Sweet Freedom Bakery

Who: VEGdaily Co-founder and Ecorazzi Senior Editor Michael Parrish DuDell

What: Some serious dessert-eating action.
Where: Sweet Freedom Bakery, Philadelphia, Penn.
When: Monday, January 25, 2010
Why: Because every time a vegan eats dessert an angel gets his wings.

If you ask me, there’s nothing greater in this world than healthy, vegan baked goods. True love? A million dollars? World peace? Nope, nope, nope! None of those hold a candle to the tasty, cruelty-free goodness that is a vegan dessert.

Just last week, while speaking at Temple Law School, I discovered Sweet Freedom—a brand-new Philadelphia-based bakery that’s pumping out pure deliciousness by the second!

What makes Sweet Freedom so darn sweet? First, the treats are all vegan (duh) and gluten-free. In addition, the shop never bakes with corn, wheat, peanuts, or soy. Moreover, it only uses natural, unrefined sugars and dutifully avoids all toxic chemicals and preservatives.

In Sweet Freedom's own words:

Philadelphia is a city known for its soft pretzels, cheese-steaks, and all things chock-full of gluten and dairy. For those of us with food allergies and intolerances, or who are mindful of how our diet impacts our health and well-being, it can be difficult to nearly impossible to find a tasty treat for our sensitive systems. Not any longer! Sweet Freedom is here to serve as a safe haven to children and adults alike who have been deprived of the simple pleasure of eating a freshly baked goodie.

Because I love to support vegan operations (and because I happen to know a lot vegans who enjoy baked goods), I bought five or six things to take back to NYC, my favorite being the Cookie Sandwich. I promise that after just two bites, you’ll find yourself proudly exclaiming, “By the beard of Zeus!”

A sweet sampling of allergen-free baked goods

Long story short, this all-vegan bakery proves that cruelty-free desserts cannot only be super delicious, but also nutritious and good for the planet. How sweet it is!

Chef Tal at Candle 79

Who: VEGdaily Co-founder and Ecorazzi Senior Editor Michael Parrish DuDell

What: Four-course meal prepared by The Conscious Cook author Tal Ronnen.
Where: Candle 79, New York, NY
When: January 7, 2009
Why: Because the combination of Tal Ronnen’s food and Candle 79’s atmosphere are what dreams are made of!

The Scoop: It’s official: no one is ever allowed to call vegetarian food “boring” again! Last night I had the honor of spending the evening at Candle 79—an upscale vegan restaurant on the Upper East Side of Manhattan—and sampling the many culinary talents of celebrated chef Tal Ronnen.

Ronnen's expertly planned menu

For those who aren’t familiar with Ronnen’s work, he is the man responsible for helping Oprah go vegan for 21 days and the mastermind behind VegNews' 2009 "Book of the Year" and New York Times bestseller, The Conscious Cook. In his book, Ronnen says that after becoming vegetarian, he “became obsessed with the idea of creating vegan food that was just as mouth-watering and delicious as anything I’d ever had as a meat-eater.”

A sneak peek into the Candle 79 kitchen

Well, all of that obsession certainly paid off! The meal was out of control with such offerings as celery root soup, quinoa with Belgium endive and oranges, and a mouth-watering banana cheesecake.

Quinoa with Belgium endive and oranges—absolutely delicious!

However, the star of the evening was the third course: a scaloppini dish made with scrumptious Gardein chick’n. As my dinner guests and I took a bite of this perfectly prepared entrée, we all agreed that Gardein is going to forever change the vegetarian culinary world. All in all, this inspired meal proved just how dynamic and artful plant-based cuisine really can be and left each of us assured that, without a doubt, vegan food will take over the world. (Insert evil laughter here.)