 to Healthy Planet, the show for people who care about their health and the health of our planet on the ThinkTech livestreaming network series. I'm your host, Dr. Grace O'Neill. Joining me today is Hansen of Level V 808. Today we're going to talk about Hansen's vegan journey and how we started Level V 808. So Hansen, tell us how you became vegan. So let's see 2017 I think was the first my vegan anniversary really. It started my other half my girlfriend at the time was pescatarian and I was trying to do some research to convince her to start eating meat with me again. So that's literally how it started. So after you know going over you know through research I'm a science-based guy so I was going through the research and I told her I think I just told myself I need to stop eating meat. So that's that's literally how the journey began. So I you know I started doing a lot of research a lot of you know a lot of the documentary I read the China study I did a whole bunch of self-reading I guess you could say and then yeah I just kind of made the decision I was like you know I'm gonna try it and that's what got me to you know start being vegan and then I think what kept me vegan because I think there's two different things like I think what kept me vegan I went to a animal safe a safe a safe movement and I got to experience you know the emotions that go into the animal industry and then honestly after that I was pretty much changed. I was in I kind of made up my mind never to go eating meat again to be honest. So yeah I came for the health and I stayed for the animals. And then I mean how about how did your family and your friends react like I'm sure your girlfriend she was probably on board with becoming vegan? Yeah so I went a couple days after I decided to go vegan she became vegan and then it's tough because I think growing up in Hawaii or growing up with any you know family has cultures and the culture kind of revolves around food so it's kind of a culture shock you know and my dad is an immigrant from Vietnam so he doesn't understand the concept of veganism I guess when there's an abundance of food and part of the things here in the United States. He kind of saw it as more of a like a Buddhist monk journey so there's a lot of Buddhist monks in but I told him no nothing like that I just you know want to eat healthier and I had a son so I have a son and I want to be around for as long as possible so I told him I told my dad who's kind of the harder of my both parents to kind of convince I told him you know just for my health journey and I want to be around around a long time for my son really and then my mom is a caring mom she's just yeah you do you and I'll support you and that helps and I mean growing up in an Asian culture I guess you could say we didn't eat much meat anyway so it was kind of easier but I guess when it comes to family gatherings it was a little difficult but the good thing is that a year or two after becoming vegan I took my son to um Edgfest and I let him kind of roam around when I was waiting in line and he came back he said I watched a video I think I'm gonna try it and he's been vegan since for the last four years now so how old is he he is now a junior in high school so he started when he was a seventh grader seventh grader in high school nice yeah so for his friends reacting you know better than I thought you know I think um they come in an age where bullying is a bad thing you know so um they're more interested and they're every time he he brought his lunch out he would um they would all kind of like see what he's gonna eat you know and that was kind of my motivation to kind of start cooking better I guess you could say I always enjoyed cooking but I think I put a little more focus into um local style foods so my son would never miss out on anything that his other friends would enjoy so that's kind of how I started all my different recipes and things like that just just to make sure that my son wouldn't feel left out really yeah so tell us about how you began your business then how did that start so um my business is a result of the pandemic you know so I had to pivot um I'm in the event industry so I have two companies one in the marketing of nightlife and concerts and my other company is a production company we do soundstage lighting special effects um we do weddings and you know school proms and things like that so once pandemic happened it all you know stopped really so I had to find out another way to source income from my son's tuition he's over at marinal right now so you know you know business stops but tuition doesn't so that's for sure so I wanted to find out um another way to have an income and it started off as a fundraiser I wanted to you know make tuition so I I made a um I happened to make a vegan beef stew that pretty much tastes like regular beef stew and um I kind of put it out there just for my family and friends more so than the vegan community and I posted it up online and then um my friends posted it up online and then all the other the people outside of my circle all the vegans started to give me up and it became a thing so I was making started off with you know 10 plates and 15 plates and 20 plates and 30 plates it started growing from there and then um I realized it's sustainable the business model is sustainable because I think um there's a a niche in local style vegan food I guess you could say not many people doing it at the time yeah yeah I don't think I don't know anybody else who's doing it really I don't decide who are there other people yeah there's a there's a small handful I know um that ass burgers makes plates I know um yeah Umeke Market does one or two plates but I was trying to like I was just trying to recreate all the recipes I was making for my son to take home you know to take home lunch to for to school I mean will you offer like the drink and um I don't know if you have any pictures um Eric but uh yeah the last beef stew picture yeah and then there's like a rice on the side yeah I wanted it to be like a regular plate lunch so it comes with two scoops of rice your potato max salad which is 100% vegan and I also include the drink for the package deal is um it comes with your 100% of vitamin vitamin b12 because yeah it's so hard to remember taking b12 you know pills and I tell um and my son too is he's a active teenager so he never remembers so I kind of wanted to incorporate it in the meal so you get your daily dose every time you eat with a bovee yeah I mean so what do you what kind of what do you use for the meat I mean like when there's beef stew what are you using for the beef yeah so yeah so a lot of it's it's mock meats um the beef stew is um a garden mock meat so I pre-treat everything it's all marinated and smoked and then as well as the um as well as I use um a beyond patty um the famous one is the katsu and it's just actually portobello mushrooms so that looks really good I wish it's the best seller I mean it is the best seller I mean that looks delicious this is delicious no yeah it's it's crazy I you know I'm one of my favorite things was chicken katsu so that was the recipe I was trying to hone in perfect and um it's way easier now there's so much like um replacement meats and you know um mock meats that it's um it's really easy easier nowadays to kind of make certain dishes but I found out that the portobello mushroom just locks in that juiciness so it when you when you fry it it just comes out perfect yeah that's awesome I mean you know I always have trouble I don't know do you deep fry it or how do you get the the um little panko to stick on it yeah so I use an egg replacer so I use a um especially modified egg replacer so I use it just like an egg batter except you just got to work with the consistency to make it yeah right the right batter that is the hardest thing is the getting the panko to stick without making it turn into cake I had so many trial and errors about I was eating like mushroom cakes it was for a little while yeah yeah but I mean how do you like get it you know deep like how do you get it to look like that it's just yeah so this is just regular um I grew up eating you know katsu in tempura so it's it's in a wok like it's oil oil fried wok you know oh yes yes yes yes you put it in a little so it's a huge yeah I I try to keep things as original as possible so it comes out as you know as similar as possible to um the original recipe and then you know there are a few things that you have to kind of tweak just because it is a mock meat or is an actual you know actual meat so yeah so did you find that after you became vegan did you feel any changes in your body yourself yeah a hundred percent I mean you when you first go vegan you kind of get that initial rush you know you you feel more energetic you sleep better at night um and I guess honestly I think it's a piece of mine too you know you have a you have a better understanding of passion for other people so your your mind is a little more free and I think that makes that takes a a big relief off your shoulders and you sleep better to be honest so yeah definitely yeah have you been able to um get any of your friends to follow your path or your family yeah I mean I I mean I would say the majority of my businesses are non-vegans they they I mean to me I that's how I pat myself in the back if I can get vegan vegan food and not think it's vegan food and the stigmatism of vegan food I think I already won the battle you know so I think it's um my one extra step in uh in my uh my my vegan campaign for to push the agenda but um yeah yeah I mean there are a few people that that definitely eat less meat um I think people have are on the way um but getting my son to go be you honestly made the world to me that's that's awesome you know yeah I mean it's gonna be great for his health and you know it's just it's just 100% knowing that your family member is able to do that that's great you know no definitely definitely I think um when I was right before I was vegan I was starting to get the pre-syntoms of gout and I had gout runs in my family you know so um it's debilitating to my dad sometimes terrible yeah it's bad so I once I you know started eating all plant-based 100% vegan you know the that whole worry is gone I can eat a little more freely I can have you know a piece of mind without getting a flare up you know things like that so that definitely changed definitely and honestly the biggest thing too is um I remember when I took my son into the doctor for the first time for his physical and then um he he he dropped on the notes that my son became vegan and then by his second follow-up he you know he he was really astounded that he like uh his weight index went up his height index went up like oh it's weird I thought you get you lose you know so much weight because you're not eating meat and I was telling him like you know it's it's completely different than you think I know he doesn't know I mean that's great that you're teaching him even though I'm a doctor myself a lot of doctors even my my own colleagues they don't know they think that you know the same thing that people are going to be malnourished and actually the thing is when you become vegan you're better nourished you know because not taking up your diet was something that doesn't doesn't have any besides protein and we get too much of it anyway no exactly exactly that's great yeah we watch this for themselves I'm sorry go ahead yeah oh no they just have to see it for themselves you know they won't believe it until they see it you know yeah but that's that's great I mean that's just phenomenal that you're teaching your doctor's things yeah my son is doing it I mean his scorecard is doing it yeah that's awesome his height and index yeah because he was really worried about you know high growth and bone index and all that stuff and as soon as he you could see us you know definitely raising everything oh that's wonderful it is it is yeah so tell us about the you know I know right now you just do Fridays for lunch but is there potential that you're going to expand to other weekdays you know definitely um but the man is out there so um I'm kind of like burning the can on both ends out because business is booming like every all the event business it's all back you know double because everyone's going to make up from last year but man it's like um I started doing catering gigs and getting um uh also um offers to do different pop-ups and things like that so I mean the the angle was either always going to be either a permanent spot or a food truck or something to that effect but the market is so crazy right now so I'm thinking I'm going to stick to just you know pop-ups on different days and um yeah first you come into um other restaurant spaces during their off time oh you totally should do that I think um there's that one that's um a bar you know what I'm talking about they're very vegan friendly it's an um kind of like mccully yeah um also yummy oh so yummy yeah well definitely I am yeah I know a couple of people do um the pop-ups there well the pop-ups there so no definitely yeah I'm good friends with the guys and also yummy I try to support every vegan thing possible as soon as it pops up I'm there sampling it post yes yes me too like if something's at Costco because the problem with Costco is they'll have something vegan yeah and then they'll take it away because not enough people buy it or something exactly that's right yeah like when they had kale chips yeah yeah so I mean I'm wondering how about catering at the events do you think you could run the event and then also I don't know what was that to me but I think that was a couple offers there was a couple offers you know the um shucks it's just that the production level like it's it's just me and my mom really you know I do most of the cooking if it's the katsu because there's so many orders my mom helps out but other than that um it's so it's just really tough for at that at this point right now but you know I had to turn away um I was supposed to cater HP use a welcome ceremony that's like thousands of students and oh my gosh so each of you has a lot of international students and there's a lot of our RV that would have been awesome I know so I had an event somewhere else that day and I was just trying to organize it and I I told them unfortunately there's no way I can do the amount of orders you want oh my god here there's things like that where I'm just trying to get to the point where I can accept those kind of things you know and vegan weddings there's a bunch of vegan weddings coming that day maybe you could hire somebody like events like that like you know just per diem for now right they could help you out or you could like um you know go with another pop-up into something like that and then right right right options you know I mean I don't know I'm just thinking about it's such a shame for yeah I know expose all those people to exactly something that could be you know really good for that yeah exactly I think a few students tried it and they went to their counselor said hey this is the things we want you know and they kind of wanted a local field they want they're here visiting from all these other places they wanted something local so yeah that's definitely in the works I'm trying to work with different and also yummy is one of the kitchens I actually offered too so they're super supportive of the vegan community so I'm just trying to find out a way where I can get to that level where the production can be that at that level yeah so um tell me about the name level v 808 yes 808 well the the v is for vegan um my my my marketing company is was level h um and then when I be when I became vegan I wanted to do a vegan business it just made sense to be level v for the vegan and the level is just always progressing but that's that's that's the um foresight that I want to have is just make sure I'm always moving forward and looking you know to the next level instead of being stagnant where I am I mean I tried to google it and there was something online about level v or level five being like the greatest thing to attain as a vegan I guess being like a perfect vegan I was like is that what it's about or why level v 808 that's great I didn't know I didn't know there was anything out there you know yeah I mean there was something out there like that I found it on a website but I didn't know wow oh wow maybe that too then no yeah no yeah it was just a it's a playoff of my production company my uh prevents events company mm-hmm yeah well I mean it would be great if you could you know just kind of marry both of them and no definitely that's I mean you can offer like not doing it and doing it together so you have people who work for your events company no yep no definitely um you know definitely we're uh so maybe you could hire I mean I don't know if it's it might be a different business but it'd be great if you could hire I'm sure there's people interested I mean I know the restaurant business isn't easy but yeah restaurant business tough hours yeah yeah yeah I don't know how I mean I'm such as at a beginner level uh with production wise I don't know how some of these bigger restaurants do and it's it's time consuming so I applaud all the restaurant tiers out there man they're they're working hard behind the scenes just to make yeah just to make ends meet you know exactly exactly yeah I'm out of go ahead yeah so I think I'm how I'm gonna make them to merge is that I'm in the works of planning a vegan night market so I'm in the I'm in the nightlife business I'm in the production company business and so I'm trying to I kind of visited a bunch out there I visited LA I went to um Portland a few times I've been you should completely do that yeah they have one in East Hollywood it's awesome yeah I've been to the money is Hollywood I made friends with them and I kind of figured out their business model and I got to sit down with them for a little while so I kind of want to bring that to Hawaii because we have such a huge eclectic market of vegans in Hawaii and everyone's kind of you know a little segment here and there I kind of want to just bring them out for a nightlife because there is nothing like that really yeah no that would be great have music have different pop-ups have exactly new vegan desserts and exactly you know you know exactly that's exactly what I mean when I went out there it's like it's so fun to go to these because on the other places you get to sit down have a drink eat your meal amongst other people and just listen to music and yeah it's a great it's a great event so I kind of want to absolutely do that I'll be you'll have to tell me the first day I'll be there definitely I got some vendors that normally aren't in town to possibly come in town for for some of these yeah I mean even maybe people from the big island or Maui would be willing to do that oh definitely I mean I went to the one in East LA as a trip as a trip so I think oh it's amazing yeah yeah no it's amazing you know I mean because I don't know like right now the woman who plans veg fest she's over in Maui so we haven't had anything like that for a while right right if you want to take on that but that's kind of in your purview yeah we'd love to have another Oahu veg fest and then bring people in you know from elsewhere I guess right right but I mean even just to have all the vegan vendors together in one place would be amazing no definitely yeah so that would be great um what else was I gonna say I think um I guess with this business and everything um it looks like you're also using compostable items it's all you had some can you show the pictures yeah so that's great I mean I don't know if it probably costs more but it's very good it does I mean my price point I'm not gonna lie I appreciate every single person that bought a plate because um it's price is high because from when I started I already had an a vision of what I want to do so I I did 100% compostable before I was mandated by the state so my price hasn't changed I wanted to include that drink so I wanted to make sure it's B12 friendly and the yeah everything is plant-based uh it's compostable plant-based 100% you know put in the earth compostable not going to a factory so I sourced um I mean now that there's easier options because of the new mandate to go compostable it's great um I sourced up that moxie bag out of Brazil 100 yeah it's it's it costs money to bring in but I feel it's worth it you know yeah I know it's absolutely worth it and I I priced all of that into when I first started so the good thing is that I don't have to change my prices if everything is as is and I think um when I was watching uh other other vendors and also other restaurateurs they were saying that most people just want it all inclusive just give me everything you know instead of little things you know instead of like you know adding little things yeah they said I'll pay the price if it's worth it I'll pay their price I rather just pay it all at once yeah yeah absolutely I like that I appreciate that and I for me when I go to other places I like to save the sauces because it's hard to get vegan like fish sauce you're vegan yeah yeah I kind of do the same you know I get like 12 ounces of gravy like a soda can worth the gravy because you can use it for whatever dish you want later on it'll save you time for the next meal I just want to make it easy for people to stay vegan and become vegan as best as possible yeah and you know those compostable containers you use they really are compostable because sometimes I'll put them in my garden like I'll put the little container I'll plant stuff in it or and then or I'll put it in my worm bucket and it really does compost a lot easier than those um sometimes people have cups and they have a little liner inside and that liner is not compostable no yeah exactly those other products are now the only thing I guess is the vitamin water has that plastic bottle yeah yes I'm trying to find something other than vital water that has a hundred percent b12 in it but that's that's no it's it's definitely a challenge it is I mean I guess if you had something with nutritional yeast that doesn't have a hundred percent though you know but it would be like some kind of b12 right right right yeah no that is a challenge because the plastic too is a problem um but I appreciate your efforts to find something compostable like that because there's a lot of places that are vegan but they're the packaging is not as funny but I will say that places that are vegan their package is generally friendlier than places that are not because people are more aware of this problem that we have you know that is true the environment everything so tell us about how you got your kitchen certified do you go somewhere else to cook or is it like did you have to certify your kitchen there or yeah so I I have a support kitchen in Chinatown um a family friend that's we rent their kitchen and I make everything there before they open for business and then I I have a catering license so I bring it back to my house and I put everything together here and I serve it here yeah when I first went down to the the the food board or food department or health department I was like I need a license to do like like fundraiser yeah it was just as a fundraiser I was like you know how people like sell like lao lao out of their house I just want to do the same to make money to pay for my sense yeah yeah and then she's like oh you need to get a catering license so then I mean I'm so new to the I mean I worked in front of the house never behind the house so they're like oh you need a support kitchen I was like what's the support kitchen I had to like start from scratch but you know it's worth it I think um it makes you uh a more business savvy and I guess also you kind of because you put so much effort into the the the product is that much more special to me that when I put it out there for everybody oh yeah no that's awesome um who else was I gonna say so your location is a very unique location I mean it's very convenient except sometimes it's hard to get out of the location but it is to get out but it's a beautiful little house in the middle of like a ton of buildings you know yeah tell us about the location and how you acquired that location yeah I mean it's uh I mean it's uh the house was built over 100 years ago it's like a small little queen house um yeah I mean I grew up in this house really it's um they they tried to buy bought my father's stuff right they tried to buy out the land to build all the high rises around us and he just held out he they were like surrounded by these but that's awesome it's so cool that you still have that one house because you know I used to pass by all the time before I knew about you and I was like that's a really cool little house by all these terrible buildings you know and then now I mean then I went I was like oh I guess like these people must I didn't know if you rented or owned it or whatever that's so cool you know I mean it's it's such a cool little house yeah yeah yeah yeah I moved here um so I could ride my bike went to put a hole so I ride my bike to school every day so we moved to town so I could just my parents work two jobs growing up so I had to kind of we got me closer second right my bike to school but no I love it here it's like a they call it a gingerbread parents called the gingerbread house it looks like a gingerbread house but it's so convenient for everything honestly it is it's right in the middle town and um my mom becomes the uh traffic controller trying to get everyone in and out of the driveway when it's yeah no right that's always something else yeah you guys are very organized over there I will say it's very try to be we try to make it as convenient as possible for everybody yeah and you have a little garden in the park as well yeah we have a side garden and um my other half um has a garden at her spot so all of our um our food waste goes to compostable to go goes to compost yeah I see that's great I like I like that a lot yeah so every year we um we give out sprouts to um people I think we had um cantaloupe sprouts last year so all the food waste and all the um voxings and whatever can be um it's broken down um there's our natural worms in there and then uh we grow cantaloupe and bell peppers and I think the first year we gave away cantaloupe sprouts and the second year we gave our bell pepper sprouts away yeah you'll have to incorporate those uh the cantaloupe maybe into your into the dish you have like fruit afterward you know I don't know whatever and have the fruit at the end will be like you know nothing better than organic cantaloupe you know exactly exactly um and you could do like a tofu scramble with the bell peppers the sky's a little bit right so but I really love your idea I'm so glad you got started and really serving the community because I think a lot of people do think when they become vegan they can't get this local kind of food so I think that's awesome you know definitely yeah it definitely started out of a necessity yeah no that's that's I mean that's wonderful it's a beautiful story um so we're out of time um so we have to wrap it up but I'm Dr. Grace Moneal this is Healthy Planet on the ThinkTech Livestream Network Series we've been talking with Hanson of Level V808 thanks to Karak our broadcast engineer and the rest of the crew at ThinkTech for hosting our show and thanks to you our listeners for listening I'll see you on September 30th for more of Healthy Planet on ThinkTech the show for people who care about their health and the health of our planet my special guest will be Dr. Saini Leesh Rao we will be talking about climate change if you have ideas for the show or questions for my future guests please contact me at healthyplanethinktech at gmail.com check out my website at graceandhawai.com or instagram at gracefulliving365 for more information on my projects including future show guests I'm Dr. Grace Moneal Paloha everyone thank you so much for watching ThinkTech Hawaii if you like what we do please like us and click the subscribe button on youtube and the follow button on vimeo you can also follow us on facebook instagram twitter and linked in and donate to us at thinktech hawaii.com Mahalo