.jpg)
Regional
A Conversation with Tim and Dan Boissy
by Elyssa Paige
When most omnivores sit down to a meal, they’re blissfully detached from how a cow became the T-bone on their plates. It’s the only way to stomach the cruel realities of the meat industry.
Food is personal. It’s closely linked to family. Holidays. Love. Comfort. That’s why herbivores can’t bombard their meat-eating friends and family with the facts. As passionate as they may be, it might just be a turn-off.
I know because when I adopted a plant-based diet five years ago, I wanted to tell the world what I’d learned about the meat industry. I quickly discovered that the best way to reach people is through positive education—highlighting the benefits of a plant-based diet in terms of health, animals and the environment. And of course, delicious vegan food is irresistible, no matter what your eating habits are.
That’s where Tim and Dan Boissy come in. Brothers and owners of Vegin’ Out, a vegan meal delivery service in Los Angeles, this clever duo knows that the best way to reach people is through their stomachs.
Offering affordable weekly deliveries that include such mouth-watering specialties as cashew pesto linguini or Thai black bean salad, Vegin’ Out brings fresh, delicious vegan meals right to your door. What’s even better is that the ingredients are 75 percent organic and often come from the Santa Monica Farmers Market.
Tim Boissy is chef extraordinaire and Dan handles the marketing and accounting. Together, they formed Southern California’s most convenient and affordable weekly meal service. Recently, they took some time out of the kitchen to discuss their experiences with Vision Magazine.
Vision Magazine: What inspired you to stop eating animal products?
Tim Boissy: I was the first vegan in the family. When I was younger, I ate a lot of cookies and I had trouble with weight. In college, I moved in with a couple of friends who wanted a vegan household. So I just went cold turkey and became vegan on the spot—from McDonald’s to vegan.
VM: How did your family respond?
TB: My mom tried really hard. Anytime I came home, she would have 10 pounds of tofu in the fridge because she thought that’s all I ate. Everyone adjusted well. Over the years, like with my brother Dan, people started to see the difference and change themselves.
Dan Boissy: The reason I became a vegan is obviously from having Tim around. I moved to California 10 years ago. Tim was already living here and had been vegan for awhile. I was only 22-years-old and already had high blood pressure—it runs in the family—so I did it for my health. Being vegan has helped immensely with my blood pressure and it even lowers the stress because you know you’re eating healthy. I would definitely recommend it to people for a lot of health conditions.
VM: How is being vegan creating a human revolution?
TB: By choosing a vegan diet, it supports the health of human society and the environment that we live in. It allows people to get cleaner, more sustainable food. More and more people are waking up and realizing that the foods they’ve been eating are what cause their illness, discomfort, and obesity. I think the vegan diet is a revolution happening right now.
VM: Where did the idea for Vegin’ Out come up from?
TB: The idea sprouted out of being vegan and wanting to work for ourselves so we could focus on the other things we wanted to do. It started where we wanted to work just a couple of days a week. We shortly found out that we ended up working a lot more. But it all worked out; we found a balance and it’s been going really well.
DB: It was kind of a way to not have to work for the man, so to speak. We’ve learned a lot about business and it’s definitely been an educational experience.
VM: What are your favorite Vegin’ Out specialties?
TB: One of my favorites is Ziti Bolognese, which we just made this week. Bolognese is normally a meat sauce, but I crumble, season, and bake the tofu in place of ground beef. And we use rice pasta. That’s one of my favorites—just the old comfort food.
DB: Another one we made this week is the Adzuki Fried Rice, one of my favorites because I’m a big rice and beans fan. Also the cookies are always a favorite of mine.
VM: What sets Vegin’ Out apart from other veggie delivery services?
TB: We are purely vegan. There are some other delivery services, but they are usually omnivorous; they have some veggie options but they’re not completely vegan.
What really sets us apart is the way we do our service. We deliver once a week with an entire week’s worth of meals. This way, we can keep the cost way down, compared to a lot of other companies that are delivering smaller meals everyday, where you end up paying about $400 a week, versus our $110 per week. Plus we deliver to all of Southern California. We ship next day to anywhere outside the greater Los Angeles area.
VM: What has been your experience of veg market trends since Vegin’ Out opened its doors in 1999?
TB: In the past five years, it has been growing in leaps and bounds. If you look around Los Angeles, there’s been a new vegan restaurant opening probably every other month. And even meat-oriented restaurants are offering vegan options on their menus. People are becoming more aware.
VM: What advice do you have for people who are considering going vegetarian or vegan?
TM: Depending on what type of diet you’re eating right now, take one step at a time. First, maybe cut out red meat, and then a week later, cut out chicken, and then onto fish. It can be hard on your system if you go cold turkey; it can cause your body to go into detoxification mode, which will make you feel a lot worse at first. My recommendation would be to take it slow—you have your life to work it out, so enjoy it.
VM: What is one thing everyone can do in their daily lives to make a difference?
TB: Eat locally—shop at the farmers market whenever possible. It’s the cleanest and healthiest food. It’s also the freshest—when you go to the store, those apples on the shelves were probably picked in South America, crated up, shipped and distributed to the store—it’s at least a week before they make it onto the shelves. But with a farmers market, usually the food is harvested a day or two before it goes to market, so you find that you get much fresher food with higher nutritional content. On top of that, you’re supporting your local community.
VM: What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned since starting Vegin’ Out?
TB: Mainly that being in business for yourself is not the easy way out. We figured that we’d have all this extra time and we’d be our own bosses, but once you get deeper into it, you realize that it’s a huge commitment and a lot of work. But it definitely pays off when you get people appreciating what you do. We get customers all the time who say they have arthritis and they feel great now, or their doctors told them that they had heart disease and they need to change that. We’ve supported a lot of pregnant women who’ve just wanted good healthy food. It’s definitely fulfilling in that way. We really get to help people.
Discover the healthy and affordable culinary delights of Vegin’ Out at www.VeginOut.com or call 800.420.4927.