Vegan Crunk on Vegan Corner!

Last week, I was invited to be a guest on The Chris Vernon Show — a hugely popular, radio show on the Memphis Grizzlies (our NBA team). As you might expect, most of the show's content is focused on basketball. But they just happen to have a weekly segment called Vegan Corner!

One of the show's hosts, Alexis Morgan, is vegan, and she uses her Vegan Corner segment to highlight local vegan options and host vegan guests. She invited me on to talk about my blog and cookbook, Cookin' Crunk. But I also used this as a chance to promote our cafe at Crosstown Arts, which is plant-based (and mostly vegan!).



Each week, the Vegan Corner guest is asked to bring a dish to share on-air. Last week, my friend Melissa was on the show, and she brought her famous spinach dip. It was a huge hit, so she was a tough act to follow!

I originally suggested I could bring my Tofu Deviled Eggs from Cookin' Crunk, which are made with tofu "egg whites" and a tofu/white bean/black salt yellow filling. But at the last minute, I decided to also bring a selection of vegan pastries baked by Ali in our cafe at Crosstown Arts (where I work in communications).

On air, the hosts tried my tofu deviled eggs, plus Ali's hummingbird cake (banana-pineapple cake with cultured cashew cream cheese frosting), chocolate-raspberry twist danish, berry crumble oat bar, and spiced pineapple hand pie. Everyone loved all of the pastries (especially the hummingbird cake, which they all rated a 10!). And most people liked my tofu deviled eggs, but host Chris Vernon doesn't really like tofu. So I could tell it wasn't his fave, but he was gracious about it! Alexis is the only one on the show who is vegan, so this is great exposure for the hosts (and all those NBA fans who listen!).

We also talked about Crosstown Arts' larger mission to cultivate the creative community in Memphis and our programs and spaces. Such a cool opportunity!!