A Taste of Latin Vegan Cooking with Terry Romero
In her new book, "Viva Vegan!", Terry successfully provides the vegan world with Latin-based vegan recipes. The naturally-fresh nature of some Latin recipes greatly aid in her delicious new creations. Viva Vegan! is one of Terry’s four vegan cookbooks and is the first to be completely based on Latin cooking. Terry is currently working on a few projects but had the opportunity to answer a few questions for us.
BOYT: I would love to know about your background and what inspired you to become a chef and furthermore, a vegan chef?
Terry Romero: I’ve been playing with food and avoiding animal products for a long time now. Since I was a an early teen, I was active in cooking my healthy recipes. I taught myself how to cook and then later around 16 I became a vegetarian. I don’t really have a pinnacle moment that set me off. I had a few friends that were vegetarian but in the mid 80s it was not popular or encouraged in the suburbs. We bonded over being vegetarian in the way kids outside of the norm do. Later on in my first year in college, I went to school for graphic design and I also did a brief stint in a local cooking school to further hone my chef skills and to get a small taste of restaurant work.
Soon after I moved to New York City in the mid 1990s, I met loads more vegetarians and vegans and became increasingly interested in cooking vegan recipes. I worked for a short while at a (now long gone) vegan restaurant. Even after I left that to pursue work in graphic design, I continued to cook at home and taught myself whatever I could in my spare time. I had met Isa Chandra Moskowitz in my early years in NYC through the punk scene and in the early 2000s she asked me if I wanted to help her do a vegan cooking show on Brooklyn Public Access. I said, “Hell yes,” and The Post Punk Kitchen was born. After the show eventually folded we shifted into working on cookbooks together and after years of mega-hits like Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World and Veganomicon, here I am with my first solo book, Viva Vegan! There you have it, my life history in a peanut shell.
BOYT: Do you find that it is difficult to cook Latin food that is completely vegan?
Terry Romero: No problemo really. When I think of Latin food what comes to mind first are tomatoes, corn, black beans, pintos, cilantro, plantains, rice, cumin, the constellation of chili peppers and so many more vegetables, fruits, grains, herbs and spices. All of these things together spell out flavors and textures that are unmistakably Latin and that also happen to be automatically vegan! The more challenging things to “veganize” are dairy-based items, but I make a mean dairy and egg-free flan that many friends prefer over the non-vegan version.
BOYT: What are three of your favorite ingredients that you love to cook with?
Terry Romero: Just three?! My favorite vegan ingredients are coconut milk, olive oil and pumpkin. All three can be used in savory and sweet recipes from soups to breads to desserts and can be pantry staples year round. Pumpkin has an amazing range of flexibility, available fresh or canned.
BOYT: Are there any vegan chefs that inspire you?
Terry Romero: Not necessarily vegan, but amazing are Madhur Jaffrey’s classic "World of the East Vegetarian Cooking," and old-school Kathy Hoshijo’s Kathy Cooks have been on my bookshelf since I was a teen.
BOYT: What is one thing you have learned about cooking since becoming a vegan chef? What has been your greatest moment of inspiration?
Terry Romero: My aim is to not make versions of every recipe out there, but instead, draw on the flavor and character of certain foods and apply them to new vegan creations. The most inspiring things are when I hear people tell me their own stories about how a certain recipe helped them get excited about vegan cooking or maintaining a vegan lifestyle.
BOYT: We absolutely love your new cookbook, "Viva Vegan!" Please tell our readers about it. What is your favorite recipe in the cookbook?
Terry Romero: Why thank you! Viva Vegan! is a big, fat collection of vegan recipes inspired by Latin cuisine from all over Central and South America. It has meat, dairy and egg free takes on empanadas, soups and stews, salads, tamales, enchiladas, beans and rice, fresh salsas and cooked sauces and also desserts like churros, bread puddings, arroz con leche and even drinks. There is a small windfall of information about ingredients (both Latin and vegan ingredients that may be unfamiliar). I chat about cooking utensils and techniques and there is even a shopping list for those times you’re in an exciting ethnic or natural grocer and need to remember what to stock up on.
I really can’t decide which vegan recipe is my favorite, but I made a flan again today before this interview so yes, the vanilla coconut flan is going to be my favorite recipe right this second.
BOYT: In your opinion, what are the top five essentials every chef should have in their kitchen?
Terry Romero: A cast iron skillet, a decently sharp chef’s knife, a giant bottle of olive oil, a well-stocked spice cabinet and someone to clean the kitchen when you’re done. 
BOYT: What is the best advice you can you offer our readers as they cook at home?
Terry Romero: Have a stack of take out menus handy! Just kidding! Well it’s okay to eat out too but planning your shopping trip and setting aside at least one night a week just for cooking will make the experience more enjoyable and productive.
BOYT: What culinary projects are you currently working on?
Terry Romero: I’ll be participating in “Vegan Paris Day” in Paris of course this November. More ethnic cooking and future books! More collaborative projects for next year! And a secret league of vegan culinary scientist and I are brewing up edible mayhem just for fun.
BOYT: Please tell our readers something they would be surprised to know about you.
Terry Romero: I’m a big comic book and game nerd. I secretly, okay maybe that’s too strong, more like disdain most salad bars. I love drinking cold-brewed chicory coffee and adore cooking with beer!
About Terry Romero
Terry Hope Romero is co-author of bestselling books Veganomicon, Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. Her first solo cookbook of Viva Vegan! was released in the spring of 2010. She contributes to VegNews' “Hot Urban Eats” column and has hosted the public access/podcast vegan cooking show the Post Punk Kitchen. Terry lives, cooks and eats in NYC.