 Aloha and welcome to Lillian's Vegan World, the only show in Honolulu where we cover topics about veganism and the plant-based diet. We're up to episode 10 and today I have asked the wonderful chef Paul Onishi to return for a part two of Veganize Your World, Confessions of a Food Addict the next chapter. It is with great pleasure I introduce you Aloha, chef Paul Onishi. Nice to be back. Thank you. Thank you so much. Great to have you back. How's how's it been? How's your past two weeks been? Very busy. Very busy years. Chef Paul is also a vegan chef and instructor and I'm very grateful that you took the time out to join the show to talk more about this awesome veganism and plant-based diet lifestyle. So just to read, introduce you chef. I did take another look at your article, the article that you wrote in the Island Vegetarian for the Vegetarian Society of Hawaii. Chef Paul has two articles in that I believe and one of them you go on to mention if you don't mind I'm going to read a paragraph from your article and it says at a kahi which is the program that you took that sort of introduced you to this lifestyle. At a kahi I learned how to realistically transition to a plant-based diet, exercise daily, meditate and practice emotional well-being. I honestly feel as though I have been given a second chance to live and experience life in a very positive way. I also sorry I am also very aware that because of my culinary background and training I've been very blessed to have a renewed passion for the preparation of food and would like very much to extend this passion to others who are struggling in this area. So I'm wonderful to hear that you've turned your life around and in particular your health and you're feeling pretty great of late. Very well said I can't believe I wrote that. It is yeah it's very well said that's why I wanted to share it with everyone. So how long have you been vegan again if you don't mind me repeating the question from the last show. I graduated I think it's going on about a year and a half. It hasn't been easy because I'm traveling to Europe and then to Japan and of course the places we visited weren't really vegan friendly or maybe I just didn't find the right place but I know now that it do exist you just have to look a little harder to find. Yeah I think that when you become plant-based or vegan your whole dining experience changes because you can't really just go to any restaurant pick up a menu and expect to be able to order a well-rounded meal. No. Yeah so that is something that changes. I didn't ask you on the last show you must have lost weight from the time you began your program at the Iqahi clinic until now. Do you mind me asking how much weight you lost or 30 pounds. Which is interesting because I just went and saw a business associate the other day when I went to shake his hand he kind of stopped and looked at me he said looks so different I said in a good way he goes well you look like a totally different person now and I said well how did I look before and he said well you know you were always kind of thin but I don't know and then I said well maybe I had a triple chin and more of a beard belly and he said oh well yeah if you say so and I know that was the case so I've kind of cut down two pants sizes and I feel better I definitely feel better. That's a very substantial amount of weight you drop right and with that came the some health ailments that you used to have that you now no longer have or are you in that sense how's everything well I I've been going to a routine checkup with my doctor and I from a little acid reflux probably from a lot of the stress I'm going through which I need to you know manage this part the numbers that I'm showing are pretty amazing even to those people I know it I'm on the right track when you get that kind of feedback you just are more inclined to want to do it of course yeah I mean you look great I I honestly can't imagine you 30 pounds heavier but you know here you are and it's it's something that is very doable it is doable and I think that's that's where people get scared when we mention the word veganism or the plant-based diet I think people really believe that it's centered around only the food but it's not as you mentioned in this article that I just read out you you also self-meditate you you know it's about your well-being and taking care of your stress levels all of these things really play a very important role in one's health so not only about food but definitely food very very important there is one more paragraph if you mind I would like to read to the viewers after graduating from the a car he ornish lifestyle medicine program it has been a solitary journey down the road towards renew sorry toward renewed good health many of my carnivorous cohorts abandoned me on the side of the road as soon as they got wind of my healthy lifestyle change in their place appeared cohort members of a different persuasion that is something that I hear a lot and it's very unfortunate that some people I don't know if the I wouldn't I don't want to use the word threatened but feel almost uncomfortable when someone becomes vegan and sort of you know is getting healthier and healthier before their eyes it sometimes makes people feel a bit awkward and you mentioned exactly that so yeah I I was known to make a very excellent primary which you know I don't have the opportunity to do now because it's uncomfortable for the people probably but I can still execute those types of dishes however it's here that I don't have the passion for and I remember hating a party where I did a salmon dish which used to be like I could do a blindfolded with no problem but I caught myself after I was looking at it on the line and I realized that because my heart wasn't in it the whole execution that I normally would do didn't pan out and fish got overdone usually I have it spot on no problem people rave but I could tell they're kind of like picking at it and I just felt bad but at the same time I realized that I had stepped over into another world another type of preparation and it was not just cooking but it was a lifestyle but for me it's kind of slowly evolved that way yes not to say that you know in my travels because in certain cases in Europe and in Japan there weren't alternative side to compromise but when I got back I realized that I'm gonna maintain regimen I'm the one that has to exercise that definitely that's such an interesting point because yeah definitely when you see food being cooked even in restaurants you can tell how much love has gone into that dish it can be a very neglected dish or it can just be something very simple that comes to the plate and you can see there's been a lot of effort put into that so certainly yeah when you're cooking something that no longer excites you I can't see it turning out perfect the way us chefs you know sort of expect from ourselves so totally understand well seeing as though we both share the passion for food and cooking I do want to talk about the food today about vegan food and how how far we've come in you know such a short time I think about when I transitioned to becoming vegan from being vegetarian all my life throughout my childhood I that was 12 years ago and 12 years ago the vegan world was nothing like it is now so things definitely heating up and it seems to be the buzzword at the moment all this some you know all these interesting products on the market that are coming out and make making people sort of think about their choices a little bit more so yeah we're living in very exciting times as that's how I feel as you know because there's so many alternatives that technology is getting behind there maybe a couple years ago there was not a commercial cheese that was reasonable right but now there is and not that you want to fool people but if people are so into having something similar and not you know like for example burgers the two burgers and possible burger and the other yes beyond those two I just did a class last night and I used the beyond burger of course two little patties like that it was over $10 but amazingly scary the texture the look the taste yes they've really done their homework they've done exactly what the public wants and beyond that because I don't think people realized how close to the real thing you could get yes and have it be healthy right so yes all these products are the beyond burgers are yeah also zero cholesterol no GMO they're just they're kind of a no brainer like you you might as well give them a try but you and I were talking before the show and I also agree that they are still a little bit on the expensive side that will eventually change once you have more volume yes definitely but it's great to see that people are enjoying them and giving them a try even the non-vegans I just I mentioned on the show last on the last show 40% of the people buying those beyond burgers are non-vegans so definitely the times are changing and in a good way you know people are more conscious about their health there's more information out there that all points to plant-based diet being the healthiest diet on the planet and we're here to show you that it's not just alfalfa sprouts and you know boring brown rice and avocado so Paul I recently got back from my honeymoon I'm happily married now to my lovely husband Dave thank you and we we chose to go on the seven night cruise around the islands around the Hawaii Islands so I was very looking forward to the cruise but very keen to see how they were going to feed me as I'd heard stories that you know cruises are not very vegan friendly so let's take a look at the first shot I took some photos of the food so that I could share with everyone all vegan Paul chef and you know they made pizzas for me anytime at the day 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. they were happy to do a vegan pizza one day I felt like a dip so chef made me a hummus a homemade hummus just on the you know spur of the moment beautiful fresh salads there was a fried rice and vegetable dish there simple christini with some tomato and basil all vegan and none of these were on any menus so have a look at the next one that's what I've been doing the past two weeks I did have my cashew cheese making demo and that went very well I do have my other one tonight my second one tonight and which you are going to attend attend I'm very excited we are gonna take a quick break chef and come back to talk more about what kind of food you've been cooking and serving and teaching to because your food is just incredible and I can't wait to try yours so stay tuned and see you after the break I'm Marcia Joyner inviting you to join us on Wednesdays at one o'clock for cannabis 10,000-year Odyssey where we take a look at cannabis as food cannabis as medicine cannabis and religion cannabis and dear old Uncle Sam so please join us to learn all about cannabis again Wednesdays at one o'clock thank you welcome back to Lillian's vegan world where we talk about everything vegan and the plant-based lifestyle I'm very very happy to have my wonderful guest chef Paul Anishe with me for part two of veganize your world chef Paul is very very famous here on the islands and you can catch him at some down-to-earth events when's your next down-to-earth event have you got it's Tuesday next Tuesday so you you can find that information on Eventbrite if you're interested chef Paul is an amazing chef and has become vegan in the past year and a half so you're doing plant-based cooking demos and classes so definitely do catch chef Paul on the island so getting back to the cruise Paul I do have two more photos that I would love to share with you about the delicious food they made for me so this is again one of the restaurants of sorry I have the same photos there the bottom left is mushroom fettuccine that they made with with olives and when they asked what I felt like I said pasta with olives and mushrooms and that's exactly what they made it was just incredible beautiful you know fresh salad on the side hungry I don't know what that wine is doing they're naughty wine and I do have one more the next slide is breakfast so the interesting thing is I don't eat breakfast or lunch I do what is called intermittent fasting so I eat only four hours a day but on this honeymoon I did decide to indulge in the breakfast buffet and it was incredible the baked beans happened to be vegan not the ones at the buffet they were not but at the restaurant they did make fresh homemade baked beans that were amazing so I had to go back to them every couple of days and you know totally you look at that it's a totally unhealthy diet some you know potato croquettes and stuff but everything vegan and they did have on the bottom left there the photo is of the gluten-free and vegan breads and yeah products that you could ask them to toast for you that lady Mary again I don't know what it's doing there somehow ended up on the photo but chef Paul you have also brought in some photos that I would love to share with everyone so let's have a look at your first one tell us a little bit about this that is a kind of a shot we were doing at down-to-earth emotional thing a fig salami that came from Greece wow that looks very very very appetizing I must say yeah it's kind of different because you expect the salami taste with the fig prominence comes out pretty strong yes well I used to be a huge fan of figs I used to love figs but it was brought to my attention chef about a year ago a little over a year ago I did a recipe on my youtube channel Lillian vegan and the recipe was for a vegan mac and cheese and the crusting the topping that I put on the cheese was a vegan parmesan cheese with walnuts and dried figs and all that was you know crushed up and topped the mac and cheese and then baked it in the oven it was delicious and I used to cook it all the time and then someone who saw the recipe did comment and and asked me whether I believed figs were vegan or not vegan or not to me I was really kind of surprised and didn't really understand what she was going on about so after delving into this whether vegans are sorry whether figs are vegan or not I did find some information that I would like to share with everyone so a fig is more an inverted flower than it actually is a fruit okay and they require a specific kind of pollination that can only be managed by fig wasps they cannot be pollinated by the wind or bees so the the wasp the female wasp lays her eggs inside the fig and then sour yes that's how they pollinate the figs so the fig ends up using an enzyme called fixing that breaks the body down the body of the the wasp that dies inside breaks it down into protein and this is where the question is whether you think they're vegan or not so it's bro it's not like there's a you know a wasp sitting in there looking very morbid and almost alive it's broken down the protein is broken down but the remnants of the wasp do remain in the actual fig yes that I didn't know neither did I I honestly didn't know that's why I always it's always interesting how you know the more you sort of continue on this journey of plant-based diet the more information and things you you come to you come across that are quite interesting so I did so I got this quote from the daily the daily meal which is a sort of a vegan site on the internet the fig ends up so it uses an enzyme called fixing to break the the body into protein once the baby wasps are born the males are often born without wings so they crawl their way out of the out of the fig before fertilizing newly born wasps the females emerge from the figs and then go on to spread pollen to other fig trees and then the reproduction cycle starts again so I'm interested what do you think do you think do you think there's still you can consider figs to still be vegan or does it make you think twice about it I don't know well I know there's people that won't eat honey because of the bee but that's kind of a simple thing what you're telling me I've got a digest in my mind because that's more complex than I expected you to tell me yeah and to be honest I was so disappointed when I found out I almost wished that I had not known so I could continue eating things because I find them to be very delicious well you know like in Asia people might say well what's a few insects especially on a stick you know I put a little sauce you know more protein yeah but I think that's kind of now that you brought it to my attention I think that's kind of one of those where some people might say well it doesn't bother me or for some people it might really you know be almost gross to think that an insect has died in it and then there's a fertilization process right yeah very complex very complex and something that you know it's not your normal everyday fact yeah so food for thought some vegans do and some vegans don't totally up to you whether you want to continue you know consuming and other viewers out there so good cocktail conversation yes let's have a look at another slide this is a multiple shot of some of the students in my class the lady on the right hand's a left hand side I just ordered her own pineapple for I guess for a party yeah it looks beautiful basically we make it so that every student gets a quarter pineapple and they're able to do the hands-on portion of it right and obviously from the look on her face I remember when she did that she was so proud of it yeah it looks really good quite a quite a good job for first try and the shot's up on the right the shot on the right hand side upper is part of my chef training in Portland that I just went through we had some prep going on everybody participated in the preparation and we all combined it together and I think we're putting together some sort of a cool rice salad okay have a look at the next slide chef there's more of your yes some more prep work there what what kind of cream are you working with on the top left well that was my big aha moment because I had already always heard about this thing called aquafaba and basically it is the liquid from a can of carbanzo beans yes or chickpeas yeah chickpeas which I usually would throw away and a lot of people do yep and look at that kind of murky blonde brown liquid and actually think that it's going to turn out like yes across between whipped cream and meringue is pretty amazing but I was the one assigned to do the whipping that day with the hand hand mixer and I actually saw this thing take shape before my eyes and tasted it and I was so shocked and I felt like I had stepped into another zone of you know creativity in the kitchen and so we did it in one of our classes and I think this is just the tip of the iceberg for me because I'm going to I can see myself spinning off in a lot of different definitely yes that aquafaba works well in a lot of desserts and as you pointed out meringues too which is quite amazing that you can make vegan meringues from the chickpea water that basically ends up you know drained in the sink often yeah there there are little things that you know obviously because it's not a normal type of meringue if you were to do like a pavlova for example where you put it in the oven and you bake it yep that process would take about three hours to bake at low heat very low heat yes yeah and a lot of people might just say well forget yes I when I first started experimenting with that I could not get it to work and it just took so many you know trial and error for me to get it to the stage where it would bake and as you said on the lowest heat possible for a very very long time and then the question is was it worth it exactly that's that's how another thing yeah let's have a look quickly at another one where sort of uh that that looks beautiful what's the one on the bottom left jeff that is um these are the student class examples and we did our version of a spanakopita using phyllo pastry which is vegan yes um i love that stuff earth balance vegan butter which works just like regular butter yes and that a lot of people don't realize is vegan exactly and then we took a spinach uh pate onion uh and uh paragon uh and a vegan fettuccine awesome that looks amazing um again chef paul it has been a pleasure having you on the show again and I find that the time just disappears we're not with you because here we are again we have so much to talk about and so much in common um I thank you you know from the bottom of my heart for joining the show again and sharing your journey and your beautiful um dishes with us so do it again huge mahalo would love to do it again and thank you also to everyone for joining in i look forward to seeing you in a couple of weeks so keep it on lillian's vegan world and mahalo have a great weekend