Gaz OakleyVegan 100: Over 100 Incredible Recipes from Avant-Garde Vegan

About

Tempted to try your hand at vegan food but don’t know where to start? Or even just to make meat-free Monday a regular thing? Long gone are the days of vegan food being dull and worthy: Vegan 100 is bold, vibrant and gorgeous. Going vegan was the best decision Gaz Oakley ever made.

Gaz, aka Avant-Garde Vegan, was once a meat eater and often didn’t feel well. Overnight, he decided to go vegan for the health benefits, for his love of animals and to do his part in looking after the planet. He found that, as a trained chef, it was surprisingly easy to get big tastes and colours into vegan dishes without compromise, and he also noticed an improvement in the way he felt. The emphasis in Gaz’s 100 amazing vegan recipes is primarily on FLAVOUR.

Writing my first cookbook was an unbelievable feeling. Vegan100 is filled with all the recipes I had created between the first day I went vegan up until the day I handed the book text in. I wanted to make sure there was something in there for everyone & packed with dishes that will appeal to non-vegans. If I get them interested & cooking my food, then it will be less people eating animals. I cook and style all the food for every single food picture that goes into my books. Simon Smith shoots the pictures and we have the most amazing time. Gaz did a big book tour at the end of 2018, travelling from Indonesia where he did cook demos, to Canada, America & back to the UK where he did a tour there.

"My tour across Canada, US & UK was completely full to capacity & cannot believe so many people turned up to hear me talk, see me cook, meet me & get their book signed.”

Gaz has also recently become executive chef at a London vegan burger restaurant, The Vurger Co. where he designs new burgers & dishes for their menu.
Gaz has big plans for 2020. He’s going to use his platform to continue trying to take veganism into the mainstream & showcase his other interests such as sustainability, fitness, mental health, travel, fashion & music.

Gaz has mentioned that when he reaches the milestone of 1 million YouTube subscribers, he will announce his first restaurant.

“I want to say a huge thank you to all of you that have supported me since I started doing this. Your kind messages and feedback make all the hard work worthwhile. To my incredible family thanks for letting me take over the kitchen, for looking out for me when times are tough & the constant love & support. I really want people to know that anything is possible. I never thought I would be in this position. If you put your mind to something you can do anything you desire. Discipline = Freedom. Your hard work now will one day pay off in the future. I’m going to keep on going on this journey for as long as possible, to help inspire as many people as I can to go vegan, for the animals."

About the Author:

Gaz Oakley is a 27-year-old chef, author & youtuber originally from Cardiff, Wales UK. Gaz has now completed over 11 seasons of recipe videos, has over 1.05 million subscribers based all around the world & his YouTube videos have a combined total of close to 40 million views.

In his early years, Gavin's first passion was rugby, but when he wasn’t playing sport, he was cooking with his dad, going through the hundreds of recipe books & watching chefs on TV. "I found cooking was an amazing outlet for my creativity. I struggled in school, particularly with maths & English. I was much better suited in classes like art & P.E where I could be creative. When I could choose a specialist subject at GCSE, I decided to take cooking. The teachers knew I had been cooking a while at home. I was bringing along my pasta machine from home and making fresh pasta, ravioli & tortellini the lot.. whilst my classmates were either messing around or struggling to make a ragu – it was fun being a top student for a change.”

Gaz, wanting to learn even more got his first part time chef’s job at just 15 years old at a local hotel restaurant. He had a goal to be the youngest chef in the country with a Michelin star. At 16, shortly after completing his GCSE’s, Gaz left school to go full time at the hotel restaurant. He recalls thriving in the kitchens, learning so much from the chefs around him & working lots of hours.

"YouTube was so tough in the early days. Firstly I didn’t like how I was on camera, I was so shy and secondly it’s was so expensive to produce the type of videos I wanted to put out and at the time I was broke. So, broke in fact, I filmed my first videos in an Airbnb I found (I didn’t tell the owner lol!). But I got through those tough times and now my YouTube has turned into something so brilliant, it’s now my pride and joy. Seeing the reaction to my videos & food is worth all the early struggles & is very similar to the amazing feeling I got when I would see a nice review of my food during my time in the professional kitchens. People tell me often that I inspired them to go vegan and that’s simply why I do what I do.”

Gaz released his debut cookbook #Vegan100 in January 2018. He celebrated the launch by doing a pop up 5 course dinner at London’s famous Harvey Nichols store. Which sold out within 30 minutes.

Vegan 100 is sold worldwide & translated into 5 different languages.