Healthy vegan private chef was a junk food addict until his teens – now he has a kids’ plant-based cookbook out
- After his seizure while still a teenager, and surgery that left him needing to learn how to walk again, Anthony Thomas ditched junk food for a plant-based diet
- Fourteen years later, he is a private chef and has written a number of vegan cookery books including his latest, a children’s book of plant-based recipes
Anthony Thomas is a private chef in Washington who knows the power of healthy eating. He adopted a plant-based diet after a serious health scare 14 years ago. To share his insights, he has since self-published several cookbooks, the latest developed with his four-year-old daughter while the family was in quarantine during the coronavirus pandemic.
Called The Little Vegan Chef, the illustrated cookbook has simple recipes that children can make under adult supervision, and Thomas stresses the dishes do not appeal only to kids. Hummus, asparagus zucchini tacos, vegan Caesar dressing, and lemon Dijon vinaigrette are among the recipes.
“These are very short, precise recipes that are kid friendly, but you still need a parent supervising,” Thomas, 33, says.
Keen to promote the benefits of veganism to anyone with an interest, Thomas has good advice on how to transition to a plant-based diet. “I encourage all my clients to at least try it once. I had a young man go raw vegan just to try it out,” recalls Thomas. “He started in August 2019 [and] he felt so great seven days in, to this day he is still a vegan.”
Thomas’ own journey to a plant-based lifestyle began in 2006, when he was 19 years old. One morning, he had trouble waking up. His sister found him unresponsive and called for an ambulance. At the hospital Thomas learned he’d had a seizure.