#322: Chef Tara Punzone and Gene Stone: Authentic Italian Food —Made 100% Vegan with Vegana Italiana
Chef Tara at Pura Vita - photo credit Heidi Calvert
In this episode, Rip sits down with Chef Tara Punzone, founder of Pura Vita—the first 100% plant-based Italian restaurant in the U.S.—and writer Gene Stone, co-author of Vegana Italiana. Together, they dive into the passion and purpose behind their brand-new cookbook, which transforms beloved Italian classics into bold, satisfying vegan dishes.
Tara shares her journey from growing up in a big Italian family in New York, where food and tradition were always at the center, to making the choice to go vegan at just twelve years old. Listeners will hear how she managed to honor her heritage without giving up the flavors she loved—proving that mozzarella, ricotta, ravioli, and meatballs can all be made deliciously plant-based.
The conversation also explores the collaboration with Gene Stone, the celebrated author behind many bestselling plant-based books, and how they brought together Tara’s culinary artistry with Gene’s storytelling to create a book that’s equal parts recipe collection, cultural history, and love letter to Italian food.
With tips for stocking your pantry, techniques for mastering vegan versions of Italian staples, and stories that connect food to family and community, this episode celebrates the joy of eating in a way that’s both compassionate and authentic.
Order Vegana Italiana
Episode Resources
Watch the Episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/mf5zAU2BbDM
Order Vegana Italiana: Traditional Italian the Plant-Based Way
Follow Chef Tara on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/cheftarapunzone/
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Epsiode Transcript via AI Transcription Service
I'm Rip Esselstyn, and you're listening to the PLANTSTRONG Podcast.
Introduction to Vegana Italiana
[0:04] Do y'all remember back in the day that old TV commercial that extolled the phrase, that's Italian? Well, today we are going Vegana Italiana with author chef Tara Punzone. She is the founder of the first all-vegan Italian restaurant in the United States, along with my good friend, Gene Stone.
[0:28] Together, they are proving that Italian food can be every bit as bold, comforting, and authentic without using a single animal product. I'll have their story right after this word from PLANTSTRONG. If you are ready to make healthy the easy default, then try Build-A-Bundle at PlantStrong.com. It is the ultimate easy button for you and your family. Choose 10 or more PlantStrong favorites. Think black bean chili, hearty stews, breakfast cereals, pancake mixes, pizza crusts, burger mixes, granolas. Save 15% and get free shipping on your box. The beautiful thing is you can stay as flexible as you want. Log in any time to change items, adjust your delivery frequency, or skip a shipment with a couple of easy clicks. This is the simplest way to keep fast, familiar family favorites on hand, food that you can trust and feel proud to serve. Head to planstrong.com and then tap on Build a Bundle. And a little side note, everything that we make is HSA, FSA eligible. Simply click TrueMed at checkout and then take advantage of pre-tax savings.
The Vegan Italian Revolution
[1:52] Today, we are talking about one of the world's most beloved cuisines on the planet, Italian food. But we're giving it a 100% plant-based makeover. And who better to guide us than Chef Tara Punzone, along with my good friend and best-selling author, Gene Stone. Tara grew up in an Italian family in New York where food was both love and tradition. When she stopped eating animals at the age of 12, her parents were skeptical but kind of supportive. Well, a life of many travels and various career moves led her back to the kitchen when she became the creative force behind Pura Vita, the very first all-vegan Italian restaurant in America that's located in West Hollywood. And now she is bringing all that passion, tradition, and innovation into her brand new cookbook, Vegana Italiana. From creamy mozzarella and ricotta to ravioli, meatballs, and all the classics, Tara shows us how Italian food can be as authentic and satisfying as ever while staying 100% vegan. You are going to love this conversation, and it just might make you exclaim, manja, manja.
[3:17] Tara and Gene, I want to welcome you both to the PlantStrong podcast. Thank you. Thank you for having us. Absolutely. Now, Gene is not new to the PlantStrong podcast, so I think people know who Gene is. Gene has helped many, many authors with their books, including three of my books. And Gene has a way of really pulling out all the amazing stuff from your head. And somehow or another, you know, Tara, you and Gene cross paths and somehow, I don't know if you wanted to do a book or Gene put the seed in your brain to do a book, but somehow it was hatched and look what has come to fruition. Can we all hold up our books? There it is. Vegana Italiana. I got to say, it's one of the most ingenious titles ever, Vegana Italiana. And not surprising, I don't know, who came up with that title?
[4:24] I think I did. Or did you, Gene? I don't even remember. Yeah. Did you? I did because if you remember, at first I said, why don't we call it the vegan Italian? And you said, no, no, no. No, it's too similar. No, no, I can't do that. And I said, well, then let's do a Vegana Italiana. And you go, yes. Yeah, you're right. I got this in the mail and I just was like, oh my God, not only do I love the name of the book, but look at, I mean, that to me is one of the most scintillating, most delicious looking things I've ever seen. And it's one of my favorite things too, is raviolis, right? Me too. Especially when it's plantstrong and vegan. so I would love I would love go ahead Gene what's that? You know what's even better than the picture is eating it yes.
[5:21] And I probably have I mean I went to your restaurant Tara must have been three and a half years ago you unfortunately were not in there that night but Gene just kept the dishes coming and I left utterly so satiated and and happy grinning ear to ear. Amazing. I'm so sorry I missed you, but I'm glad you enjoyed everything. Yes. You're going to need to come back though. Oh, I will. I would love to. Three and a half years is too long. Yeah, I agree.
Birth of a Cookbook
[5:53] So I would love to dive in. Well, first of all, so, you know, let's answer my first question. So how did this book come to fruition when you two met? So I had a, I've been wanting to write a book for a very long time, but of course I opened a restaurant and then another one and, you know, I was a little bit busy. So I didn't really get around to it. Once I got to the point where the restaurants were kind of, you know, operating in a way where I could have five minutes to do something else, I reached out to a few people to ask them for help, basically. And I received a list of authors, and Gene was on that list. And I reached out to Gene.
[6:43] It turns out he lives a few blocks away from me and comes to the restaurant all the time. And so he came in to meet me knowing deep down inside he had no intention of writing this book with me. All right. Let me tell that part. So I get this email from this woman, and I love the restaurant. and it's really close. But what I'm also thinking is to be a chef is, it's a really difficult thing
Tara's Culinary Journey
[7:10] to be a woman chef in a man's world. Man, that's really tough. And this woman is from Brooklyn and she's Italian. She's going to be awful. So now I'm thinking, I don't even know if I want to meet her, but, you know, I do like to meet people. So I go to the restaurant thinking, well, this will take 20 minutes. And literally, I mean, seriously, within five minutes of meeting her, I've decided this was the nicest person I've ever met in my life, and I want to write her book and eat her food and be her friend. And it happened. Yeah. I never get tired of hearing that story, honestly.
[7:46] Now, Tara, I want to dive into your story because I love it, and I want to start it out by reading, This is on page 11, and I'm just going to read this. And look at this. Here's a photo of you looking so just, if debonair is the right word. And then here, but I'm just going to read this because I think it sets it up nicely. Sometimes I think I was destined to become a chef. Cooking for others is in my blood, my Italian blood. The vegan part came later. That wasn't in my blood. That was in my heart. And I mean, you had me right there.
[8:32] So tell us a little bit about your crazy, wonderful Italian family. Yeah. Oh, my goodness. Where do you start with that? I do have a wonderful family. They're extremely supportive. of. But they are of Italian heritage, and some stereotypes are such for a reason. So they're very loud. And, you know, one would think that we were fighting all the time, but really, it's just a lot of yelling and this type of typical behavior of a New York Italian home.
[9:12] My mother and father, though, they have like the biggest hearts you could ever imagine. And And thank God, because I made these decisions when I was very, very young. And most parents, I think, would probably say, no, that's not what's happening. You will eat what we cook and carry on with your life. But instead, they really heard me and they were supportive and they had no idea what it meant or what to do. But the love and support from them was amazing right from the very beginning. Thank God. Well, let's go back because I think I want people to really understand how ensconced and deep the food runs in your family. And it started with your grandparents. They came over from Italy and they started a grocery store, right?
Family Food Heritage
[10:04] Yeah. They started a grocery store in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn. Tiny little corner store. typical Brooklyn type of store a thousand years ago. And it wasn't meant to be like a place where they were making food for the neighborhood, but there were so many places right there where people worked. Like there was the sanitation department and the hospital and all these types of places where my grandfather knew all these people in the neighborhood. And so one day he just made a sandwich for somebody on their lunch break and it turned into...
[10:42] A whole nother world, a world in which he had to hire security because the line was so long for his sandwiches that he couldn't let that many people into the store. It was a tiny little store. So I think my grandpa was like one of the coolest people that ever lived. And I wanted to be just like him. And the sandwich that was so famous, was that the hero sandwich? It was a hero shop. Yeah, so they were all heroes, but that's just what we call, you know, there's a million names, po'boy, Subway, you know, whatever. It's that type of sandwich, but in New York we call them heroes. It was called Punzone's Heroes, the name of the shop. So, yeah, it was a whole phenomenon. People still talk about it. Like if you go on Facebook, people are still talking about my grandpa has been dead since 1986 or 7 or something. I don't even know, but it's wild. And he's very inspirational. And, you know, he made me want to be the person who takes care of the neighborhood, who brings people together through food and makes people happy through food. And I just thought that was the coolest, the coolest thing in the world. They're just like, yeah, idols. So do you remember going into that store when you were young? I mean, to be honest, not really.
[12:05] I was pretty young. And when my grandparents died, my family sold the store to another family because it required around 12 hours a day to keep it going. So nobody wanted to keep that going. And I cringe every time I think of it because if I was older, I would have done it. Of course, I was a little kid though, so I couldn't chime in on that one. But the store is still there, and they're still making all my grandpa's recipes as is, unchanged, everything. Yeah, it's pretty cool. And these grandparents, are they your mother's parents or your father's parents? My father's parents. Your father's parents. Okay. Yeah. And so it also sounds, from reading the book, like your parents also were huge foodies, like just cooking all the time when you were a child. All the time. And both of them. Equally. Both of them. And they both had like slightly different styles of cooking, which made it even more fun because it wasn't the same thing all the time, you know. But they both were, I mean, were. They still are amazing cooks. They're in their 80s and they're still doing it. They can't help themselves.
Cooking Traditions
[13:27] They're not vegan by any means, but, you know, they're still in the kitchen all the time. So when you say they have different styles, can you elaborate on that? Yeah, my mom is a little bit more traditional in the cooking, you know, Southern Italian, but a little bit just more of the traditional types of dishes. My dad had more of that Calabrian influence, and Calabria is known for spicy and sweet. So a lot of the things that he made had something, I mean, a lot of the things he made were spicy, but also had like raisins or something in it that brought the sweetness too. So that's sort of something that you either love or hate, I have come to learn. I, of course, love it because I grew up eating that way. But yeah, he's just like can whip something up. As long as there's garlic and raisins and peppers, he can make something outstanding. It's pretty cool. And it sounds like you guys, your family, reveled in having people over to the house and sharing food and like truly like the more the merrier. And you guys said like it's called the Brooklyn or the Italian way, which I've never heard of before.
[14:51] Well, it's sort of stereotypical in Brooklyn. Like, you know, we lived in a two-family home. My extended family lived with us. The basement was always the place where there was like these huge family gatherings. I mean, we did Sunday dinner. But the thing is, we moved to Long Island when I was a kid. And I think my parents just wanted so badly to carry on the way that they were accustomed to doing things in Brooklyn. But, you know, Long Island's kind of designed a little bit differently. You know, you live in a freestanding house and everybody's not necessarily Italian who lives next to you and around you. But it didn't matter. They just wanted everybody to be there all the time. So all of my friends, like we say in the book, you know, I had friends who had less fortunate circumstances growing up. And I think it was sort of that time where divorce was becoming acceptable. So there was a lot of them. And my friends were always just at our house, and there was always food. And it was always ready. My parents were, like, ready for whoever was coming over. And it was mandatory to eat. You had no choice. Yeah. Well, I love the fact that they had such big hearts and they were so generous.
[16:08] I wish that was more the norm around here. I don't know if that's still kind of a thing. Where you guys live, but it just seems like that's few and far between these days. I think the world has changed, unfortunately, away from that type of caring for, you know, sort of like chosen family.
The Heart of the Home
[16:36] Unfortunately, I think it's definitely not as acceptable to, you know, to just bring everybody inside your home and feed them and take care of them. You know, as it used to be. But I just feel very fortunate that I was... Part of that because their, their hearts are huge. And yeah. Well, well, I think what's so, what's so cool is how, how everything that you were exposed to has informed what you're doing now with Pura Vida. Right.
[17:07] And like another, another thing that I read that really kind of grabbed me was you talked about how the heart of the home was the kitchen and the heart of the kitchen was this big table that I guess everybody just gathered around. And it's so, and Gene understands, it so reminds me of my childhood and where I grew up, where it was. Everything was around the dinner table, the lunch table, and then the amazing conversations and socialization that took place around that. Yeah, I've never been to Tara's back east, but I have been up to the farm with Rip's family. And Tara, what you're describing actually reminds me of Rip's family and everybody hanging around the kitchen and people coming and going. And unlike anything I grew up with, but it's really lovely. Yeah. Yeah. It's the nerve center. Yeah, totally. And aren't we blessed to have had that in our lives? So blessed. And to be able to share it with people who don't have that. Like, Gene, if I knew you back then, you would have been at my house all the time. You'd probably be fat right now. Damn it.
The Turning Point
[18:22] Now, Tara, you kind of blew past a very, very important point earlier, and I want to revisit it. And you kind of referred to you going vegan as that thing. And I want to stop for a second and focus on what it was at the age of 10. That led you to go down this fantastic, brilliant path.
[18:48] Yeah, I loved animals growing up extremely a lot. But, you know, like any other kid, you don't really make the connection to how the food is getting on your plate, what the backstory of the food is. I was kind of weary of a lot of things. I was really freaked out by like something if it was on a bone. Like I would watch people eat like chicken wings and just be like, oh, that's just weird. It's weird. I always like when I was a little kid, I was just, you know, I was that annoying little kid. I remember one time like holding a piece of whatever type of meat it was up to the light in the ceiling and being like, you could see the veins in it, mom. Like, how can you eat that that's disgusting she was like you little shit but uh what really happened was when i was 10 i had a teacher who showed the class a video of a slaughterhouse and um and then at that point i did understand how food gets to the grocery store and onto our plates and i was horrified and i didn't want to have anything to do with it i was really horrified it was it was like really It changed my whole life, just that, you know, whatever it was, 10-minute video. I don't know if it affected anybody else the way it affected me. I kind of don't recall that it did. But that teacher did something so important for me in my life.
[20:17] I wish I could thank her. I'm sure she's dead. But it changed everything. Yeah. Well, and what's interesting, before that class and that video, you used to very wonderfully, naively think that they just cut a little bit off the cow and then patched it up and let the cow... You really did read the book.
[20:44] You have no idea. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I kind of had like a fantastical way of seeing. I mean, I think I still do, actually. But yeah, in my head, I pictured like a cow is a big, gigantic animal. So when you're a kid, the perspective of how many animals it takes to feed all the people who are eating them, that's not part of the way you're thinking. You're just thinking like, oh, my mom is making meatballs. So there's this little piece of the cow that's missing. And although that's awful, it was somehow more acceptable than the idea that they were just being slaughtered. So figuring, finding that out, learning that part was devastating.
[21:34] Now, one of the things that I think is... It's so right on, but it's so funny how this happened, is that your father, because I think he saw what his parents did with their restaurant and with the store, was like, Tara, whatever you do, do not open up a restaurant. Like, do photography or something else, but do not do a restaurant. And you ended up doing a restaurant. Because I always idolized my grandparents and I thought that they were like the coolest people. I thought everything that they did was just so admirable. I, I, you know, I mean, what's cooler than like taking care of people, you know, in such a simple way, just like making a sandwich, you know, it's literally like the simplest thing you could do to like fill somebody's heart with joy.
From Photography to Culinary
[22:26] And it's so awesome. But yeah, my dad was like, no, no, you could do anything you want. Just please don't do that because he wanted me to travel and have, you know, all these experiences. So I listened to him. I also did a lot of traveling and I went to school. I got a master's degree in fine art. I had a career as a photographer. I hated it mainly because I, you know, I'm an artist. But in order to make money, you have to do things that people are willing to pay you for. So I started to have to do things that were miserable, horrible.
[23:00] And it just took all the joy out of photography for me and in the meantime i was like going to people's houses mainly people who were sick or had you know cancer or suffering with something and they had to change their diet and i was teaching them about plant-based food uh so such super small scale but still just trying so much to share that knowledge and that passion even if you're not eating it because you care about animals if you're eating it for your health. I don't care what the reason is. I want to share my knowledge with you. So I just couldn't stay away from that type of interest. I needed to share it with people. And then I realized, what am I doing? I need to stop everything and just be in a restaurant. And it sounds like the turning point was when you heard Howard Stern. And he basically was talking about this restaurant in New York, right? Was it Pure Food and Wine, something like that? That was it. And it just happened to be like a raw vegan place. It happened to be. Tell us the story about how that then kind of propelled you on the trajectory that you're in.
[24:16] It's one of those things that it's like you can't even argue fate sometimes because, you know, I listen to Howard. He's talking. He's not vegan by any means. He's talking about this restaurant experience that he had and how it was such a beautiful restaurant and the food was incredible and nothing like he had ever experienced before. And he just talked it up and made me want to go there so badly. And so my best friend and I went, just went to have, you know, to have dinner. But in the meantime, this place was so full of amazing energy and there was something about it that just felt so comforting to me. It's hard to explain. And so I like nonchalantly asked the manager, hey, what does somebody need to do in order to work in a kitchen like this? You know, if you don't have a culinary degree, like what are the requirements? What type of experience do you need to have? And he had no idea. So he brought me into the kitchen to meet the chef, Chef Neil Harden. He's the chef at Jean-Georges ABCV right now. And long story short, it took no time at all before he hired me.
Learning the Ropes
[25:22] And I was just a line cook. I started at the very, very bottom and worked all the positions to learn everything about the kitchen. But the reality was he saw that I already knew how to cook. And he saw, for whatever reason, something in me that he felt...
[25:38] That it was the right thing to do to teach me how to run a kitchen because he understood that I had that thing, whatever that thing is, a little bit of craziness, a little bit of talent, a mix of many things. And so he trained me how to, you know, how to be a chef, how to work in a professional restaurant. He really took a lot of time to teach me that part of the business and, again, changed my life. and it was just like meant to be. It was just. Yeah. And what's interesting to me is that at some point you're like, you know, I think I'm going to go to chef school. And he's like, no, you don't need to go to chef school. You're like, you could teach what they're going to teach you at chef school, which what great advice from somebody that obviously. Is one of the greatest chefs ever, in my opinion. It also sounds like a great human being. He's amazing. Yeah. Yeah. How wonderful. And then from there, where did you go from from pure food and wine? Yeah. So I was there for many years and then I left and I worked at a few other restaurants in New York. And then I worked for these two guys who had these plans to open this. What they called. What do they call it?
[26:55] Dr. Fuhrman is the one who. Oh, a nutritarian. That that word. Yes. Well, it's easy to slip the mind. Nutritarian. Yeah. It doesn't just kind of. It doesn't roll off. No. Anyway, in the meantime, my landlord in Brooklyn, she owned a whole bunch of buildings around Brooklyn, and she'd owned this building that was a lumberyard. And she came up with this idea that she was going to redo the building and that we would open a vegan restaurant together. And so I did the design and the plans and everything. And then the city said, great, it's approved. It'll take four to six years. And I was like, oh, well, I'm going to move to L.A. in the meantime and, you know, I'll come back. But I never went back.
[27:43] But OK, so how long have you had Pura Vita?
Pura Vita's Journey
[27:47] We just celebrated seven years. Seven years. In September. In restaurant time, that's 50 years. Yeah, it's really – especially in LA, we've really been through some weird and crazy, very difficult times. We're not out of those times yet. It's still a big challenge here. We've lost like a majority of the entertainment industry and, you know, one way or another, this city is – always seems to be on fire. Literally or figuratively. I don't know. But it's been a rough –, time at times, but I'm so grateful because I have an amazing community of people who just keep us going and it's like, and they're demanding a book for all this time. So we are ready to give it to them.
The Challenges of Restaurant Life
[28:38] Has this been one of the hardest things that you've ever done in your life?
[28:42] Literally one of the hardest things. If it wasn't for Gene, this never would have been finished. Never. Never. I wasn't much talking about the book, although I was talking about the restaurant. No, the restaurant was easy. Not easy, but I mean, I knew I was so ready. The only scary thing was, will people show up? But as far as like the food and the employees and the location and all those things, I was like, you couldn't have been more ready than I was. Tara was much more ready for the restaurant than for the book, for the books. He's going, I don't know how to do a book. I just have no idea. This is really scary. I was so scared. Gene just held my hand through the whole thing and also put a little fire under my ass. Trust me. He held both my hands.
[29:35] And occasionally a hug. It was great. You know what I'd love to do right now, Tara and Gene? Is I would, you each have your copy of the book in front of you. What I want to do is I want to just go through some recipes. So one of the things that I love about a really good recipe book, great stories, great headers. And you and Gene have done such a spectacular job with that. So I want to start with the marinara sauce on page 37 of, And because I just opened right up to it. That was. And let me show everybody what we're looking at here. Look at that big old pot of marinara. It's got to be a big old pot. Big old pot. And what I love and I want you to share with everybody is how, why this reminds you of Sunday mornings in your bed.
[30:30] Well, every Sunday, my, my, well, my, it used to be my grandparents. And then my parents made sauce, Sunday sauce. That was what happened on Sunday mornings. They would get up in the morning and immediately start the sauce. And you would just first the smell, the beautiful smell of garlic would fill the bedroom and you knew it was Sunday and everything was going to be amazing. And then you would hear the clanging. There was so much clanging all the time with the spoon and the pot. I don't know what they were doing down there, but it was like New Year's Eve. But those were the sounds that made me feel so comforted that I knew that, you know, we were about to have our family day and it was the food. The food was always amazing and the company was obviously even better. So, yeah, it's a very nostalgic thing. Yeah. And what is the secret to a really good marinara sauce that everybody's after? Well, you know, I personally think the secret is really, really quality tomatoes. There's lots of cans of tomatoes out on the market, and some of them are awful and very bitter. And some of them are sweet right out of the can, and that makes the biggest difference because you want the sauce. Of course, it's a savory sauce, but you want it to have a sweetness. You don't want it to be bitter.
[32:00] And a lot of people put sugar in their sauce to remedy that bitterness. But if you just start with the right DOP San Marzano tomatoes, they're sweet, they're juicy, and everything's going to be okay. What does that mean, DOP? I don't know what that means. So that's just a certification that the tomatoes come from a certain area, that they're grown in a certain area of Italy, right at the base of Vesuvius, basically. All right. And so what gives this marinara sauce its sweetness if it doesn't have any sugar? Is it just from the tomatoes? Yeah, the tomatoes themselves, they should start off that way. If they're quality tomatoes and they have that sweetness already even before they're cooked, then you can't go wrong. But if you open a can of, you know, not to throw anybody under the bus, but like Hunt's tomato sauce –.
[32:51] Not going to be very good. You're going to need sugar. Right. And what's interesting to me is that you let this thing, I think I saw somewhere, but you let this thing sit for, is it like a day or two? Or am I wrong? Well, yeah, they would start the sauce first thing in the morning and they would just let it simmer all day until dinner was ready. So many, many hours. Yeah, like at least eight hours.
Comfort Food Memories
[33:19] It's not necessary to do this, but this is what went on in my house, yes. Yeah, I get it. All right, next. Listen, I want everybody to know there's over 100 recipes, but I'm just going to hit about maybe 15 because I'm just so excited about these.
[33:36] One thing I want to say, though, about the headers to the recipes. A lot of times when I work with people, it's hard to get a really interesting story. I guess it was not hard with Tara for every recipe. She has a great story. Every one of them. And it's so true. And that's one of the things that was so captivating about, I not only love reading the actual recipes, but I love reading the headers, right? That to me is, so this one, roasted garlic, right? This is something that I only, right here, everybody can see where I'm pointing right now. I was on the island of St. Croix in probably 1993 for a triathlon, and there's a restaurant that served them that way. And you'd bring out the little garlic, whatever you call it, cube, and then you'd paint it on your bread. Oh, yeah. And it was so amazing. So I haven't seen that since then, so that's why I'm calling attention to this recipe. Yeah. I love roasted garlic for the very same reason. Bread and roasted garlic. That's really, I mean, what else? That's it. That's it. It's like crack.
[34:56] It's like better than any, it's better than anything. It's so good. And also roasted garlic can make, if you use it in other recipes, it makes so many things taste, you know, it just brings out so much flavor. I don't think it gets used quite enough.
[35:14] Now, Gene knows that I'm not afraid to embarrass myself, but I did not know. No, you did it all the time. I did not know what this word meant. I didn't know what an anti or anti-pasta was. It's not anti-pasta. I'm very pro-pasta. But I had no idea it meant like the kind of the dish before the main dish, right? It's like appetizers. Yeah, appetizers. And like, can you tell people what is that we're looking at right there? Oh, so that's my tuna salad, which actually the recipe is a raw oil-free recipe, believe it or not, for the tuna itself. But that's the tuna crostini. So just little, you know, little toasts with the tuna, some fresh cherry tomatoes. That on top is a caper berry. If you can find it, great. If you can't, just put some capers on there. It's fine.
Exploring Classic Recipes
[36:19] All right. I am going to, because I really can't wait to get to the pasta section. But before we get there, we're going to have to make a little pit stop at the salads in Salata. Yeah. So here. So you say that this is the best Caesar salad in the world and you're sticking to it. So like sell us, sell, sell me on why this is the best in the world. I'm not afraid. I'm not afraid to tell you that my Caesar salad is the best in the world. It's my opinion, of course, and you can't take it away. I think it's just, it's a perfect balance of everything. It has, you know, just enough of the creaminess, the saltiness, but it also has protein and the crunch from the croutons, the fresh lemon on top. I don't know. It's just, it's a perfect balance of everything. Don't forget our favorite thing is you have to massage the kale. Yes, yes. The kale is very stressed out. It's so stressed out.
[37:29] Yes. Kale is like under a lot of pressure. I don't know if you know it. It's a hot commodity. It's got a lot of pressure. You got to massage it. I love the kale. You can't ignore that. Yes.
The Magic of Pasta
[37:41] I have kale. We're all on the same page. Yes, we are. All right. We got to go talk about this. Is this Peppas or is that a different photo? But this is what I want you to talk about, Peppas. Okay. Could you talk about it? And it's, I think, is it from your grandfather or your father? No, my dad, my dad. Yeah. So that's what I was sort of referencing earlier. My dad, you know, he, he, he loves spicy food and he wanted so badly for me to also love spicy food that he would make a, so in that photo, it's not represented as the Italian longhots because I I can't get them here in California, but in New York, It was always Italian longhots. So East Coast people, when you make that recipe, feel free to switch out the peppers to longhots because they're the absolute best. I wish we could get them here. But just, yeah, spicy peppers. And he had no recipe. It was just like some nuts and something sweet. Whatever we had. It didn't matter what it was. Pistachios, almonds, walnuts, who cares, whatever.
[38:49] Raisins, dried cranberries, whatever. It didn't matter. It just had to be spicy, crunchy, and sweet. Those were the three main ingredients. Tara has, I think, pretty much the highest tolerance to hot coffee food of anybody I've ever met. She brings it with her to other restaurants. Oh, my God. Does that mean you can handle ghost peppers? I can, yeah. Oh, my God. It's wild. My tolerance is, it's almost weird. Yeah, I don't know. Has it always been that way or was it something that you kind of built up? I built up. Like I said, I was trained. My dad really wanted me to be able to handle my spice. He thought it was going to make me tough or something. I don't know. He told me I would grow hair on my chest and I was like, no, I don't want that. Dad, that's not cool. But it did, I guess, sort of make me tough, I suppose. Hopefully he didn't have the same attitude. Tough enough to eat peppers. Hopefully he didn't have the same attitude towards alcohol.
[39:50] No no definitely not no he just wanted me to eat spicy food because he liked spicy food so yeah yeah and my mom did not and my brother did not so he he needed you know he needed somebody on his team you know so you brought up your mother and your brother so there were four of you that grew up in this household right your parents and you and your brother polly now you say polly made fun of you a lot growing up. How did you handle that or did you just know it was kind of good nature ribbing? Let me clarify, made fun of me should be makes fun of me still to this day. It has never ended. It is his main job in life to make fun of me.
[40:43] I think in my family, it's a way of showing love when you're a little harsh with somebody. I don't think. I'm telling you that. It's this way of them expressing some type of, you know, love and comfort with you when they're harsh with their words. More of a male thing than a female thing. But I was just accustomed to it. But my brother really laid it on. I mean, he was like, he would just, you know, it was rabbit food and don't worry, all I needed was lettuce and, you know, he would bug me about why, you know, pigs taste so good and how I'm missing out on all that, you know, you could imagine.
[41:27] But I'm sort of the kind of person that, you know, the more you make fun of me like that and the more you try to do things to potentially change the way that I'm thinking to be more like the way you're thinking, the more I go the other direction and just sort of like dig my heels in and I'm like, nope, this is not going anywhere and you'll see. And a lot of people who made fun of me when I was a kid are vegan now. So there you go. Full circle. And you're, but your parents are not, is that right? No, no, no. No, it's just funny. I would, I mean, and I loved, it's funny, I'm going to, we're coming back to the recipes in a second. But there's a part in the book where you remember sitting on the top of the stairs, going into the kitchen, and you wanted to have this conversation with your parents that you were vegan and how you were feeling, and you were kind of dreading the moment because food had been such an important part of your existence, right, and going back to your grandparents. And yet you had that conversation, and what was your dad's response?
[42:43] It was harsh. I mean, he was just like, what are you even talking about? But then he kind of reeled himself in because my dad and I are very, very close. And it's like, I'm definitely daddy's little girl. I know that he wanted to just give me shit, but really what came out of his mouth was supportive and accepting, even though he had no idea what it meant. You know, he didn't understand. And I think I'm sure he thought it was going to change within the next few weeks. I mean, it was a little girl. So, you know, he held back and he was supportive and wonderful. And my mom is definitely totally different reaction. She was like more concerned, more like, okay, but what are you going to eat? You know, if you don't want to eat these things, okay, fine. But like, what are you going to eat? You know?
Building Family Traditions
[43:34] Yeah. And that's how I learned how to cook because they made me be in the kitchen with them. So. Yeah. Yeah. And so you figured out, you figured out how to make authentic Italian food. Yeah. Just like. Not overnight.
[43:50] Many, many years of failures. Well, that's what it's about. But what about this guy right here? This was the cover of the book, except the fork's in a different position. But look at how amazing that ravioli dish is. And this is your raviola pomodoro. Yeah, just simple tomato and cheese ravioli. Yeah, it's simple. But you actually roll your own dough. You make your own dough, right? Yes. It's easy. It's easy. I want people to feel less intimidated by the idea of that than, you know, it seems. Good point. And let me show you. Here's a photo of you showing people how to do it.
[44:37] Love your hands. You crack great hands. Thank you. Yeah, absolutely. So next, and you do your own, look at this. You make your own gnocchi. Again, you're like, no big deal, gnocchi. I love gnocchi. Gnocchi's easy to make. It really is. It's not complicated. Oh, gosh. It's like. Yeah, right. And it's an addiction. That's the problem. That's the hard part is that once you make it and realize how easy it is to make, then you're going to want to make it all the time. By the way, one of the most startling things to me about Tara is given her food that she's thin. I just can't imagine. Not that thin. With all that incredible food all around her. I guess that's because you just exercise it off.
[45:29] I do. I exercise it five days a week just so that I can eat pasta every single day. Nice. What's your exercise of choice? I have an elliptical here in my apartment. I bought it during COVID because I couldn't go to the gym anymore. So now it's a very important part of the day. I need to eat pasta every day. You understand? It's like a need. So you never get tired of pasta? No. Yeah. No, I don't either. I'm just wondering, I don't have an Italian restaurant and I'm not, you know, eating at all, you know, six to seven days a week. But I probably have some sort of, you know, pasta two times a week, you know? Yeah. I'm a good six day a week pasta eater. On the seventh day, I eat Thai food.
[46:25] I was going to say, when you're not doing Italian, what do you do? Thai. Thai or Mexican, always. So let's talk about this lasagna pura, okay? This lasagna pura, which you tell me, but was this one of your hardest Italian authentic dishes to master, to master, figure out? Yeah, it was the first, therefore the most complicated because I really didn't know anything about anything. But, you know, on Easter, my family always made lasagna. That was the tradition. And I'm really old fashioned and I just didn't want to be left out of this traditions, you know, but of course I was already vegan. So I had to figure it out. In the beginning, it was just like crumpled up tofu to replace the cheese. It was awful. It was terrible. It was a hard no for everybody in my family, including me. Yeah, it took a lot of years to really figure out the cheese part of that lasagna. But once I did, it was like the best, the most rewarding feeling, really.
Crafting Authentic Dishes
[47:31] And what was the...
[47:36] What was the key to figuring out the cheese part? Obviously, was it a ricotta that you... Yeah, it was the ricotta that I needed to figure out the texture because I was basically, when I was very, very young, I was just using tofu and garlic and olive oil and salt. It was like crumbly, but like watery, you know, and it wasn't until I figured out that cashews basically have no taste and provide the fattiness that the cheese was in desperate need of. And then once you figure out how to how to handle the cashews, then the whole world just opens up because you can make everything. It's like an amazing ingredient. Yeah. So it was a combination, the tofu and the cashews. Exactly. So you get like the light airiness of the tofu and then the fattiness from the nut. And then when you put them together in the right way, it's a beautiful ricotta. Very, very simple and full of protein.
[48:44] For those who, of course, are going to ask that question, let's just get ahead of them. Tell me about this this dish because it looks insanely simple but really delicious this is your can you see that yes cacio a pepe that's the most mispronounced dish of all time that's why i didn't try it.
[49:09] Cacio i've heard every uh pronunciation of that word yeah you know um my version of that is uh It's not a traditional recipe for cacio e pepe. It's a Roman dish that I did not grow up eating, by the way, but I lived in Rome. So there's some influence in this book from my time where I lived in Rome. Traditionally, though, cacio e pepe is literally just cheese and pepper. That's what that means in Italian. And this, you say, is the second most popular dish on your menu. It is, yes. It flies. Everybody loves it.
Mispronounced Delicacies
[49:49] Mispronunciation and all. Although I wouldn't argue with you about the most mispronounced. I'm going to go with bruschetta.
[49:57] You know what? You're on to something there. Everybody says bruschetta. Bruschetta is definitely the most mispronounced. I said bruschetta. I was amazed. I had no idea it was bruschetta. Well, the funny thing is with that word is that people correct you sometimes. Well, do you remember our copy editor did in the book? The book changed it back to the long conversation. I say bruschetta because it's pronounced with a K and people go, it's bruschetta. And I'm like, no, it's not. Sorry, you're wrong. Yeah, our copy editor, I did a little pronunciation sort of key in the book. And during editing, she changed the spelling back to the wrong way to pronounce it. And I was like, very confused by that. But it's fixed.
[50:50] So it seems like Alfredo and like a fettuccine Alfredo is insanely popular. You have one in the book. Let me try if I can get it here. That's my family. That's your family, yeah. But there it is. I don't know if there's a photo of this one. But um like what's the key to a good alfredo as again is it the uh the cashews, yeah it's definitely cashews so that recipe i actually just made a video and it's posted on my instagram page so you could watch me making it again super super simple to make um easy to whip up i mean literally the pasta takes longer to cook than the sauce takes to make so it's like That's a – and it's excellent if you have kids because kids like Alfredo. That's something that is easy. You can slip in some vegetables if you want, throw some broccoli in there. They might not notice. It's a good one for kids for sure. Yeah.
[51:57] Ah, look at this. So I'm going to, this is your- I'm having more fun just watching you go through the book. Your penne alla vodka. And I love your story here. You were young, you wanted to be cool, you saw the word vodka, and I'm like, all right, I want that dish that has vodka in it. And you didn't know they just burned it right off. Yeah, I had no idea alcohol burned off in the cooking process. But yeah, I don't know why I thought alcohol was cool when I was a kid. There was some addiction issues in my family and I guess I was exposed to it a lot and I thought it was cool, which it's clearly not. But it doesn't matter because that's one of the most delicious sauces.
[52:43] The vodka changes the taste of the sauce, makes it a little bit sweet. And of course, It's creamy and tomatoey, and it's one of my favorite things. I love vodka sauce. Do you have that on the menu at your restaurant? It's not on the permanent menu, but it is in high rotation on the specials in various forms, whether it be ravioli or all different shapes of pastas, but it's not on the actual menu. Yeah, yeah. So how many different items would you say you rotate in and out over the course of a year?
[53:20] For the menu or for specials? For the, I don't know. I don't know. The menu is pretty set. There are a handful, like three, four items that are seasonal that I change, you know, when the seasons change. More vegetable-based things, obviously. But the specials change every week. So we have always have a pasta special and, you know, it just we just change it all the time. And sometimes it's traditional things like, you know, ravioli with pomodoro. I mean, super simple cheese ravioli. Or sometimes it's like, you know, three color ravioli where we're making like very artistic looking pastas. And, you know, when we have time, it gets really fun in there with the pasta. So, yeah, you never know what you're going to get. But we try to keep everybody in the loop on Instagram. So people come, they watch the Instagram page and they're like, oh, my God, we want to taste that thing. So what is your handle on Instagram?
[54:24] Mine, personally, is at Chef Tara Punzone. The restaurant is at Pura Vita, Pura Vita, V-I-T-A, not D, it's Italian, underscore L-A, Pura Vita underscore L-A. Got it. And how many restaurants do you have now? Right now, I just have one. It started off as one restaurant. We opened a pizzeria next door, which was operating as a separate restaurant. Then we opened another location in the South Bay.
[54:59] That one was open for four years. It was just not the right neighborhood for us. So unfortunately, we did everything we could, but it was rough and heartbreaking. And then the pizzeria and the restaurant, which were side by side, we opened up the wall. So now they are one big restaurant instead of two single restaurants. Yeah. So I'm back to one. Yeah. Let me ask you this question. So when I was there with Gene, afterwards, we went across the street to Woody's. I think Woody Harrelson's got a little – The Woods over there. And so we just went and checked it out. But I'm wondering, I would imagine that Woody has eaten at your place. Does Woody have a favorite dish that you can share with us? Ooh, I wish I knew the answer to that. For sure, the Caesar salad is a contender for him. Yeah, him and his wife.
[55:57] He also loves the caprese. That's very simple. I think Woody's more of like a simple eater. He goes more for vegetables and salads and stuff. Yeah. Of which we have a lot of on the menu. It's not just pasta. Gene, what's your favorite dish when you go? Oh, that's like asking who my favorite child is. I don't know. It really depends on, I mean, I love the Caesar salad. I love the lasagna. But there's that special mushroom, what's the black, what's that one, Tara? The Black Magic lasagna? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think that's got to be my favorite. I think I may have gotten that when I was there. It's Black Magic because we use black truffles in the sauce. It's pretty amazing. It's not truffle oil. It's not synthetic. It's real truffle. But even though the dish appears white, there are black truffles in the sauce, and that's hence the name. Wow. She also has this amazing – I'm not a big dessert guy, but she does have this one dessert that I don't order if I can stop myself from doing it because if I order it, I eat everything. The Zeppolis. Oh, Zeppolis. Yeah. Yeah, I call that my childhood in a bag.
[57:18] Any good Italian New Yorker who's been to an Italian street fair, San Gennaro festival type of thing, you get Zeppelis. But there's this Nutella that goes with it, vegan Nutella. And it really is – it's just – I mean, if I'm going to kill myself, that's how I would do it. I would just eat those forever. Just drown yourself in a vat of Nutella.
[57:43] All right, let's go into – well, before we go into desserts, I just want to say I love a baked kind of pasta dish, and this is your baked ziti alfredo. Oh, my gosh. I just – I think I could eat half that pan without even blinking, and then I'd give you a half of the Gene. The recipes in the book are larger recipes. They're designed when you're cooking for a family. So that's sort of what I was referencing earlier about slipping some vegetables in. Like that's a dish that kids love. I mean, basically, that's like an Italian version of, you know, macaroni and cheese. And you can slip vegetables in there and they might not notice. It's a good trick when you're feeding a family. And it's super easy, too. Yeah. Let's see here. I am making my way to this section right here.
[58:40] Right. And look at that. You know, you mentioned how one of your favorite things is chocolate. Love. And I love that story where was it your father or your grandfather was basically trying to get you. No, you wanted to eat this chocolate pudding and they refused. Like, you know, you do not want this, Tara. Yeah, my dad wouldn't let me eat it. And I just couldn't understand why. You have to say what it is. Yeah, it's a sanguinage. So I made a recipe for it, although it is not a traditional recipe because traditionally sanguinac is chocolate and blood pudding, which is disgusting.
[59:23] But when you're poor, and they were in the south of Italy, and they had the ability to get their hands on an animal, they used every single part of it. At least you could say that, I guess. Nothing went to waste, including the blood. And I couldn't figure out based on that. The reason why they made the sanguinage was because of the poorness. We lived in Long Island. I don't know why we were still making it. It's disgusting. But I didn't know that when I was a kid and my dad was like, no, no, no, no, no. Have something else. Yeah. And then. Well, some of these habits die hard, I guess. I mean, thank you, dad, though, because, ew, imagine if I ate that. Gross.
[1:00:06] Talk to me about the tiramisu, because it sounds like that was one of the hard ones to kind of figure out. That was a tricky one to figure out. A tiramisu was one of my favorite things as a kid. And then I never ate one, like ever, for I don't even know, 25 years or something. It was like, it was horrible. It was horrible to go so long without tiramisu. I had to figure it out. Yeah. It's definitely the best-selling dessert in the restaurant, for sure. Um, it helps if you use real espresso and real dark rum. That's important for the flavor of the tiramisu. Of course, you can use decaf, you can, you know, you can leave the rum out, but that to me, that's like gives the depth of flavor in the tiramisu. So, so delicious.
[1:00:58] I am going to go straight to your chocolate hazelnut macaroons. Are these on the menu or no? They are not. They're a special item. You can request. We could do it for catering. We did have them on the menu when we first opened, but we just have too many things. So sometimes you have to, you know, rotate stuff around. But I love those. And they're very clean dessert. There's no, you know, it's, they're sweetened with maple syrup and they're very simple and, and, you know, sort of whole foods dessert. And I think that it's a really nice option to have because not everybody wants to eat, you know, super sugary, you know, things filled with butter and flour and stuff. So, yeah. Are you lefty? Me? Yeah. Are you lefty or right-handed? Okay. I'm right-handed. In one of the photos, I saw you holding a, I think it was a wine glass in your right hand and a fork in your left. And it made me think, oh, I wonder if she's left-handed. Oh, no, I'm not. I can do that, though. I can eat pasta with any hand.
[1:02:08] You are ambidextrous. Pasta dextrous. Pasta dextrous. See there, Gene. Gene arrives at the nick of time. Way to be, my man. Can you tell me, because I'm fascinated with some of your tattoos, like who is that lady, that beautiful lady that's on one of your arms? That's an Egyptian queen. I've just always had sort of a fascination with all things Egyptian. But there's various cultural references in my tattoos. But yeah, sometimes people think it's me. I don't know why people think that. It's very strange. but it looks nothing like me. Strong, powerful women who took charge of things and men stepped aside when they were present. I like those women. Yeah. You know, I've grown up with women like that. And I married women like that. I appreciate women like that. Thank you. Don't you, Gene? Your mom will appreciate that too, Rip.
[1:03:17] Do you have any men working for you, or is it all women? Oh, I have a lot of men. I love men. I'm not trying to be like that. No, I have the most wonderful staff. We're mixed in every way. We're mixed in gender. We're mixed in culture. We're mixed in age. It's all over the place. But the one thing I can say is that we are all family. And that's, I think, one of the things that keeps the restaurant stronger than others. I think that our relationships internally are the most important thing that we have, even more important than the food being good. I honestly believe that. It comes from the heart. Yeah. Well, I don't doubt that. And you look around not only Los Angeles, but really kind of around the country, and it seems like a lot of the vegan restaurants are kind of going under. And it's sad to see because there was a time 10 years ago when there was like no stopping us. Yeah. It's terrible, actually. I think part of that is that certainly in L.A. And other places I've been that restaurants that aren't vegan have so many vegan options now.
[1:04:35] It's easier to eat vegan elsewhere than it used to be. Yeah, that's true. I also think I can only speak specifically about Los Angeles because this is where I am. So I don't like to project my opinion on other places. But I think it's a really difficult place to run a restaurant. It's becoming more and more difficult to have a restaurant here as the years go on. There's a lot of reasons why that's true. But I think the thing is that a lot of restaurants have been closing. But, of course, we're focused on the vegan ones. Good point. Yeah. Yeah. And it's really unfortunate because we're losing a lot of really amazing, you know, And even historical restaurants, places that have been in L.A. For decades have closed in the last few years. And it's terrible, vegan or not. It doesn't matter. I mean it's still terrible that somebody's passion and all their hard work is just impossible to keep up because of the current situation in the city. It just makes it difficult. But we're going to pull through. Oh. I believe that. I think it will all turn around.
The State of Vegan Restaurants
[1:05:47] It absolutely will. It absolutely will. Yeah, the pendulum will swing back.
[1:05:54] Do you get to Brooklyn often? Are your parents still in Brooklyn? No, they're here. Really? They're in Los Angeles? Of course they're here. I can't live that far away from me. That's unacceptable. No. What about Polly? Polly there too? Polly's still on the East Coast.
[1:06:15] No, the rest of my family is still on the East Coast. I just moved my parents here. They're older. They're in their 80s. And I just couldn't stand the thought of being so far away from them And having a restaurant makes it very difficult for me to go home As often as I would like to So I dragged them out here, For Pasta Sunday, obviously They come every Sunday to the restaurant Do they really? Yeah Gene, the next time I'm there visiting you Let's go on Sunday Absolutely And we can have a little family time We should all sit together with my mom and dad, too. That would be so fun. I would. Let my dad yell at you. See how you react to it. The more he yells at you, the more it means he likes you. So, you know. Does he use his hands a lot? A lot. There's a lot of this. There's a lot of, you know. You know, and when I hear Pauly, you know, your brother's name, Pauly, I think of the movie Rocky and, you know, Pauly. And anyway, Pauly. Wow. It's funny because we're from New York, so the pronunciations of everything are very different on the West Coast versus the East Coast. But where I get made fun of here is, for example, how I would say my brother's name, which is Pauly. Pauly.
[1:07:37] And, yeah, I've been ridiculed a lot. I don't think I have a very heavy New York accent, but there's certain things that you just can't change, you know. But there is a difference between Pauly and Pauly. Those aren't pronounced the same. Poorly. Yeah, but most people on the West Coast pronounce, they pronounce his name as if it's spelled P-O-L-L-Y, like Polly, but it's Polly. Polly. Anyway, it doesn't matter. You know, you can see the gold chain more clearly when you say Polly, you know?
[1:08:14] In your dedication, you say this book is dedicated to my mother and father. My life's purpose has always been to make them joyful and proud.
Dedication to Family
[1:08:24] It seems to me like you've probably done that in spades. I really hope so. I do my best to do that on a daily basis. Yeah. They deserve that. They've been through some things in life, some really difficult, tragic things before I was even a thought. and I just always felt it necessary to make them as happy as I could make them. Well, and now you get the pleasure of having them over for dinner every Sunday. Yeah. At your Juul, at your little restaurant. That's amazing. That makes me proud. Yeah. Yeah. All right. You know, I'd like to finish this fantastic conversation by reading a little excerpt from your book. Now, before I do, I just want to say, is there anything that you want to say, Gene or Tara, before we kind of close this up?
[1:09:29] Well, personally, I'd like to say thank you to you, Rip, because I've been, you know, I know you and Gene have a relationship and you're just meeting me virtually the first time. But I've been following your path for a very long time and your father's. And I think you're very influential in a very positive way. And I just want to say thank you. Well, you're welcome. And thank you. Thank you. How about you, Mr. Gene Stone? So for those people out there who don't know it, and I doubt that many of them do, Rip's actually the person who got me tuned into this in the very beginning, but almost 20 years ago. So if it weren't for Rip, I wouldn't have been on this two-decade journey. Well, and just to expand upon that a little, just to expand on it a little bit. So I had started writing the book, and I had these two programs, the firefighter and the fire cadet. And it was for four weeks. And when Gene was thinking about coming on board to help me, I said, okay, but I'd really love for you to do this. And Gene raised his hand. He's like, I'm in. I'm happy to do it. And his cholesterol plummeted. He didn't have much weight to lose, but he became even more handsome than he already was. And –.
[1:10:52] And so that was, I think, the beginning. You saw what happened and you embraced it. But here's what I love is that Gene then went on and he like has made this part of his life's work. So you've taken this craft, Gene, that you are so incredible at, which is kind of pulling out the best book from people. And then you went on and you did it for Forks Over Knives. You did it for Michael Greger with How Not to Die. You've obviously done it with Tara and Gene Bauer. But the list goes on and on and on, and it's just so – from every – from a firefighter to an animal rights to a restaurant owner, you just – the breath is really spectacular. No. Well, thank you. But again, you started it. It's all your fault. You started it.
[1:11:48] All right. So let me read. Let me read this, okay? And what we're talking about right now is, well, actually, let me just read this. Yeah. And we're talking about Pura Vita. I come to work every day, not just to help run the restaurant. I also come because it makes me happy to see people eat at Pura Vita. And despite what my father once told me, he loves Pura Vita as much as I do. It's a place where everyone can be themselves. It's a place where the food is delicious and comforting and everyone can feel at home. I feel similarly about the recipes in this book. I am confident that you will find foods that you love here. And I hope that you can share them with friends. Share them with your family. Share them with strangers. Invite people to come and eat. Talk about whatever you want. To me, Italian food is Italian life. An Italian life is at its best warm and comforting and filled with love. That is so powerful. And I think that's a great way to finish this.
[1:12:58] Maybe tear up a little bit. Well, you know, and that's appropriate considering how much work went into that little gem right here. So way to be. Vegana Italiana. Everybody can speak Italian. Tara, do you speak Italian? Oh, God, no, not really. I mean, a little bit. A little bit. I lived there and I, you know, I spoke a little bit. But everybody speaks English. It makes it so difficult, you know. The only people who don't speak English are my cousins that live in Calabria. And for that reason, I had to, you know, learn some important things.
[1:13:40] I heard you say ricotta. Javi, you said ricotta. And it made me, it got me a little intimidated that you speak fluent Italian. No, I wish I did. I wish I did. I have a habit of mixing Italian and Spanish together. So I speak whatever that language that is. Right. That I've made up on my own. Okay. Well, Gene, Tara, can you guys give me a PlantStrong fist bump on the way out? Absolutely. All right. Boom. Keep it PlantStrong. I even got my vegan V right there. Boom. Oh, love it. All right. Bye, you two. Thank you so much.
Closing Thoughts and Reflections
[1:14:18] What a fun conversation with Tara and Gene. I am such a fan of how Tara's staying true to her Italian roots while showing us that you never have to sacrifice tradition or for that matter flavor when you go plant-based. And with Vegana Italiana she and Gene have created a love letter to Italian food that's packed with heart, history, and more than 100 recipes that you'll want to dive right into. The book is out this week, and I'll be sure to put a link in the show notes if you want to order it. And until next week, always, always remember to keep it plant strong. The Plant Strong podcast team includes Carrie Barrett, Laurie Kortowich, and Ami Mackey. If you like what you hear, do us a favor and share the show with your friends and loved ones. You can always leave a five-star rating and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And while you're there, make sure to hit that follow button so that you never miss an episode. As always, this and every episode is dedicated to my parents, Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn Jr. And Anne Crile Esselstyn. Thanks so much for listening.
