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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us October 11, 2005 Chef spreads the virtue of veganism Ashland stop allows locals to experience Al Chase’s approach to food and life Vegan culinary arts chef Al Chase tops a brownie with scoops of frozen "chocolate peanut butter soy delicious" treat made in Eugene. In the foreground is a glass of carrot ginger oat cookie parfait made with frozen coconut milk. All photos by Denise Baratta | Ashland Daily Tidings By Ryan Pfeil Ashland Daily Tidings Chef Al Chase did not become a vegan overnight. Rather, it was an 18-year journey that ended in 1990 in Seattle. “I made a full commitment, and I haven’t looked back since,” Chase said. Fifteen years later, Chase, 47, has made quite a name for himself. He is the founder of the Institute for Culinary Awakening, formerly called Native Food. His most recent travels took him through Ashland on Oct. 2. He spoke at “Unity,” a new-age spiritual temple held in the Bellview Grange on Tolman Creek Road. He also served some of his food after the service. Chase grew up in the Hudson River Valley in upstate New York, very close to a large farming community. His mother, also a cook, always had him helping her in the kitchen, while his father, a truck driver, was often on the road. Still, Chase gives his father the most credit for starting him on his 18-year journey. When Chase was 12, his father had his first heart attack. “I saw him wheeled out of our home,” Chase said. “That obviously affected me very deeply.” Unable to return to work, Chase’s father purchased a small deli in Red Hook, N.Y. Chase also worked there. “My pop said if you want to be a chef, you always have food on the table, and you always provide for yourself,” Chase said. “I thought, ‘Wow, that makes sense.’” Chase left home in 1977 to pursue an education at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. He graduated two years later and worked in several culinary jobs in Connecticut and New York until 1984, when he moved out to San Francisco. There, he got a job as a pastry chef’s assistant and also worked at the Fairmont Hotel. Later, he worked at the French House in Stanford, Calif. After leaving the French House, he moved twice more. The first move took him to Maine — the second, back out to the Seattle area in 1989. By then, he had already gone off most animal products, only dabbling in the occasional seafood dish. He had also gone completely off dairy. Donna Benjamin plays a melody on her Native American flute in her Ashland garden. As part of the Institute for Culinary Awakening, Benjamin incorporates music into food preparation to bring harmony and wholeness into the process. In 1990, he made his final commitment to the vegan lifestyle. In 1991, he started the Native Gourmet. Chase noticed that more and more, he was becoming as much of a teacher as he was a chef. “Inevitably, a lot of [these people] would ask me how to cook healthy,” Chase said. Because of the sheer volume of these questions, Chase’s Native Gourmet became the Institute for Culinary Awakening in 1993. In 1999, Chase went out on the road again. He ended up in Santa Fe, N.M., where he would meet his wife, Donna Benjamin. Two years later, while making the final preparations for his trip to the American Culinary Federation Forum in Nashville, Tenn., a mutual business partner gave Chase Benjamin’s phone number, in the hopes that they could share a booth together at the event. Chase called her, and what started as business talk became much more. “I got off the phone and said to myself, ‘Now I’m in trouble,’” Chase said. Benjamin, also 47, used to work in New York City. Her transformation to the vegan lifestyle was a process as well, beginning in 1983. “I noticed when I embraced slowing down, I felt better,” Benjamin said. Benjamin is now Chase’s marketing director. The Institute for Culinary Awakening now offers consultations and custom training. Chase has taught classes at his alma mater, as well as the California Culinary Academy and the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, N.Y. He also coaches private businesses and professional chefs on cooking plant-based cuisine. “It’s a work of art to see Al cook,” Benjamin said. “It’s a rhythm.” Chase and Benjamin encourage everyone they share their cooking with to grow as much of their own food as they can. They also hope to continue affecting people’s lives in terms of how they eat. “Eight out of 10 major diseases in this country are connected to what we eat,” Chase said. “[That’s] not from broccoli or tofu.” For more information, visit www.chefal.org, or call (541) 686-8443 to schedule an in-house training session. Chase drizzles a sauce made of figs , chili, garlic and flax oil on a vegetarian burrito wrapped in collard leaves. 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