's journey to finding her health led her to take another look at her diet.

Research has pointed again and again to the benefits of a plant based diet.

And today nobody can tell you more about these benefits than Caryn.

Here in her shop, she hosts cooking classes, dinners and films, cooking demos for her audience.

People come in here and they're on fistfuls of medicines, right?

Yeah.

Because they had type two diabetes for 20 years and this common chronic illnesses for years.

And they start to see if they go full throttle and I mean, like fully whole food, plant based, no oil.

They see effects probably in about two weeks, which is pretty immediate.

I'm on staff at a health immersion.

Every year we go down to Naples, Florida.

It's a week long thing.

Im the chef that presents.

We have people who come about 100 people, and they're very ill.

They have to be accepted into this program.

It's a week long and about two and a half days in, we start to see people just kind of get really dizzy and a lot of times pass out.

It's because they are on such high doses of high blood pressure medications that when they've started to eat a whole food plant based diet, they then become overmedicated because their body has started to heal in that less than 72 hours period.

Wow.

It's amazing.

And I just had goosebumps just even thinking about it.

So, I mean, you can actually get yourself off of medicines with side effects and everything, eating healthy.

Most of them, yes.

And if not off of them, then definitely titrated down, way down so that you're not feeling the horrible side effects.

People come they start insulin or they start metformin, and then there's side effects to that.

Then they need medications to treat the side effects.

Then they need medications to treat those side effects.

And that's why you end up with all of these pills.

Let's start introducing real food and start really healing your body tastefully and get off those pills.

Let's do some cooking.

Okay.

All right.

So we're going to do a brunch this morning.

I'm going to have you.

I want you to do a small shop on that.

Okay.

And so I don't use any oil in my cooking.

So you're telling me now no oil either?

That's very interesting.

Tell me what's wrong with oil.

Okay.

So oil, You're right.

Because, you know, like extra Virgin olive oil.

How vegan does that sound?

Right, with oil not only does it create inflammation in the body, and it really just wrecks that endothelial system or the endothelial cells.

So for one tablespoon, teeny tiny 120 calories, 100% fat, 14 grams of fat.

So when we are sauteing food right.

We don't just go with the olive oil.

We go.

Yeah.

So there's another 800 to 1000 calories right there.

I use a lot of butter and a lot of cream I know you do It's fascinating that somebody would be an opponent to all those things.

So I need the education more than anybody.

Just put them right in there.

So we don't want to sear the vegetables, pull your temperature down to a cooking temperature to a medium high.

And then you get in there right away just tossing them around.

We're going to add a little bit of water, we're going to deglaze, and we're going to add more flavor to those onions.

And it's also cooled down the pan a little bit.

So we're going to make a tofu egg scramble, but without the egg.

Okay.

Okay.

Tofu looks like it's highly processed from bean to block.

From soybean to block.

It's only three steps.

So you're essentially making soy milk and then scraping the top of the curds off.

Right?

And then pressing it into this block.

That's all this is.

Okay.

So we want this to look like an egg scramble.

Get in there with your hands,.. And make an egg?

Make an egg.

Okay.

Scramble.

So just take it apart.

That's exactly right.

Yeah.

You can just mush it with your hands.

Have a good time with it.

Okay.

And I'm going to check on our onions real quickly, make sure they're coming along.

And they are.

Okay.

Then to this, I'm going to add in, start adding some flavor, because we both know with tofu and it's all about the flavor.

Yeah.

This is coconut aminos.

So we could use brags aminos.

We could use soy sauce.

Tamari.

Doesn't matter.

And you want me to squish that around?

Please do.

Yeah.

So then all of that into this pan.

Cool.

When you stop learning, that's a big problem.

Yes.

And I visit a lot of chefs, and they're all starting to learn more about vegetables, how we cook with vegetables.

And I hate to say it, but I'm probably the old guard, and I need to get with it, too, so I can be a vegetable hip like you.

Vegetable hip?

Yeah.

I want to get there with you.

You want to be a plant slinger?

Yeah.

Do you know how to make a creamy salad dressing without any oil?

No.

Would you like to know?

Yes, I would love to know.

Okay, good.

You are hired.

On the payroll..

Thank you.

So you can be on a plantbased diet, but you've got to really pull back on the fat in order to reverse a lot of these conditions.

So we are not going to add any oil into this.

I'm not a fat free person.

We do need fat.

So I'm going to start with tahini, and you want to cut that fat with a little bit of citrus.

Then you want to add a savory component.

So we're back to our aminos.

You want to add a sweetness.

I love either date paste or Maple syrup.

Okay.

And then also, finally, some kind of spice.

Now you can open up your spice drawer and go crazy and dump it in there.

But we'll just add garlic because I have it today.

We'll get this going.

And this is very thick dressing, which is good.

Yeah, it looks good.

Smells great.

Kind of looks like a Caesar dressing.

It does yeah.

All right.

So you've got your dressing.

It doesn't matter what the dressing is.

Okay.

Get in there.

And I'm on my tippy toes.

It's like a Swedish massage.

What you want to do is really just break down those fibers in that kale.

And infuse all of that dressing, Its tenderized.

Get one of your guys, You get exercise at the same time.

You bet!

Upper body, lower body.

It's perfect.

We've broken down all of those rough fibers, and now it's heavy because it has all that dressing in it.

So how about, you want to give it a try?

Yeah.

Full disclosure for television, I have cooked many vegetable dishes in my life, but I don't personally care for Kale, so I'm going to need a little persuading.

It's delicious.

Would you serve that in your dining restaurant?

I would!

This day is done.

That makes me so happy.

Really?

Now the bitterness is gone and you can actually enjoy it.

But what if you are plant based and you don't like to cook?

Are there options beside the salad?

Caryn says yes.

Oh, wow.

That's for me?

That's for me?

Yeah.

I'll tell you a story in a minute.

How cool is that?

I used to own a little painting business where I would whimsically paint furniture for people.

And then for whatever reason, I got onto this pepper mill thing, and I painted all the pepper mills for Bandera's restaurant.

Yeah Im familiar Bandera's And then I painted all the pepper Mills at Mcgurk's and just did a lot of work for a lot of people around town.

So I've been thinking about picking up the paintbrush again.

Three days ago, I found a pepper mill maker, I got a couple of mills in, and last night was up really late painting a couple of mills.

It's so cool, but I want you to have it.

Thank you.

You're very welcome.

It is super cool.

Food is love.

I love it.

Peacemaker.

Yeah.

Food is a peacemaker.

Food is love.

I've been saying that for a long time But the reason why I wanted to do a vegetarian episode is for the same reason I'm like, yeah, here comes this other vegetarian.

God, I wish they would go down to this place where they're specializing that, but by being introduced to somebody not only vegetarian, but plant based, like you are.

And you can actually explain to me, It would never have been in my wheelhouse without getting to actually meet somebody who understands why you do it.

Here's how you do it.

It's easy, I promise.

It's tasty.

And that's exactly what happens.

You pick a few things out, and then you start using them, and all of a sudden it works.

It's magic, and it becomes part of your fabric.

as a chef.

I'm fortunate enough that I constantly meet new people, learn new things.

Met a great guy, Munsok, who owns a Korean restaurant on the landing, and he said the same thing.

Yes.

He said, everybody thinks Korean food is stinky because we eat kimchi.

And I've never paid any attention to kimchi.

Just like I haven't paid any attention to kale.

Yeah.

Now you see me, I'm making kimchi on the fly.

I'm making my own kimchi at home.

And you would never have done that.

I would never have done that had I not met Munsok.

That's right.

Caryn's taken me to a restaurant thats completely plant based right here in St. Louis.

And it's called Friedas.

This is Natasha Kwan, owner of Friedas and a good friend of Caryn's.

And this is the black beanburger?

Yeah, that's the black bean burger.

You're getting a creamier sauce with that one.

And the fact that this is a standalone vegan restaurant says a lot about the St. Louis food scene.

There isn't a better place to reflect on everything we learned today.

See the difference with her dressing?

But it still works.

The kale is nice and soft.

It's tenderized.

Yeah.

Not bitter.

Yeah.

They are known for their kale salad, kale salad Frieda burger, taco, ginger lemon soda which I'll have to make you.

All of this is great.

And I'm in total agreement with what Karen and Natasha are doing.

St. Louis is lucky to have such advocates for the plant based community.

Another big selling point for plant based cooking is its sustainability.

But what does that mean and how does that affect the local food scene?

To find out, Im at Marshall family farms just outside of town where Maria Marshall and family grow certified organic vegetables that they sell to restaurants in the city.

And with the consumer embrace of plant based eating, business on the farm is good.

What is CSA?

What does that mean?

So CSA is community supported agriculture.

It's a program where basically a person can directly invest in a local agriculture.

So basically they buy a share, usually in the off season when we're buying all of our seeds, our soil, all of our tools and supplies.

And what is amazing about that is they're able to give the farmer the money when they need it the most, when they're buying all their supplies for the year.

So our season is 20 weeks.

So for 20 weeks, you get a box of fresh seasonal vegetables that we are harvesting.

Every week?

Every week.

So being able to cultivate that relationship with our community is so important to us because I truly believe, like, the more connected that you are with your local environment and your local agriculture, the more apt you are to care about it, the more apt you are to want to take care of it, to conserve it.

For chefs, it's important because as soon as you pick something, it starts degrading the flavors, the nutrients.

I mean, I'm sure you've eaten a handful of walnuts and they taste bitter because they are not fresh.

Those oils are spoiled.

The same with food, the same with things like onions, kale.

People are like, I hate kale because it's so bitter.

And then they try our kale and be like, oh, wow, it's sweet.

And I'm like, because it's fresh.

I literally picked this 12 hours before you are now putting it in your mouth.

People call kale, like Midwestern palm trees because you really want to make sure that you take the leaf off at the stem or at the base of the stem.

So you leave some there and they just keep growing?

Yeah.

We usually only take about three leaves per, depending on the size, because you don't want to stress the plant out so much that it just dies.

Oh i see now this is where it looks like a palm tree.

Yeah, I see.

Oh, wow.

I think I could be good at this.

You could be amazing.

It's hypnotic.

And that's all you do whenever you're prepping a bed.

You don't want to flip the soil over.

And so you do that on this side, maybe a little bit more on this side, sink it in.

Like I said, what it's doing is it's allowing there to be aeration.

So it's being able to introduce that aeration.

And then look at how easy the carrots come out.

Oh, wow.

See?

And we do this with our garlic, too.

We love using hand tools like this, because instead of using a tractor, that it's 1000 pounds and pushing down on that soil.

Plus, it sounds nice.

You get to hear the birds, we get to hear nature.

We're not hearing the thrum of engines.

That's an escargot!

Yeah, it's a hornworm.

This is beautiful.

A family operation.

Getting down in the dirt with fingers like they do here isn't the way that everybody does it but maybe they should.

So this is a part of our sustainability journey This is this is my second generation of kale, so I've raised this kale twice.

So basically, these are the grandkids of the kale I bought from the store.

And what's important about this is because we're raising them and they're actually healthy plants and we're not using all these chemicals, we're able to save the seeds from them.

And those seeds are actually healthier, more vibrant, more nutrient dense, more acclimated to the local environment.

A lot of seed companies aren't in the Midwest, they're on the Eastern Coast, I'm sure, because you lived in the other coast, you know, it's not the same weather as here.

So being able to have plants that are not only grown locally, but raised locally and they've been in the local environment for so long, it not only is more nutrient dense and more flavorful for you, but it's more sustainable for agriculture as a whole.

A lot of places that do a lot of local produce really want to highlight that because it's such a different flavor, it's such a different texture.

A quick farm to table lunch is payment for a morning of work.

Good enough for me.

When you see where it comes from and the love and patience that goes into the soil here, it puts a whole new value on the vegetables on your plate.

Pretty much, except for the lemon and the olive oil, everything you see here was grown on the farm.

And this is a really big reason why we love doing our CSA.

It's not just a bunch of random vegetables that we're giving people.

And they're just like, what are we doing?

We give them ideas, like the kale salad, the roasted veggies, and utilizing parts of vegetables that normally would just get thrown away.

Like the tops for the carrots are in the green, like, we have this herb sauce.

Like, we have this herb sauce.

It's related to a chimichurri, but it's pretty much just like a seasonal farm herb sauce.

And we love using fresh basil, parsley, a little bit of lemon balm, and then those green coriander seeds that are right there in our herb sauce.

That's another thing that we like to do, for sure.

Beets?

Yes.

Beets are my favorite.

They are awesome.

What's your favorite color beet?

Well, any beet.

(laughing) This is just a little fresh And it's all vegetarian, all vegan.

You know, just the breadcrumbs, olive oil, salt, pepper and everything.

And then you just roasted all the vegetables in the oven?

Yes.

The hallmark of a good food scene is inclusion.

Not just inclusion of food from other places, but inclusion of foods for people with different needs, goals, diets.

It's not about really having a fully vegetarian, vegan, plant based whatever word you want to use, restaurant.

It's more about normal restaurants offering all of these beautiful dishes for everybody so that we can all sit around the table together.

So you are actually saying you're not angry at me because I like a big steak?

No!

Let's go to dinner together.

What can I get?

What can you get?

I love that.

Gone are the days of marginalizing certain tastes and catering to the masses.

Whether it's Caryn teaching the next wave of plant based eaters.

It's a huge feat for me to eat kale.

This I'm super excited about it!

.. but this is delicious.

And this is the moment that I live for.

This is the reason I put up these four walls.

There's a couple of reasons.

Number one is because I want to help create community and resources for people who are looking for this information.

But it's also like, just what you just did just gets me so excited.

People who have these preconceived notions of something that they don't like because of the way they had it when they were younger and it just was not prepared well.

And for you to turn around and enjoy it, it's super exciting.

Or Natasha curating a menu in her restaurant that is sensitive and creative and delicious all at the same time.

Or Maria Marshall and family waking up before the sun enriching the soil with their own sweat and blood to supply the restaurants with clean, nutritious variety.

No, you need that in the world.

You need to have more love.

And a great way to start with that is to start with something that you need every day.

And that's food.

Food is love.

that also it doesn't stop here.

Then hopefully you'll go back to your own kitchen, which is what I want for people who come to classes to do.

I want to give them that kitchen that initial kitchen confidence to then go back to their own homes and recreate something.

That's what it's about.

It's not about leaning on me or this place too much.

It's about coming in and finding inspiration from me or from you or from anyone and taking that home and sharing it with their own families.

I'm trying to bring together our two universes plant based universe and bringing it into my relm.

I created this dish and I'm not asking for permission, I'm asking for forgiveness to Caryn.

I actually use bacon in here after I tasted the kale.

I thought bacon is such a great flavor with that goat cheese and bacon there is baked in the oven and it has a little Belgium, indive radish, micro greens and then it has a kale foam that is made with apples, kale and ginger.

If you're curious and open minded, there's always something new to learn.

And if you pay close attention it's easy to see all the different ways that food is love.

Here's to the local restaurants, to the chefs, owner operators, the staff, the ones who love being in the weeds night after night.

When we go to work each morning, that's who we have in mind From where we source our food to how we deliver it Here's to them, the ones who are out there cooking for us every day.

Restaurants are the heart of everything we do.

We are Performance Food Service.

Proudly supporting Food is Love Support for Food is Love is provided by wild Alaska Salmon and Seafood 100% fishermen family owned, independent seafood sourcing catching, processing and delivering seafood directly to the consumer's front door.

From caught to bought wild salmon direct from the fishermen Information at wildalaskasalmonandseafood.com.