“I wanted to make something bigger. Something better. Where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”

Meet Ella Nemova, the Founder and Chief Faux Gras-preneur of  The Regal Vegan, an artisan food company in Brooklyn focused on decadent vegan treats. Ella is a force to be reckoned with. Spend just a few hours with her and you immediately get swept up into her whirlwind of ideas and epiphanies about vegan food. Her opinions are fiery, and her suggestions eye-opening. All stemming from a mini-diet experiment that changed the way she ate forever. Before I knew it, I found myself picking apart my own diet, wondering why I didn’t talk about “feeling amazing” or “feeling energized” as often as she did. This is what I love about exposing myself to passionate individuals, the belief in what they do is so strong, you feel this pull become part of it. Like osmosis. And just being around Ella, I started to feel good already. Try it yourself sometime!

As Ella explained to me, “decadent and vegan are not usually used in the same sentence.” She wants to change that. Starting with her Faux Gras and Basilicotta vegan spreads, she wants to help satisfy our cravings for meat and dairy with alternatives that actually tasted rich – introduce food items that wouldn’t make you second guess a meat replacement. Enjoy her story! I hope it convinces you, not to stop eating meat entirely, but to peer into the food landscape and see what you’re missing. I’ve never had cardoons. Now I’d like to know what they taste like. Thanks Ella. Thanks for sharing the exciting possibilities of a vegan diet. The plant world awaits us all.

Thanks so much for watching food. curated.! You can find out where to pick up or buy Faux Gras online here. Have fun eating your vegetables!