La Stella Vegan (the vegan star)
23/04/2021
Antonella is a rock'n roll vegan chef
Antonella – The Vegan Star
Antonella has the pose of a warrior and talking to her, you realise she’s a good, kind, passionate revolutionary.
She has a steady voice when talking about herself but at the same time is emotional and motivating
She has a rock look which goes well with a classic, traditional cuisine for which she has packaged a completely vegetable outfit
She founded the first vegan cuisine blog when social media was an unripe reality and mobile phones still hadn’t learned to take beautiful photos.
Now she finds herself a star because her effort and research has been continuous: having removed the store manager suit, she finds herself in the kitchen, passing through California (where vegan cooking courses were already a reality in the year 2000) until herself becoming a teacher of veg cuisine, going down a path full of lots of interesting projects.
As the years pass, I realise that the best things in life happen by accident. Did something casual happen to you to make you change your diet, modifying your outlook on food?
I don’t think anything happens without reason! That distant day in the Summer of 1992 when Lorenzo (Jovanotti) opened my eyes in front of a piadina with cold cuts, which I’d been “tasting”, completely changed my life; because we rarely associate cold cuts with an animal, being used to seeing them ready packaged in supermarkets. From that day on I haven’t looked back!
In the 90s talking of vegetable based nutrition in Italy was difficult, an almost unknown reality and there wasn’t the possibility to search on the internet: how did you manage to explore themes relative to a plant-based diet and organise yourself in the kitchen?
I must admit that those times, in comparison to now, were really hard! But fortunately there were libraries and having many friends who travelled and lived in the United States, where vegetarians and vegans were already a very present reality, I was able to form a clear picture of how a vegetable based diet was the right choice, both for health reasons and to avoid harming the life of any other species. Additionally, the first vegan food that friends brought from the USA to let me taste, instantly had me curious and I realised that a good taste was possible even without animal derivatives.
I’d like to ask how a star is born…. Especially a vegan star? How the idea came about to open a veg cuisine page in Italy when the argument still wasn’t being dealt with?
Even here everything came about by accident! I simply put myself in my shoes… from when I started this life choice, that I’d have liked having direct and sincere information to “why not” to eggs, milk, honey etc… “La Stella Vegan” or the Vegan Star (www.facebook.com/LaStellaVegan), came about with the intention of giving that help that for me, at that time, was missing. Deciding then to insert the first vegan recipes of my first “experiments”, was the winning key, attracting the curiosity of a lot of people.
On your page you offer recipes, ideas and thoughts: what is the phrase that best represents your philosophy of life and your way of being?
There are really a lot of phrases that can affect and change peoples life in an instant, one of the first that comes to mind is this one of Gandhis: “Be the change that you want to see in the world”
You’ve written 2 books (“Te lo do io il Vegano!” (I’ll give you Vegan!) and “Te lo do io il Vegano!” – Bimbi (I’ll give you Vegan – Children) edited by Eifis) which arrived after your decision to autonomously publish your first cook book: I love the courage of who knows how to take thier ideas and run with them against everything because fundamentally there’s a belief, a conviction, an awareness. This courage and spirit of initiative, where has it brought you? Tell us of the current projects you’re working on.
Definitely my character and determination have made me the person I am today and I hope to communicate this through my work as a blogger, chef and author. There are many future projects which continue to live deep inside me despite this pandemic which afflicts us.
I finished writing my third cook book which is themed on Street Food and I hope it can be in bookshops next Christmas; I’m always doing cooking courses, but on line; I work on Social Media Marketing handling not only my socials but those of other companies in the Vegan sector; I like trying my hand at things and enjoying myself at the same time, creating new vegan projects for Italian companies.
You’ve also written recipes for children and held cooking courses dedicated to them, do you think in the childrens future there will be a more vegetable based diet and why?
Absolutely yes, because children are our future! Using ourselves as examples and with the correct information, from an early age we can help them grow towards a more aware and altruistic choice of life towards every living thing. They can live without remorse, also having a lighter impact on the environment on this fragile earth and tasting healthy food which is also tasty.
From Calabria to Monza, from your formation in California to the courses you held in Paris as a teacher: do you feel more like an explorer or a citizen of the world?
My roots are from a world with strong values that I hold in my heart. But I was born and raised in Brianza, a place that has definitely formed me on a working level, but which I always felt a little “confining”. I consider myself both an explorer and a citizen of the world, because every trip will leave something which becomes part of your life forever… a look, the aroma of an unknown spice, a new friendship, dialects and cooking traditions. I can’t stand still in the one place for too much time, travelling is at the base of my happiness.
I appreciate a lot the fact that you propose an “easy” cuisine, with ingredients which are easy to acquire nearby, distancing yourself from the concept of a cuisine which to some might seem difficult, of a certain niche and requiring research. We can say that your cooking is the revisitation, in vegan theme, of traditional dishes: is there any particular dish that ties you to emotions or a memory?
This has been my principal from the start and always will be! My working path in vegan cooking comes from revisiting traditional dishes from Calabria of my mother and grandmother… a nice challenge! Buti if I’m still here, I’ve defintiely done something well. I started cooking from very young, curious about all of these women who passed hours cooking dishes, each one better than the last. So I have lots of infantile memories tied to food, but that to which I am most tied is definitely the tomato sauce we made each Summer, waking up at dawn and finishing in the evening. It’s not really a dish but from that sauce we got a Wintertime rich with happiness, feelings and goodness in all the dishes and recipes that my mother cooked.
Do you think it’s important to base yourself on a well known gastronomical culture such as that Italian, giving a new input (vegetable one), to best arrive at a large number of people?
Personally I think that the Italian cuisine is the best in the world. Rich with flavours, traditions and recipes for all taste buds. Also as a base, but few notice, in all regions there are already vegetarian or even vegan dishes! So, uniting tradition and vegetable innovation, delicious dishes can be created, amazing a lot of people.
If I gave you a ticket to go anywhere you wanted, where would that be? And once arrived at your destination what would you like to cook and for whom?
Good question! The places I’d like to visit are so many but I would say Madagascar. Migration and contamination influences in this country are really very interesting, apart from the beauty of the place and the species of animals, it has a really unique biodiversity. I’d cook for the children, who are always curious and eager to eat and having so many coconut plants… I’d let them try my “Tartufini”. Delicious sweets made with chocolate, dried fruit and obviously coconut, which I adore!
What is the first thing you will do when the pandemic is over?
Obviously a super holiday!
Leave us your social references so we can always follow you!
FACEBOOK:
www.facebook.com/LaStellaVegan
INSTAGRAM:
@lastellavegan
SITE:
EMAIL:
lastellavegan@gmail.com
BIO
