Logline:
The most delicious vegan food in locations from inner city to exotic and remote, The Vegan Journals takes us on an exciting quest for the best in vegan food through different cultures, landscapes and palates.
Synopsis:
The Vegan Journals is an episodic, one-hour, 12-part series focused on plant-based restaurants and their chefs. Our hosts lead us to a celebrity who has chosen their favorite vegan restaurant based on their passion for good food – and we visit that restaurant and its chef.
In turn, as the hosts interview the chef, we learn their stories and the reason that brought them to this world of modern plant-based food.
John Parker, correspondent for The Economist, declared 2019 “The Year of the Vegan.” Whether one chooses to become vegan for love of animals, for one’s health, or for the environment, there has become an increased interest in plant-based foods.
Even fast-food restaurants are adding vegan options to their menus. It should come as no surprise that vegan restaurants are popping up everywhere. Chefs are throwing away the stale notions of vegan food, covering the gamut from comfort food to lavish gourmet. They are exploring various culinary influences, creating unique, appetizing, and uncompromising dishes using entirely plant-based ingredients.
Whether you are a committed vegan or just meatless for one meal, there’s so much more than vegetables on the modern vegan menu.
The Vegan Journals not only breaks down old stereotypes and reveals the delectable world of the modern vegan menu, but also delves into the stories of the chef. What prompted the chef to make this bold step forward? What was the culinary path the led to this decision? As the passions and history of each chef and restaurant are explored, and the connections the guest host has to that specific place revealed, each episode emphasizes the main focus, the food.
Images of amazingly plated vegan dishes will have even the most committed carnivore’s mouths watering. It will be clear through each episode, that plant-based food is the future, and it can be enjoyed by even the most discerning palate.
JENNA KANELL
Jenna Kanell and her daughter, “Emmett.”
Jenna Kanell delivered a TEDx Talk on her experience writing and directing the short film Bumblebees. Its worldwide, award-winning festival run included a screening at the CDC, leading her to speak alongside her brother Vance at institutions such as Harvard Medical School and the National Inclusion Institute. Jenna later wrote and directed Max & The Monster, which premiered on the opening night of the Austin Film Festival and went on to win two awards. It’s now available through A Voice For The Innocent, a resource for survivors of domestic abuse. She directed other award-winning short films including #Slut and more recently Bliss Is Orange, which premiered at OutFest and continues to travel the festival circuit. She’s first assistant directed narrative features, and just wrapped producing an addiction recovery feature documentary.
Jenna is also an actor, and a stunt performer who trains in Krav Maga. She stars in Abducted, nominated for Best Narrative Short at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, and appears in television shows and films, including The Front Runner and TERRIFIER. She’s tried skydiving and bungy jumping and thinks cephalopods are pretty neat. She is proudest of teaching her cat to high five.
MARK NANNA
Mark Nanna and “Macy Grey’s Anatomy.”
Mark Nanna
Mark Nanna’s first kitchen job was flipping burgers for a fast food restaurant. Fifteen years later he’d find himself leading the kitchen at Atlanta’s FLiP Burger Boutique. At Flip he earned a 4-star review in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, an appearance on the Cooking Channel’s Unique Eats, and reviews and profiles in leading publications from around the country.
Prior to Flip, Mark held positions as Sous Chef at Hector Santiago’s Pura Vida, one of Atlanta’s most beloved Latin tapas restaurants, and Chef de Cuisine at Element, a short-lived but acclaimed gastropub from Chef Richard Blais. He also spent time working the line under Michael Tuohy at Woodfire Grill, Scott Peacock at Watershed, as well as Home and ONE. Midtown Kitchen, both also under the direction of Blais.
Post Flip, Mark helmed the kitchen at The Lawrence, where he took some of the forward-thinking techniques honed under Blais and applied them to an accessible, southern-influenced, neighborhood-friendly menu. He later moved to more casual environs, most notably Torched Hop Brewing and Lean Draft House.
Fatigued by the kitchen grind, Mark left restaurant life in 2018. Finally, free of meat-centric restaurants, he found himself increasingly concerned about animal welfare and began exploring the possibilities of a plant-based diet. He is now happily and healthfully vegan as well as 50 pounds lighter and enjoys educating others on the benefits of a plant-based lifestyle.
Mark lives in Shelby, NC with his wife Kim, and their cats, Princesses Soks Fifth Avenue and Macy Grey’s Anatomy. When he’s not cooking, he enjoys painting, playing videogames, watching food docs, keeping up with his favorite podcasts (namely Up First, The Dave Chang Show, and Pod Save America), and kayaking.