CLEVELAND — It’s Soul Food Sunday for executive chef Kurtis Williams, and you’d never know the food on his menu is 100 percent vegan.
“We have our three meats, our vegan fried chicken, our meatless meatloaf, and our barbecue jackfruit. And we have candied yams, collard greens, mac and cheese, dressing, mashed potatoes and green beans,” said Kurtis Williams, executive chef of Squash the Beef.
Williams went vegan about three years ago after watching the Netflix documentary, “What The Health” – which highlights the negative health impact of meat, fish, eggs, and dairy products.
“We were like ‘Hey, we’re going to do this.’ I thought we were only going to do it for 14 days. They were talking about, ‘We’re doing this for a lifetime,’ and I was like, ‘You guys can do it for a lifetime. I’m only doing it for 14 days,’” said Williams.
From what started as a friendly competition between family members turned into a catering business going strong for a year and a half now — with no plans of stopping.
“We couldn’t find foods that tasted the way we wanted, so I’d get in the kitchen and we’d try something and we’d go to different parties and people would be like, ‘Oh my goodness. This tastes really good,” said Williams.
Food So Good Cooking Assistant Kay Williams said you might not miss the real thing.
“We get a lot of non-vegan newcomers and they come back every time, every time,” said Kay Williams.
So what’s the secret ingredient?
“I think it’s just love and care for the food, for the art. I just want to see smiles on peoples’ faces,” said Williams.
And his love and care for food and for people has also helped Williams get his health back on track. Before going vegan, his blood pressure was alarmingly high.
“My blood pressure before I went vegan the highest it was 160/109 and today it’s 110/ 80,” said Williams.
Williams’s girlfriend, Candace Maiden, is the company’s catering director. Together, they show that you can still eat all the foods you love, all while squashing the beef.
“It’s another way of eating. You don’t have to give up the culturally traditional foods that we love. Food provides comfort and that’s kind of like our tagline, vegan comfort food. And I know that’s hard for people to give up, especially when you’re trying to be healthier, but we say there is a way that you can still have the foods that you love, but it doesn’t have to have some of the saturated fat or some of the problematic things that our food causes us,” said Maiden.
Squash the Beef has plans to expand but for now you can catch them at pop-ups around Cleveland. Williams also sells some of his products in local restaurants.
