My parents were becoming vegetarian when I was born so I’ve never eaten meat in my life, though fish was occasionally on the menu when I was very young. In fact one of my earliest memories is the shock I felt one evening when I saw my mother preparing herrings for supper and realised that they had been killed in order for us to eat. I refused to eat them then, and soon after that my parents stopped eating fish and we became completely vegetarian.
Rose Elliot's Complete Vegan
Being vegetarian was very different when I was growing up to what it is now. We didn’t eat out much, but when we did, the only options available to us were always either cheese salad or an omelette!
My sister and I were the only vegetarians at our primary school; school lunches were mandatory, but as no non-meat lunches could be provided, an exception was made for us and we were the only two children in the school eating packed lunches… we just got used to ‘being different’ from an early age.
I love painting and really wanted to go to art school but my parents and head teacher refused to allow that, insisting that I must go to university instead. As it happened, I did neither because the cook at the retreat centre that my parents ran suddenly left, and as vegetarian cooks were difficult, if not impossible, to find in those days, I took over, aged 16, to help out.
I really enjoyed doing the cooking at the retreat centre – showing visitors that vegetarian food could be really delicious and exciting – and they loved my food and kept asking for my recipes. As a result, I wrote my first cookbook, Simply Delicious, published when I was just 22 years old. It was a surprise best-seller, and I haven’t stopped cooking food, or writing about it, ever since!
Things had improved a bit by the time my own three daughters went to school; at least there were one or two other vegetarians! Now my three daughters and two of my granddaughters are vegan (the rest of my seven grandchildren are all vegetarian).
I just don’t think it’s necessary to eat animals’ products, such as milk and eggs, and certainly not to take their lives, in order to eat be healthy and to eat wonderful food. So I’ve spent my life doing my best to show this with my cook books (I’ve now written over 60!), articles, and demonstrations…
Rose Elliot's Complete Vegan is out now.
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