Atlanta VegFest!!!

Yesterday, I showed you the dinner I ate at Cafe Sunflower on my first night in Atlanta. But tonight, I have pictures from the actual Atlanta VegFest event. Tomorrow, I'll show you everything else I ate during my stay.

This was the first-ever Atlanta VegFest, and I was thrilled to have been invited to do a cooking demo! I'd never been to Atlanta, and I'd never attended a VegFest (the only other one I know of in the South is  in New Orleans). So I was way super excited!

The event was held at Ambient Plus Studio, a loft-style photography studio with an abundance of natural light. When my mom and I walked in around 10:30 a.m., the place was already packed. And it had only been going on for 30 minutes! There were rows and rows of vendors offering free samples of all kinds of vegan deliciousness.

I immediately spotted my publisher peeps over at the Book Publishing Company table. They had a giant poster of my book cover, so I couldn't resist being a nerd and posing by it:

And Andrew and Liz from BPC were hard at work peddling books. They had all sorts of titles from classics like Tofu Cookery and the Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook to Miyoko's hot new Artisan Vegan Cheese cookbook:

My mom and I decided to walk around and try free samples and shop. One was the first tables we came to was for Dough Bakery/Gutenfleischers Deli, an Atlanta-based vegan bakery and deli (they have a vegan butcher, y'all!). I'll post more about this fab place tomorrow since we visited the actual bakery, but my first taste of their delicious treats were these vegan meats! There's roast beef, turkey, and ham!

As we made our way around, I noticed my favorite vegan potter Jeanette Zeis, the maker of VeganDish mugs, plates, bowls, and other ceramic kitchenware. I have several of her items already, and my mom bought me a couple more at her booth to put away as a Christmas gift for me:

You wouldn't believe how delicious these vegan dips by Judyfood were! Wow! Judy lives in Georgia, and she makes four flavors of delicious dip. They taste very Vegenaisey, but they don't actually contain Vegenaise. She makes her own blend using non-GMO canola oil, veggies, spices, and nuts:

I sampled a vegan scallop from Sophie's Kitchen:

And we got very generous sample scoops of Peanut Butter Gelato and Espresso Gelato from Revolution Gelatos. My mama raved about her PB gelato all weekend. She said it was her favorite thing she ate while in Atlanta:

After we filled up on samples, we watched Atlanta native/cookbook author Alicia Simpson (author of Quick & Easy Vegan Comfort Food and Quick & Easy Vegan Celebrations) talk about how to make vegan food lighter without sacrificing taste. Afterward, I bought her new book, Quick & Easy Low-Cal Vegan Comfort Food:

Next up, Terry Hope Romero showed us how to make Seitan Gyros with a cashew-based Greek sauce. Wow! The sample bite was soooooo delicious. Also, Terry is hilarious. During her demo, she actually forced someone in the audience to eat straight nooch. Anyway, I also bought her new book, Vegan Eats World:

Jenny Brown, founder of the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary was up next, but I had to miss most of her talk to prep for my own cooking demo, which started directly after her. I demonstrated how to make the Deviled Tofu Bites from Cookin' Crunk. I think this is a shot of me cheating and looking at my recipe:

And here are my lovely volunteers helping me fill a pastry bag with the "egg yolk" filling. They were so helpful! They even cleaned up my dishes while I signed cookbooks afterward!!!

I sold lots of cookbooks! And I met some amazing people ... including one guy who bought the book for someone named "Kyle" but he requested that I spell his name "Kale."

VegFest was a HUGE success! And the Atlanta vegans did such an amazing job keeping everything organized and on schedule. Here's Adrienne, who used her supreme organizational skills to manage the demo room:

I had a chance to chat with her more over dinner, and she is a truly amazing lady! Thanks Adrienne and Leigh and the rest of the VegFest folks!!!!