If you tuned into MuchMusic (now known as Much) back in the day, there’s a good chance you recognize Lauren Toyota‘s immutable confidence, charm and excitable voice. Not to mention, her signature bold front bangs when she stepped into the spotlight as a VJ.
Ever since, her career has been full steam ahead – and then it took an unexpected turn when in 2015, she launched her first YouTube channel, hot for food, which now boasts nearly 460,000 subscribers and over 38 million channel views.
Prior to becoming an expert in vegan living, recipe development, and digital content creation, Toyota was the host of MTV Canada’s After Degrassi. Now, she’s a bestselling author of two cookbooks: Vegan Comfort Classics: 101 Recipes To Feed Your Face and the recently released hot for food all day: easy recipes to level up your vegan meals.
Among other accolades, Toyota was named Canada’s Most Influential Vegan by IMPACT magazine in 2017, and it’s no wonder why. For as long as hot for food has been around, she’s made it her mission to let everyone know that eating vegan does not have to compromise the flavour or enjoyment of food.
Lauren Toyota pictured with a new hot for food all day recipe (Photo by Vanessa Heins)
This week on Let’s Talk About, STYLE Canada‘s Editor-in-Chief, Elise Gasbarrino, chats with Toyota about veganism. She explains how through hot for food, she focuses on meals that are typically not recognized as being vegan because they taste so flavourful and resemble animal-based classics.
The message? Eating a cruelty-free diet can still be filled with delicious, plant-based recipes, and hot for food all day is jam-packed with them. From mac and cheese to burgers to tacos and even cheesecake, Toyota shows you how to do it all.
And luckily for you, she’s sharing a recipe from her new book: Easy Brussel Sprouts Pasta*. According to Toyota, this “tried-and-true-go-to” is light, simple and bursting with colour from the fresh root vegetables. Bon appétit!
After you make the dish, be sure to tune into Elise and Lauren’s conversation on Let’s Talk About. Simply search for “Let’s Talk About” on any major streaming platform and for more information, head over to our podcast homepage, here.
*Reprinted from HOT FOR FOOD ALL DAY. Copyright © 2021 by Lauren Toyota. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.
Link to purchase: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/612427/hot-for-food-all-day-by-lauren-toyota/
