According to Schinner, she became “vegetarian overnight at the age of 12.” “... my mother decided just as quickly that she was no longer cooking for me,” she adds, in a 2017 HuffPost interview.
As the proverb says: “Necessity is the mother of invention.” Cooking became a necessity for a young Schinner and quickly morphed into a self-educated culinary career. It didn’t take long for cooking to become her life’s passion.
It was in the mid-1980s when Schinner transitioned to a 100% vegan lifestyle. She soon realized that vegan ingredients and cuisine options were very limited. Rather than settling, Schinner began recreating recipes, applying the Japanese, Italian, and French cooking techniques she’d learned over the years.
This eventually led to her authoring her first cookbook, The Now and Zen Epicure (Book Publishing Company, 1991), which challenged and dismissed the idea that vegan dishes couldn’t be gourmet.
Fueled by an entrepreneurial spirit, Schinner opened a vegan bakery, then a vegan restaurant (Zen and Now), and, later, a company specializing in the manufacture and distribution of natural foods. Throughout her journey, Schinner remained dedicated to pursuing her passion, researching, experimenting, and using old-world techniques to create delicious, nutritious, and wholly vegan cheeses. Then, in 2012, Schinner published the cookbook that changed everything.
The ground-breaking recipes found in Artisan Vegan Cheese (Book Publishing Company, 2012) catapulted Schinner into the culinary limelight. The best-seller has been called “revolutionary” and “the holy grail” of vegan cooking. The cookbook, which explains how to use traditional culturing and aging techniques to create cheese (and other dairy products) using nuts and plant milk, earned Schinner an impressive moniker: “The pioneer of the plant-based cheese revolution.”
The book’s popularity, especially among those not inclined to DIY-ing, created a demand for artisan vegan cheeses, laying the foundation for Schinner to turn her passion into a cutting-edge and profitable vegan creamery.
Making delicious dairy isn't Schinner’s only passion. She now uses her celebrity status to advocate for an end to animal cruelty in the dairy industry, speak out about climate change issues, and promote the vegan lifestyle. An unfaltering dedication to change recently earned Schinner global recognition. Schinner was chosen as one of 30 women to be featured in the international organization of UN Women’s “The Future of Women” project and honored with the title of “Vegan Revolutionary.”
Plant-Based Recipes
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