Show Notes:

Meet our online vegan cooking school My Brownble

Check out everything Alex and Cara have to offer in their restaurant, delivery, products and more on their website

Pre-order their cookbook Seed to Sprout Kitchen

Follow Seed to Sprout on Instagram @seedtosprout

I’m so thrilled to introduce you to our first restaurant owners and cookbook authors ever to be on the show! Their story is so inspiring. There is no question that starting a restaurant is capital R risky, stressful, scary and overwhelming, but what if it included the arrival of a hurricane two weeks later, then a pandemic, then the ebbs and flows of any business. How can you go from two friends who had a similar and separate dream to a partnership that takes you from cooking in a studio apartment, to pop ups to being showcased on the Food Network, YES! A fully plant-based restaurant made it all the way to Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. Then take this to creating products, then to writing your own cookbook.

Alex Mazzucca & Cara Duerr, the chefs, co-owners, and visionaries behind Seed to Sprout, have turned their passion for plant-based cuisine into one of the most celebrated brands on the Jersey Shore. What began as weekly pop-up dinners in 2011, quickly evolved into their restaurant Seed to Sprout — a must-visit destination for food lovers nationwide. Known for their inventive, flavor-forward dishes and welcoming atmosphere, their restaurant draws in both vegans and non-vegans alike. Their success has even caught the attention of Food Network's Guy Fieri, who featured them on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, praising their food as "delicious" and calling them true "pioneers" in the plant-based culinary scene.

Join us today in talking about what it was like to cook and share food for first responders and a community in need after hurricane Sandy, just two weeks after opening their doors for the first time. Alex and Cara share with great honesty about the hardships and the joys of opening your own restaurant, how sometimes you need to backtrack on an expansion to reconnect with the other things that are important to you, how you can stay true to your vision no matter what your accountant says. They talk about their incredible restaurant on the Jersey shore, Seed to Sprout, their connection to the community, their drool worthy dishes, how their customers include everything from the yoga crowd to business men to construction workers, all looking for a different food option that is both tasty and that feels so good. With Thanksgiving and the Holiday Season coming up, they were also here to talk about how to start approaching vegan Holiday cooking, they share amazing tips for amping up flavors, give us tons of basics for everything from delicious mains, to veganizing sides, wow-ing people with vegan desserts and of course, making the best stuffing and gravy that will have non-vegans reaching for seconds.

I hope you love my conversation with this dynamic and friendly duo, changing the vegan scene in New Jersey, and helping so many people along the way. A little warning before we begin, if you’re anything like me, susceptible to signage as Kirk from Gilmore Girls would say, you WILL get hungry.

Click play above to tune into my conversation with Alex and Cara, co-owners of Seed to Sprout and authors of the upcoming book Seed to Sprout Kitchen, or download wherever you get your podcasts.