John Awen

John told us about his motivation for becoming vegan and how it sparked a love for cooking.

"After having a small holding in Somerset for 2 years where I raised animals for the meat industry, and killed many myself, I found it very traumatic and decided that I had no right to be doing it.

"When I started, I mainly ate beans and salad as this is what I understood as being vegan foods because they were easily available and you knew when you ate out there would be the option of Jacket potato with beans or a salad. Realising that there must be more to it than this, I enrolled on a vegan nutrition course, became a qualified nutritionist and found a hidden talent and passion for plant-based cooking.

"Having been vegan for over 7 years now the biggest change over time has been a move from a lot of quick and easy heavily processed vegan foods to more meals prepared at home from scratch. Meals vary from day to day depending upon work commitments, but they generally include a lot of wholefood plant based ingredients."