The Beginning

Hi, I’m Cameron Caley Michalak

Technical Director and Scenic Designer for Theatre. University Instructor. Husband. Dad. Artist. Vegan.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read even a little of this. By now, you may have noticed that decidedly missing from the list above is “Chef”… If you hadn’t noticed, you have now. 

Now you may be thinking, “Who is this guy then, and why is he delivering vegan cooking content/advice?”

I have no idea. What I do know is this. I love all the things in the list above, but I also LOVE cooking, and LOVE practicing a vegan lifestyle. 

The Backstory:

I grew up on a small family farm just outside Oberlin, Ohio helping to grow veggies, and raise enough livestock to feed our family (and to often auction at the County Fair). We raised chickens, pigs, steer, goats and the occasional duck or turkey. It was a great childhood filled with just enough mischief and lots and lots of meat raised as close to “the way it should be”. Hormone and Antibiotic-free, grass-fed, etc… 

Fast forward a few years. I attend Baldwin-Wallace College (now University) with a major in Theatre and a Minor in Studio Art. This is where I meet the girl I will fall in love with, move to NYC with after graduation, and eventually marry. While in NYC, I was lucky enough to freelance regularly in Technical Direction (TD), and Scenic Design, as well as land an acting gig Off-Broadway, all-the-while managing a few bars to pay the bills. I really miss bartending sometimes. This is where food, really good food, came onto my radar. I even began cooking in the kitchens on slow days fairly regularly to afford the cooks’ much needed days off. I really began enjoying being in the kitchen.

After a few years of the NYC life, it was time for us to explore other opportunities, I ended up landing a gig as the Assistant TD for the Cleveland Play House. So we ended up buying a house in Oberlin, Ohio and moving back home. We finally marry shortly after, and begin thinking about expanding our family. That was a bumpy road for us, and for health reasons my (among others, my wife ended up going vegan. This was a huge change for us, but for some reason an exciting one. It really (obviously) changed the way that we cook. I didn’t want to have to be making two separate meals all the time, so at home, I began eating vegan as well, and only eating meat when we went out to restaurants, or parties etc… After a few years of this, I began to notice discomfort then I ate certain things, namely things with dairy (sadly, especially ice cream)… 

Cue a research phase…

After reading many books, and watching a bunch of documentaries over the years, I stumble upon one that would cause a seismic shift in my thinking, and in my life. I was living as an 80% vegan mainly for convenience. Many people go vegan for the animals, but having grown up on a farm, that process of raising animals to eat, was very comfortable for me, and like I mentioned our animals were always highly respected and cared for (up until the end) so that part never really bothered me. Many of the books and movies tuned me into the way we raised animals was far from the norm. That made me sad. After reading THIS book, however, I was moved to action. It tuned me into something else, what I felt was even bigger. I had spent most of my life surrounded by food, in some form or another, whether it be current food, or eventual food, so I had thought about food, interacted with it, cultivated it, cooked it alot… but what never occurred to me though was the immense environmental impact of the way that we eat. That book was Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer. It convinced me to go 100% vegan, overnight. 

I won’t drone on boring you with anymore just yet, but that is essentially what brought me here today. I am currently working for Cleveland State University, as their TD, and have a very healthy freelance Scenic Design career. After a long battle with infertility issues, countless interventions, and several rounds of IVF, we have a gorgeous, brilliant and highly-spirited 3 year old, Ophelia Rose. I am also an MFA candidate at Goddard College in my third of five semesters (expected to graduate in July of 2022). This blog is my practicum, though something in me hopes it “has legs” and will live far beyond grad school. I guess a lot of that will depend on you.

I thank you for joining me in any part of that journey that you choose. It means the world to me. I hope something in here can help enhance your life in at least some small way. If it does, let me know. If it doesn’t let me know (especially if you know why).

The Mission:

My hope is that this site will contain recipes I’ve cultivated and cherished. Products I have come to love. Videos of how to make delicious meals (both long-form and short form). And lots of love. Please comment if you’ve made one of the recipes. What worked? What didn’t? What did you change because you didn’t have (or like) an ingredient? I wanna hear it all, and I’m sure others do too!

What’s with the title of the site?

Well, once I became full-time vegan, I began to notice many questions are VERY common go-to’s by those not practicing a vegan life. It didn’t seem to matter where people came from, how old they were, or what their education level was, there were many questions that kept on coming. Those that are vegan reading this, know exactly what those questions are. This blog will hopefully give you some help answering them for others. Those that are not vegan, I encourage to subscribe and continue to come back and interact with the blog. You never know, maybe you’ll have some of your questions answered too, as I hope to expose, and debunk the many lies we have been told (or have been led to believe) revolving around food, vegan-living, and perhaps most importantly the ecology of how and what we eat, and it’s devastating effect on the environment, and the impact it has had on our changing climate.