“When I Discovered The Cruelty Of Meat, I Decided To Leave It”

There are more than 100,000 Lechus (this is how Míriam Fabà calls her community) who visit this chef in her different channels to discover the healthy and easy recipes that she proposes to them. And it is that being vegetarian and / or vegan, does not have to be boring. But, not only that, he also teaches cooking courses. Do you want to know a little more about this passionate about cooking? Keep reading!

– Many know you as “the vegan chef”, but who was Míriam before identifying with this philosophy of life?
-Before I was trained in vegan and raw vegan cooking, I was a prison exam student. I graduated in Criminology and as a hobby I decided to start Veganeando.com. I have always been a fan of cooking and when I discovered the 100% vegetable world, I wanted to enter it, without waiting for everything that has meant afterwards.

– Do you remember the moment when you decided to stop consuming foods of animal origin?
–Perfectly, almost 13 years ago, when I began to wonder where everything I was eating came from. Upon discovering the cruelty of meat, I decided to put it aside and look for alternatives.

–How did your environment react? Does anyone else share these habits?
-At first they were surprised and worried because, at that time, there was not as much information as now, but today there are many people in my environment who have joined the change, and those who have not taken the definitive step, they consume far fewer animals than before.

–We have a very important gastronomic culture and we accompany any celebration with succulent dishes. What are the keys to surviving these moments?
–A key point is to bring food for oneself and so that they can try the rest since, in general, we always want from the other person’s plate and more when it is so different.

I learned this by staying hungry, now I always carry a double ration.

– In any of those moments, have you made inappropriate comments? How have you responded?
–Fortunately I surround myself with people who respect me, understand me and even share the same values ​​as me. But in case of unpleasant comments, my strategy is to breathe, smile, thank the question and respond politely, if I see the person willing to have an adult conversation or, if what he wants is to bother, I tell him that I prefer not to go into that .

–Is it still a challenge to be vegan in our society?
– Acting differently in general is already a challenge, especially if we talk about 100% vegetable food in a society that is still too carnivorous.
Although the truth is that the boom is obvious and, for me, it is already unstoppable.

–What do you think about the adaptation of the world of catering to the needs of vegetarians, vegans …?
-I think it’s wonderful. Today there is a lot of variety to choose from. In addition, a large part of conventional restaurants are adding vegetable options to their menus and, if they do not have them, without problem they adapt several dishes (even if they do not compose a balanced menu, that is another matter).

–Was it always clear to you that you wanted to be a chef?
-Not at all, what I was clear when I started with Veganeando was that I wanted to bring veganism closer to the general population, reach people who never imagined enjoying a vegan dish and, at the same time, bring freshness and novelty to people already vegans .

All this I have achieved thanks to my training as a chef, among others.

– What do you like the most about your profession?
–The variety of tasks that I perform. By dedicating myself to my own project, mainly digital but also face-to-face, I am in charge of very different actions throughout my working day. For example, I can start the day answering e-mails , then create new recipes, take photos, transcribe them … I can also prepare a video to publish on YouTube, write the Lechunews, teach online classes , a face-to-face workshop … And while all this is happening, I’m uploading stories to Instagram and Facebook.

–Being an influencer is fashionable and you are considered one of them, in your case in the field of veganism. Do you agree with this label? As you take?
– Some time ago I stopped worrying about how people identify me but I understand that, by having a presence on social networks and influencing the decisions of others, I have been awarded this label. Even so, my work goes much further.

– Do you think it has more advantages or disadvantages?
– I do not see that it affects positively or negatively, it depends on the importance of each person. Just as some call me YouTuber, for uploading videos to YouTube, others call me a content creator for developing recipes for other brands … For me, these are words that define a part of my day-to-day life.

–Any nutritional advice for our readers?
–Undoubtedly, the best advice I can give you is to go to a dietitian-nutritionist, whether you want to take the step towards a 100% vegetable diet (look for one with updated training), or if you want to continue eating animals, since in general we eat very badly and our health is in it.

–To finish, and before asking you to answer our mini-test, what does Míriam Fabà dream of on a professional level?
–Well, I am a few months away from making one of the first dreams I had when creating Veganeando come true: to release a Caprichosa Vegan Cookbook!