 A brief introduction to Lillian's vegan world. And what are we going to call this? Getting off on the right food. Yes, I love it. That is a perfect title, actually. That's Lillian Cumick. She's a vegan, completely a vegan. Yes, Aloha. I am. I admit I am. So you for decades now have been doing vegan, vegan cooking. I have been cooking for a couple of decades, but I have been myself fully vegan for the past 10 years. I transitioned from being a vegetarian and just naturally got into it. So here I am, plant-based, teaching people how to cook plant-based food and how to live the vegan lifestyle. Ah, okay. Well, let's unpack that a little bit. What happened to make you go to vegetarianism and then what happened to make you go from vegetarianism all the way to veganism? So I'm not what you would call a typical case. From childhood I never ate meat in any way, form or shape. But I did come from a family where meat was really the main staple. My father was Serbian and he would actually bring home the animal. When I say the animal, I mean the whole thing and he and his buddies would get together and prepare it and freeze it and share it and all that sort of stuff. So people think, or my parents think that I may have seen something that maybe traumatized me when I was young. So that put me off eating meat. And ever since then, when I look at something like a burger or something like that I don't see a delicious burger, I see the animal. So that's how my brain functions. I think that's probably a good way to look at it. So then you got into vegetarianism that is no meat. But also no fish and no fowl. Did you feel the same way about fish and fowl? I did. I never ever looked at chicken, poultry, fish, seafood and think it to be something that I would want to eat. So that was my sort of mind frame growing up. And my parents didn't force me to eat what I didn't want to eat. They were concerned because back in that day, back in those days people sort of were in the belief that you got to get the protein and people thought that that was a healthy sort of way to eat. So I just kind of did my own thing. And my parents went along with it. But I did throughout all the years while I was growing up. I did eat dairy. I ate cheese. I didn't really drink milk much, but yes, cheese or cakes or for example, pasta. I never thought that they would... I didn't eat eggs, but there are eggs in some pastas, stuff like that. So I wasn't really conscious or fully aware of what I was eating until I became an adult and then started cutting things out one by one. And cheese was the last thing to go before I became fully vegan. I remember there was a piece on a national public radio just an hour ago about cheese. And the point of the story, I don't want to undermine what you said, but the point of the story was American cheeses are as good as any in the world now. We have come up over the clouds in our quality of cheeses. You gave up cheese? I did, and I thought it would be really difficult to do, but honestly, there are so many non-dairy substitutes out there, so many amazing, delicious, healthy products out there. I myself make my own vegan cheeses from cashew nuts. Ah, okay. So let me sort of put that together now. So we go from vegetarian to vegan, and vegan, you extract eggs, you extract cheese, all dairy products, you extract anything made with a dairy product, including all kinds of composite foods that we're used to, and then you have the basic core vegan stuff. And there's plenty of protein to go around in vegan. You can live a life of protein also. We all need protein to some extent, and so you have achieved for a while now, the vegan life. It works well on you, Lillian. Thank you, Jane. You don't look like anybody different. No. So the question is then, the way you make vegan food tastes good, and my understanding is you have an ability to make vegan food taste really good. How do you do that? Thank you. That is a compliment. Just years of experimenting, so if I can tell you a little bit about myself, I am from Sydney, Australia, originally, but I spent the last 30 years of my life in Japan. So I have been lucky and very fortunate enough to be around what I think is the best cuisine in the world. Japanese food is so tasty. It has a depth of flavour that really, in my opinion, most other cuisines just can't reach, and I think that's due to their umami, which is the fifth food taste, along with sweet, bitter, sour and salty. So I think once you start learning more about how to cook food and how to make it taste better, you can then start playing around with getting more flavour and depth into your cooking. So when I became vegan in Japan, I knew that I would only survive if I learned how to cook this sort of food, because Japanese in Japan... Seafood is everything. Yes, and basically everything is cooked in a fish broth, or what we call dashi. I think you may have heard that terminology before. So I think just living in Japan helped me become a good cook. It really did. I learned so much over the years, and the food that I cook, the vegan food I cook, I haven't really seen anything like that here in Hawaii. I've just moved here three months ago. Not a lot of vegan in Hawaii. I think it's starting here. There are some restaurants around, and I think people are getting on board. They're asking for vegan menu items. So the question is worldwide, sounds to me like veganism is actually expanding, and we're going to see more of it here, on the mainland, in Europe, wherever, even in Serbia even. My father, who is not with us anymore, I think would say never going to happen in somewhere like Serbia. But who knows? Growing up in Australia, Australia is definitely the meat man's world. Throw another shrimp on the barbie, and the more meat, the better. I think it's learning to move with the times, and now that there is so much information out there, I think we're able to be a bit more open-minded, to say about what plant-based food can do for you. And what it can do for the planet. Definitely. If we all were using plant-based food and not meat, we'd be spending less energy in developing our menu. Of course. So there's ways. You have secrets, and you have... Maybe it's wrong to say secrets, but you have a creative discovery process on tastes which you learned in Japan, enjoy yourself in Japan. Yes. And you're okay with sharing those secrets with the public, am I right? Not only am I okay with it, I am privileged and honoured to be able to share my passion for food, because I want other people to not be afraid. I think anything that is unknown is going to make you feel a bit apprehensive and close that little world of yours. But I want people to open up and be open for some new ideas. And I think now is the time where plant-based or vegan food is going to really become a hit at people's tables. I think more people are looking for healthier options to feed their families and their children. And I think men are also coming on board and starting to try and become more okay with this plant-based cuisine. So I would love to, and do look forward to sharing my kitchen with you. Yeah, okay. So we're developing a show. I want to talk about that. What do you have in mind for the show? It's called Millions Vegan World. I like that name. I love that name. Very, very, yes. That was a nice one. Can I have a word of effort? So I think that says it all, vegan world. I obviously am in my element when I'm cooking food. I like to be in my kitchen. I'm very comfortable and that's where my magic happens. And I'm looking forward to also showing people and teaching people how to cook vegan food in a way that really doesn't take up much of your time. It honestly doesn't. Cooking does not have to, especially when you're talking about plant-based food, does not have to take hours and hours of stewing or simmering. It's a very easy way of cooking, actually. But some people think rightly or wrongly that veganism means you have to get organic food, not processed food. And if it's raw, natural, it's better rather than cooking. You're talking about cooking it. Yes. I think exactly what you said. There are so many misconceptions about veganism. And if I can just tell you very quickly, veganism has nothing to do with gluten-free. It has nothing to do with raw diets. It has nothing to do with, you know, non-oil, non-sugar diets, none of the above. A healthy vegan diet is actually high carbs and then low protein and fat. And I think for me what has worked best is the 80-10-10 ratio. So about 80% of whole foods. I'm not talking about, you know, going out and eating fries every day, although I do love to eat fries. Every now and again. You can be both, right? I think it's all about balance. And I think the healthiest vegans that I see are the ones who eat a variety of foods. They eat the healthy oils. They, you know, drink alcohol as well. I myself do enjoy drinking on occasion. I enjoy wine. So there's a lot of misconceptions. We're not a bunch of hippies that walk around eating only organic. And you even drink diet coke. I do. That is really a great comfort to me because I drink too much diet coke. I do. And I think once you start, you know, putting too much pressure on yourself and, you know, denying yourself of things that you like, I think that's where people just give up and say, no, I can't do this. This is not for me. It's not about, I'm not here to turn anyone or tell people to become vegans. Not at all. I'm here to only show you how to cook some of these, you know, cook some really good food that tastes good and add that to your diet. I'm not here to minus anything. I'm here to add good stuff. But in the process, maybe you lose a little weight. In the process, maybe tell me if this is true. Maybe you save some money even because meat is expensive. Yes. Yes, definitely. Both of those things, Jay, I think definitely you will, whether you try hard or not, you will see the weight start to come off. I think in particular, if you give up the dairy and substitute it for non-dairy options, you know, as I mentioned before, there's a huge, like wonderful, so many wonderful products out there that are made from nuts and some delicious cheeses. Any, you know, milk you can think of, oat, soy, almond, cashew. So there's all these options out there. You can just substitute. You don't have to give up anything. You can still eat pizza. It tastes good. Yes. And we're going to, you are going to explore all these options and alternatives and combinations and techniques to have a vegan as one of your various diversified menu items in your life, and I think everybody will benefit. And when are you going to be on and what are you going to do on your show? We only have a minute left. Okay. Well, I'm so excited to tell you that I'll be on live Friday morning at 10 a.m. every Friday, once a week, to be here to open you up to Lillian's Vegan World and the plant-based diet and lifestyle. Okay. Lillian's Vegan World on Fridays at 10 o'clock. Yes. Watch for Lillian and learn about food, learn about vegan food, which is really a very constructive and important thing to do in our times. Thank you so much, Lillian. My pleasure, Jay. Aloha. Aloha. Thank you.