"You went vegan? But you used to love food so much and were such a great cook!" I've heard variations of this statement from friends and family, and it surprised me to learn that by going vegan I apparently suddenly hated food and became a bad cook.

In actuality, going vegan opened up an entire universe of foods I never really cooked before, and it inspired me to play with flavors and textures in ways that I just didn't think of when I was an omnivore.