February
2002
Can
You Believe It’s Vegan?
The Satya Interview with
Rebecca Steinmetz
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Rebecca Steinmetz founded
Desserts by Rebecca, a one-woman vegan bakery, almost a year ago. She’s been an avid baker for over 12 years. Frustrated by
the vegan sweets she found in stores, Rebecca experimented with all
of her favorite non-vegan recipes, altering them so that she could enjoy
fudge, cakes, pies, cookies, muffins, and candies. Her business slogan
is “I can’t believe it’s vegan”—and it’s
true. Her desserts are just as rich and decadent as anything non-vegan.
She bakes and sells her goodies at Chicago’s Pick Me Up Cafe and
also sells them online. Catherine Clyne asked Rebecca about how she
got started and what influences her baking.
When/why did you become vegan?
I went vegetarian in high school after working for a non-profit agency
whose executive director was vegetarian and her granddaughter was being
raised vegan. That, along with a high school friend who first introduced
me to the vegan lifestyle, inspired me to quit eating meat. At that
point in time I thought I could never become vegan because I loved
cheese
too much! But about a year and a half ago after much thought, practice
cooking vegan meals and a defunct plan to “slowly ease into veganism
over a year or two,” I decided one night that it would be the
night to go vegan and turned down a slice of cheese pizza.
My partner and I adopted the vegan lifestyle at the same time and kept
each other motivated since both of us lived with meat-eating roommates.
I went vegan initially for health reasons; I read so much research
about
the negative effects of dairy on women and all of the hormones that
are used in dairy cows that I couldn’t stand the thought of those
hormones entering my body. I also couldn’t stand the thought of
supporting an industry that subjected cows and other animals to such
inhumane treatment. I am not completely against the idea of eating animals
for food, but I believe that there should be respect for those animals,
a reverence for them and they should be treated kindly while alive and
humanely killed. I do not see that kind of respect or reverence in the
meat industry; I see cruelty, greed that outweighs concern for living
creatures, and gluttony—only eating meat because “it tastes
good”—with no further thought of the chain effect of that
action. I am currently a 21 year-old Women’s Studies student at
DePaul University in Chicago. And the deeper into my women’s studies
classes I went, the more I saw a connection between my feminist values
and my vegan values.
What were your favorite non-vegan sweets
and what did you not like about the vegan treats that were available?
My favorite non-vegan sweets were chewy chocolate chip cookies and
marshmallows. I still crave marshmallows from time to time—I heard that there
used to be vegan marshmallows but the company that made them went out
of business, sigh. I tried a lot of vegan sweets when I first went vegan;
my partner and I would jokingly call ourselves “junk-food vegans”
because we’d scan the grocery store to see if anything sweet just
happened to be vegan. Most cookies that were labeled vegan tasted dry
and cardboard-like to me. They sometimes had carob; rarely chocolate.
There is actually nothing inherently un-vegan about chocolate, but
still
I had trouble finding a dark chocolate that was vegan and tasted good.
Occasionally I’d find a good vegan cake, but they were always very
heavy and not very sweet. I began to miss junk food-type desserts—indulgences
from my pre-vegan lifestyle. Frustrated with what I found in stores
and vegan restaurants, I experimented with substitutions in my favorite
old recipes with wonderful results. I made everything from chocolate
chip and peanut butter cookies to pumpkin spice bars and fudge. And
to my surprise, a favorite cake recipe that I used to make when I was
in elementary school was already vegan! It made the lightest, fluffiest,
moistest vegan chocolate cake I had ever tasted. I also spun variations
like a carob cake and a lemon poppy seed cake off of that recipe. Other
ones, such as my cheesecake and some of my candy, I just experimented
with until I got a result I liked.
I had my six meat-eating roommates taste test for me; if it got their
seal of approval, then I knew it would go over well with vegan folks.
And it was actually from my friends’ encouragement that I brought
samples of my desserts to a local restaurant with a vegan-friendly
menu,
but no vegan desserts. The owners of the restaurant loved my creations
and invited me to use their kitchen during the hours that the restaurant
was closed if I would supply them with vegan desserts to sell.
Does feminism play a role in your vegan
ethic and in your business?
Feminism definitely plays a role in my vegan ethic and in my business.
Looking back even before I knew what feminism was I was always questioning
our cultural norms about sex and gender and patriarchal rule. My education
has finally given me a vocabulary to express my experiences and what
I see in the world around me. I am very proud to be operating an all
women run (and one woman run!) business and especially one that has
a tie to feminism through its work. I feel that both women and animals
are often treated inhumanely in our culture, objectified, and controlled
to suit patriarchal desires.
I also read in Mary Pipher’s book Reviving Ophelia: Saving
the Selves of Adolescent Girls (Ballantine, 1995) that throughout
her work with troubled young women she has noticed that many who become
vegetarian do so because they identify with the voicelessness and vulnerability
of animals because they too feel that they do not have a voice in the
world and are vulnerable to violence. Identifying so personally with
animals, they cannot consciously eat meat. Women’s worlds are permeated
by violence. We face it walking down the street, at work and in our
own homes. I definitely see a connection with being against violence
and abuse of people and being against violence and abuse of animals—not
to mention the research that has shown links between men who killed
or abused animals in their childhood and those same men being far more
likely to commit acts of violence against women, such as sexual assault,
in adulthood.
And for me, feminism is much more than being against the oppression
of women. It’s not just one’s sex or gender identity that
is used to oppress; racism, classism, homophobia/heterosexism and ableism
are all used to oppress people and are all interlinked because one’s
identity is not merely one’s sex or gender. It’s a system
of oppressions. As bell hooks would say, it’s not just the patriarchy,
it’s the white supremacist capitalist patriarchy that’s oppressing
us. And I must add onto that, that the oppression of animals is not
something I can support either.
Do you see any characteristics that
are relatively unique to your customers (for example, very grateful
and happy vegans)?
Unfortunately I don’t see nearly as many of my customers as I would
like to because I do all of my baking when the restaurant is closed.
But the people who I do run into are all so happy to be getting dessert!
I got a chance to sell my desserts at EarthSave Chicago’s annual
Conference for Conscience Living a few months ago and I was delighted
by the reactions from people who bought them. There were lots of smiles,
excitement and questions. I’m always impressed by how knowledgeable
my customers are about food—there’s nothing like being vegan
to help you understand exactly what you’re eating.
People seem to have very emotional connections to food, and dessert
is one thing that always makes the vegans I know smile. Because I am
very conscious of food allergies and sensitivities and do special requests
for my customers, I run into some very grateful folks.
My favorite order was also my first shipped order, from a woman in
Boston who found my Web site through a search engine and was desperate
for
dessert that was dairy-free and soy-free. She had just given birth
and her new son was extremely sensitive to soy and dairy. He would
get so
sick he’d need to be hospitalized if he digested even a trace amount
of those products through her breast milk. I created new cakes and cookies
for her that were vegan and soy-free and sent a giant box of them to
her. A few days later I received the most thankful e-mail from her saying
how wonderful the desserts were and that it was fantastic to be able
to eat sweets again! I never quite thought I’d impact anyone through
baking cakes, but I’m continually surprised and inspired by my
customers.
Rebecca’s vegan goodies can be ordered online at www.vegan-desserts.com.
Contact: Rebecca@vegan-desserts.com.
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