Location: Across the Street from Reggie Lewis Center
The Speaker Auditorium is in the Media Arts Center, which is the first building at the big intersection across the street from the Reggie Lewis Center. Enter the Media Arts Center from the courtyard in the rear. Our Speaker Auditorium is a large theater with raised seating for great views, comfy padded seats, a beautiful stage, and wheelchair access. See detailed map.
- Authors will do book signings in the lobby as you exit the auditorium following their presentations.
- Tasting samples of the recipes taught in the food demos will be available in the lobby as you exit the auditorium following the demos. (Food is not allowed in the auditorium.)
All presentations on both Saturday and Sunday are free!
SATURDAY
Saturday 11:15 — Food Demo: Incredible Vegan Ice Cream
Deena Jalal, Founder/Owner, FoMu
Deena Jalal is the founder and owner of FoMu, a plant-based local ice cream company with shops in Allston, Jamaica Plain, South End, and Fenway, and distribution to stores along the East Coast.
Her new cookbook, Incredible Vegan Ice Cream: Decadent, All-Natural Flavors Made with Coconut Milk, demonstrates how you can make creamy, inventive desserts in your own kitchen using a basic ice cream machine and natural, all-plant ingredients and freshly-ground spices. You will find recipes, and the stories behind them, of some of FoMu’s most popular flavors like Peanut Butter Mud Pie, Rockier Road, Matcha White Chocolate, and Avocado Lime, as well as Blueberry Shortbread, and FoMu’s cult classic Rosewater Saffron.
Deena is a graduate of Smith College, and has an MBA and a background in marketing. She always had entrepreneurship in her blood, and with her husband, wanted to build a community-oriented small business with a conscience. Since opening their first ice cream shop in 2012, they have had three little boys, who are integrated into their work lives, and have expanded to four ice cream shops and bakeries with high standards for being earth-friendly in ingredients, paper-ware and containers.
In this class, Deena will teach how to make ice cream from scratch and 100% plant ingredients that is full of flavor and has a creamy smooth, thick texture.
Tasting samples and book signing will be in the lobby following the class.
Saturday 12:00 — VEGANALI: A Vegan Expedition to Ascend Denali — North America’s Highest Peak
David Ding and Enrico Calvanese, Adventurers
In June 2019, three adventurers made the first vegan ascent of Denali in Alaska, the highest point in North America, the first ascent of Denali in which no animal-based products for gear and food were used.
Speaker David Ding is an Adventurer with the Harvard Mountaineering Club, and a Protein Engineer at Harvard Medical School. Fellow climber and speaker Enrico Calvanese is an Adventurer with the Harvard Mountaineering Club, and a Development Economist at Harvard Kennedy School. Also on the adventure was Carlo Alberto Amadei, who is pursuing a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering at Harvard.
David and Enrico will talk of their ascent to the Denali summit, 20,310 feet above sea level, using exclusively food and equipment that was free of all animal products. They will discuss how what we eat matters, since the energy consumed and greenhouse gasses emitted by food production vary vastly with different foods.
Veganali is a short documentary capturing the first vegan ascent of the highest point of North America, Denali. The mission is to communicate the scientific consensus calling for a radical change in our food system and to empower viewers to make informed decisions about their food consumption.
In 2015 the mountain’s name was restored to Denali, its name in the indigenous Athabascan language, after having been renamed Mt. McKinley in 1896.
Saturday 1:00 — How our Destinies With Animals are Shared
Aysha Akhtar, MD, MPH
Aysha Akhtar, MD, MPH, is a double-board certified neurologist and preventive medicine specialist and a public health specialist. She is Deputy Director of the U.S. Army Traumatic Brain Injury Program, and serves as Commander in the US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. Dr. Akhtar is a Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics.
Dr. Akhtar is the author of the new book, Our Symphony With Animals: On Health, Empathy and Our Shared Destinies. Combining medicine, social sciences, and stories, her book explores how deeply the well-being of humans and animals are entwined, and what happens when we both break and forge bonds with animals. She demonstrates how humans are neurologically designed to empathize with animals, and how violence against them goes against our nature. In equal measure, the love and friendship we give to other species biologically reverberates back to us.
The book shows how humanity’s compassion for animals is the next step in our species’ moral evolution and a vital component of our own health.
Book signing will be in the lobby following the class.
Saturday 2:00 — Crafting the Future of Food
Matthew Kenney, Celebrity Chef, Cookbook Author, Educator, Vegan Entrepreneur
Followed by Q & A with Juliet Pennington, Boston Globe
Matthew Kenney is one of the world’s leading chefs at the forefront of plant-based cuisine, an author of 12 cookbooks and a best-selling memoir, a culinary educator and CEO of Matthew Kenney Cuisine, as well as the Matthew Kenney Culinary Academy (now Plantlab Culinary) a plant-based education business offering courses in eight cities worldwide as well as online.
Kenney has 18 restaurants currently operating in the U.S., Europe, South America, Australia, and the Middle East, including PLANT CITY in Providence RI, a 10,000 sq.ft. food hall of restaurants and a marketplace. The MKC group currently has 15 plant-based restaurants under construction throughout the U.S., Costa Rica, Europe and the Middle East, all to open in the coming year, including Double Zero to open on Newbury Street in Boston this fall. Plantmade Foods, a line of frozen meals featuring MKC recipes, debuted at Expo West 2019.
Born in Connecticut and growing up on the coast of Maine, Kenney developed a relationship with nature and the outdoors. After graduating from the University of Maine he attended the acclaimed French Culinary Institute, then worked at various high-profile restaurants in New York City, followed by opening several of his own while earning award recognition.
In 2004, Kenney shifted his focus to vegetables. His passion for yoga, wellness, and animals influenced his decision. That year, Kenney and partners opened the acclaimed Pure Food and Wine in New York City. In 2006 he left to launch his own lifestyle company and continue writing books on plant-based cuisine.
In 2012 Kenney became the Founder and CEO of Plantlab, a California-based lifestyle company offering plant-based services and products in the fields of hospitality, education, and media. Their Pure Chefs Worldwide specializes in private chef placement for athletes, models, and entertainers.
Kenney has given two TEDx talks and has been featured in media outlets including Vogue Magazine’s “Chef Matthew Kenney on the Plant-Based Revolution Coming Soon to a City Near You” and Forbes Magazine’s “Meet the Man Building A Plant-Based Food Empire.”
Saturday 3:00 — 45 Years of Activism Protecting Marine Wildlife and the Oceans
Captain Paul Watson, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
Captain Paul Watson is a marine wildlife conservation and environmental activist. Watson was one of the founding members and directors of Greenpeace. In 1977, he left Greenpeace and founded the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, whose mission is to end the destruction of habitat and slaughter of marine wildlife to conserve and protect ecosystems and species. They investigate, document, and take action when necessary to expose and confront illegal activities on the high seas.
Captain Watson has served as Master and Commander on seven different Sea Shepherd ships since 1978. He has been the subject of four documentaries, and alongside his crew he has starred in seven seasons of Animal Planet’s television series Whale Wars.
Captain Watson has been awarded many honors for his dedication to protecting the oceans and marine animals. He received the Genesis Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1998, was named as one of the Top 20 Environmental Heroes of the 20th Century by Time Magazine in 2000, and was inducted into the U.S. Animal Rights Hall of Fame in Washington D.C. in 2002. He was awarded the Amazon Peace Prize by the president of Ecuador in 2007. In 2008, Watson was named by the British newspaper The Guardian as one of its “50 people who could save the planet.” In 2012, Captain Watson became only the second person after Captain Jacques Cousteau to be awarded the Jules Verne Award, dedicated to environmentalists and adventurers. In 2013, Watson was portrayed during a 60 Minutes episode as contributing to the return of the Humpback whale populations in the South Pacific.
Watson was born in Toronto and as a child was a member of the Kindness Club, which he has credited with teaching him to respect and defend animals. For a time he was in the Canadian Coast Guard. He has authored several books, and practices a vegan lifestyle.
Saturday 4:00 — Diets & Health: How Plant-based Diets Improve Human Health and Longevity
Milton Mills, MD
Milton Mills, MD, earned his medical degree at Stanford University School of Medicine, where he was student body president and editor-in-chief and managing editor of the Stanford Medical School newspaper. He completed an Internal Medicine residency at Georgetown University Hospital. He has published several research journal articles dealing with racial bias in federal nutrition policy. He frequently donates his time practicing at free medical clinics, and travels widely speaking at hospitals, conferences, and community centers. He was featured in the recent film What the Health, and will appear in the upcoming film The Silent Vegan.
Dr. Mills practices urgent care medicine in the Washington DC area, specializing in internal medicine and HIV disease, and in the relationship between nutrition and chronic diseases.
He served previously as Associate Director of Preventive Medicine and as a member of the National Advisory Board for Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM). He has been a major contributor to position papers presented by PCRM to the United States Department of Agriculture regarding Dietary Guidelines for Americans, and has been the lead plaintiff in PCRM’s class action lawsuit that asks for warning labels on milk.
A major focus of Dr. Mills’ patient advisement and his lecturing is the use of nutritional measures to reduce the risk of major chronic diseases. In today’s talk, Dr. Mills will discuss major chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and certain cancers, and how plant-based foods can be used to treat, reverse, or reduce risk of getting them.
Saturday 5:00 — Food Demo: French Patisserie
Clarisse Flon, Head Chef, Café Forty One, London
Clarisse Flon opened the first-ever vegan patisserie in London, Café Forty One, in the luxury boutique hotel La Suite West near Hyde Park in the heart of London. Serving entirely plant-based breakfast, lunch, and full Afternoon Tea, the menu includes such items as mushroom bourguignon pie and mash, and ‘smoked salmon’ made from seaweed, miso and liquid smoke-infused carrot, and of course her gorgeous vegan French delicacies like Chocolate & Praliné Millefeuille and Almond Crème Brûlée.
Refining French dishes and patisserie to use all plant ingredients took years of testing and development, which Clarisse continues daily. As Head Chef, her influence has extended beyond the restaurant, and the hotel has gone fully cruelty-free.
Clarisse Flon grew up in a small town high in the French Alps in a family of brilliant home cooks. She went on to study art, get certified in French patisserie, and work in many restaurants and luxury establishments. She became vegan in 2013, and her interest turned to developing vegan patisserie and savory recipes from classical French recipes, which she will teach in this class, with tastings.
Tasting samples will be in the lobby following the class.
SUNDAY
Sunday 11:15 — Food Demo: Loaded Baked Potato Soup
Chef Dustin Harder, The Vegan Roadie
Dustin Harder is the host and creator of the original vegan travel culinary series, The Vegan Roadie. When not traveling, he works as a personal chef, recipe developer, and culinary instructor in New York City. Dustin is a graduate of the Natural Gourmet Institute, and has been featured in such publications as Eating Well, VegNews, Vegan Lifestyle Magazine, and Paste Magazine.
Dustin’s first book, The Simply Vegan Cookbook, provides healthful, balanced vegan meals using easy-to-find, affordable ingredients. It was dubbed by Forbes magazine as “Best Vegan Cookbook.”
His new cookbook, Epic Vegan, starts with basic and easy recipes, and then builds epic creations combining easy recipes to make Instagram-worthy creations. Ranging from veganized fast food favorites to originals like the Bacon Cinnamon Roll Peanut Butter Burger, Festive Cheesy Bread, Everything Buffalo Cauliflower Wings, Churro Cup Sundaes and Crab Rangoon Pizza, there is fun for everyone!
Dustin has traveled the country since 2003 as an actor in song and dance. Living la vida vegan since 2009, he now travels the miles educating curious minds about keeping it plant-strong.
Tasting samples and book signing will be in the lobby following the class.
Sunday 12:-00 — Integrating Personal and Planetary Health
Ryan D. Andrews, MS, MA, RD, RYT, CSCS
Ryan D. Andrews, MS, MA, RD, RYT, CSCS is a Registered Dietitian with two graduate degrees, one in nutrition and one in exercise physiology. He studied and trained at the University of Northern Colorado, Kent State University, Johns Hopkins Medicine, and Columbia University.
Ryan has been involved in fitness and nutrition since 1996 and was a nationally competitive bodybuilder. He is a strength and conditioning specialist and a registered yoga teacher.
Ryan has written hundreds of articles on nutrition, exercise, and health, authored Drop The Fat Act & Live Lean, A Guide to Plant-Based Eating, and coauthored The Essentials of Sport and Exercise Nutrition Certification Manual. He has appeared in Muscle & Fitness, Men’s Health, Rodale Organic Life, Greatist, Precision Nutrition, ABC News, Buzzfeed, and VegNews. Ryan currently teaches at SUNY Purchase and Silver Hill Hospital, and likes to spend time volunteering with organic farms and organizations that prevent food from being wasted.
Each year we are overcharging our ecological credit card, and our daily food choices play a major role in this accumulating debt. This presentation will cover the various ways in which our food choices influence the planet, and five dietary adjustments we can make to address the hurdle of feeding the world in a sustainable manner.
Sunday 1:00 — Use Your Plate to Protect Biodiversity
Irana W. Hawkins, PhD, MPH, RDN
Irana Hawkins is a vegan Registered Dietitian Nutritionist with a PhD from Simmons University. She earned a Masters in Public Heath with an emphasis on Health Promotion & Disease Prevention at The George Washington University, and is a graduate of U Mass Boston’s Program for Women in Politics and Government. Her scholarly work focuses on the intersection of plant food nutrition, planetary health, zero waste practices, sustainable food systems, and biodiversity preservation. She has authored dozens of publications, and edited the recently published book Promoting Biodiversity in Food Systems. She is also a Master Recycler/Composter and a Native Plant Steward.
Biodiversity refers to the variety of living species on Earth in all its forms, including plants, animals, bacteria, and fungi. The huge global biodiversity losses now becoming apparent represent a crisis equaling — or possibly surpassing — climate change.
We are connected to the pollinators, sea creatures, and soil microbes that cycle nutrients for our food — even if we don’t see them. Everything we need to live on this planet comes from biodiversity, yet we put millions of species of fauna and flora at risk of annihilation from our agricultural practices and excessive resource utilization.
This presentation will discuss the drivers of biodiversity loss and the importance of biodiversity in the Earth System, and will demonstrate how you can use your personal power every day to restore and protect biodiversity. From soil to seed and beyond, we can positively impact the fate of the living beings and living systems of this planet with biodiversity-friendly lifestyle behaviors that radiate from your plate.
Book signing will be in the lobby following the class.
Dr. Hawkins will staff our Ask the Vegan Registered Dietitian table in the Upper Exhibitor Room on Floor 2 of the Reggie Lewis Center. Her hours will be Saturday 4-6 PM and Sunday 10:30 AM-12 Noon.
Sunday 2:00 — Chemistry for Understanding Nutrition: Plant Protein Versus Animal Protein
Milton Mills, MD
Milton Mills, MD, earned his medical degree at Stanford University School of Medicine, where he was student body president and editor-in-chief and managing editor of the Stanford Medical School newspaper. He completed an Internal Medicine residency at Georgetown University Hospital. He has published several research journal articles dealing with racial bias in federal nutrition policy. He frequently donates his time practicing at free medical clinics, and travels widely speaking at hospitals, conferences, and community centers. He was featured in the recent film What the Health, and will appear in the upcoming film The Silent Vegan.
Dr. Mills practices urgent care medicine in the Washington DC area, specializing in internal medicine and HIV disease, and in the relationship between nutrition and chronic diseases.
He served previously as Associate Director of Preventive Medicine and as a member of the National Advisory Board for Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM). He has been a major contributor to position papers presented by PCRM to the United States Department of Agriculture regarding Dietary Guidelines for Americans, and has been the lead plaintiff in PCRM’s class action lawsuit that asks for warning labels on milk.
A major focus of Dr. Mills’ patient advisement and his lecturing is the use of nutritional measures to reduce the risk of major chronic diseases. In today’s talk, Dr. Mills will discuss how plant protein compares to animal protein in its impact on our health and disease.
Sunday 3:00 — Food Demo: Cuban Smoky Sweet Sauce and Ginger Miso Sauce
Colin McCullough, Cookbook Author
Since Colin became vegan in 1995, he has been finding new ways to make healthy eating convenient and delicious, especially while raising two boys with healthy appetites. Colin teaches private and public cooking classes throughout New England, sharing his experience and recipes with people who want to incorporate more whole-food, plant-based meals for health, compassion, and the environment.
Learn to make simple, nutritious, delicious meals of a healthy sauce over a grain such as quinoa or brown rice. Sauces are one of the focuses of Colin’s new cookbook, with 30 different sauce recipes for a variety of grain bowls, which is normally what he has for dinner!
Tasting samples and book signing will be in the lobby following the class.
Archive
Food Fest Speaker Archive: See complete speakers lists going back to 2005.