MY BIOGRAPHY

What I’ve been doing so far in my life, you’ll find out here.

Arnold Kienreich

Arnold Kienreich Kindergartenfoto
I grew up in Austria in Eastern Styria. A hilly country with a lot of wine and agriculture. The famous Styrian pumpkin seed oil comes from there, for example. One or the other may also be familiar with Zotter chocolate.

Porträt Arnold Kienreich
I went to school in Gleisdorf and later studied business administration in Graz, the capital of Styria. During my studies I was on exchanges in France and Hungary. The Hungarian cuisine is known to have a greater intersection with the Austrian than the French. In France, I represented my home kitchen as well as possible. Among other things, I have conjured Topfenstrudel from the very liquid fromage blanc.

After graduation, several years in Controlling of mainly larger companies followed. First at different places in Austria and since October 2006 in Berlin. Until I finally decided to pursue my passion – good food and healthy nutrition.

HOW EVERYTHING STARTED

My mission is to help vegans and non-vegans share culinary delights.

My why

There are two major reasons how I came to this blog or how it came to me. The first one was my search for a possibility to combine working location independent and being able to pursue my passion. Good food is one of my big passions. The professional side develops slowly but steadily in the desired direction.
Parallel and almost at the same time another aspect has developed in my life which is overlapping with my passion very much. It’s also about food, but about healthy food and how food affects your health. That’s the story of why I switched to a vegan diet. For that I have to go back a few years. And as so often in life, there are retrospectively several pieces of mosaic, which ultimately unite into an overall picture and represent a turning point in life.

The turning point

My mother was suffering from stomach cancer and we went to a talk of a doctor in my hometown about “anti cancer food”. He was talking a lot about the various health-promoting foods (fruits and vegetables such as berries, broccoli, cruciferous plants etc.). One sentence has burned into my memory, namely the following: “Have you seen any animal products in my list?” The doctor has not explicitly said that animal foods are harmful to health. A neutral interpretation would be that animal foods do nothing for our health. Now that I know more and have read books like “The China Study” and seen documentaries like “What The Health”, everything got together.

The decision

I realized that too many animal foods are harmful to your health. Why not leave them totally away? I had made my decision. From now on I am vegan. That was in August 2017. The reasons to chose a wholesome, plant-based diet are manifold. For me, the health aspect came first. Those who deal more with the subject inevitably get to the ethical reasons (factory farming, world hunger) and environmental reasons (deforestation of rain forests, greenhouse gases).

My mission

As a vegan who likes to eat well and lives in Berlin, I quickly faced a challenge. How can I continue to participate in the culinary life in Berlin? We all know that meat, dairy and eggs continue to dominate the diet of a large part of the population, and that this is reflected in the local food scene. But I like to eat out and to go to street food markets, food events etc.

Okay, I thought to myself, I’m certainly not the only one with this problem. How can I help those who face the same challenge? That was the birth of this blog. I want to show you where to go as a vegan, even if the vegan label is not on it. Which restaurants and cafés offer vegan food? Which markets, food events and shops offer something for vegans?

I want you to be able to go anywhere with peace of mind and have fun as a vegan. It should give you new opportunities to go out with your non-vegan friends and relatives. Conversely, the blog should of course also help non-vegans to find a location where they can go with their vegan friends. And finally, my big goal is that it will eventually become normal in the food scene to have vegan options on the menu.

Have fun with Vegans And Friends.

Yours,

Arnold Kienreich