About six months ago I had the honor of meeting blogger and cookbook author Michael Natkin through a friendship I had developed with his cookbook publisher Harvard Common Press based out of Boston, MA after having met them at 2011’s SXSW (my time flies when your having fun)!

Michael was here to teach a class at the The Natural Epicurean Academy of Culinary Arts and I had the honor of hosting Michael when he was here in Austin.  As you know my blog is focused on gluten-free eating, which entails my from time to time, eating vegetarian dishes, as they lend themselves to being naturally gluten-free in many cases.  So I was delighted to learn about Michael’s blog from Bruce and Adam over at Harvard Common Press.  Since then I have been cooking from Michael’s cookbook Herbivoracious 4-5 times a month, as I’ve been trying to incorporate more vegetables into my eating regimine and was delighted to know he was returning to teach a cooking class based on his cookbook at Whole Foods Market Culinary Center here in Austin, TX.

What makes Herbivoracious stand out from other vegetarian cookbooks? I grew up in the late 70’s & 80’s in Southern California, so I was subjected to every vegetarian cookbook my mother could get her hands on.  Most of these cookbooks today still reside in my kitchen and I pull them down from time to time and attempt to whip up some fantastic vegetarian masterpiece, only find that I fail miserably.  This has not been the case with Herbivoracious!  Maybe it’s the flavor profiles Michael has composed with each recipe, or the fact that I have found them easy to prepare with his step-by-step instructions.  Each time I cook a recipe from his cookbook it comes out beautifully and I find myself loving vegetarian food more & more thanks to Michael Natkin!