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Kay Stepkin |
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 Kay Stepkin, who has been a leader in promoting vegetarianism in Chicago for approximately 35 years, will host Chicago’s first vegetarian TV cooking show. The new show, called GoVeggie! with Kay, will air Sundays at 3 p.m., from October 15 through January 7 on COMCAST 25, Comcast’s professional station for broadcast quality independent productions. It is a production of Go Veggie!®, a volunteer-led nonprofit member organization working for a healthier Chicago.
The show’s initial eight-show “Americana Series” features recipes and
how-to instruction for serving up some of America’s favorite dishes
minus the meat and the fat plus interviews with health experts, a visit
to a Chicago tofu making facility, and numerous tips for cooking and
eating healthier. In each of the 30-minute shows, Stepkin demonstrates
the steps to prepare a full vegetarian meal. Following broadcast of the
entire series, the first five shows will be aired a second time in the
same order from December 10 to January 7 to create 13 weeks of
programming.
According to Stepkin, “Our ‘Americana Series’ was created to give area
residents low-fat vegetarian versions of dishes they already know and
love so that they’ll have good starting points to use to improve their
family’s eating habits.” Among the dishes cooked during the series are
burgers and fries created as veggie burgers with zesty horseradish
sauce and oven baked fries; Louisiana red beans and rice with meatless
sausage and cornbread; stroganoff made with a creamy, dairy-free sauce;
a hearty vegetable and “wheat meat” stew; and Lentil Loaf and Mashed
Unpotatoes, a vegetarian version of meat loaf and mashed potatoes made
without meat or potatoes.
Discussing why she started the show, Stepkin said, “I started out by
teaching vegetarian cooking through GoVeggie! and dreamed of reaching
out to people who wouldn’t tend to sign up for a cooking class but who
need this knowledge the most, those struggling with weight problems and
with heart or cardiovascular disease, cancer, and other diseases caused
by eating a diet dominated by meat and dairy products.”
She added, “Now that it’s a reality, people can learn how to cook
vegetarian just by turning on the TV, and as they do, they can add to
their knowledge by attending our Dine Outs and other Go Veggie! events.”
Well-known to many Chicago residents, Stepkin owned and ran the Bread
Shop bakery, grocery, and restaurant for 25 years, through 1996.
Something of an institution on north Halsted Street, the double
storefront was the city’s first vegetarian food store and the
restaurant-Bread Shop Kitchen-cross the street, the first vegetarian
restaurant. In 1971, when it opened, it was the first store to bring
exclusively healthy, whole-grained organic and vegetarian food,
produce, and various other ingredients to local consumers. The Bread
Shop taught bread making and initially made the bread sold at the shop
totally by hand using flour that was freshly ground by Bread Shop
employees. In addition, the store never used sugar or white flour in
its bakery items and offered many items that people would drive for
miles to buy, including its whole wheat crusted pizza with fresh
vegetables on top, various cookies, cake, and many different kinds of
bread. Stepkin and other Bread Shop employees also developed many new
recipes fr bakery and other items, contributing new vegetarian options
to whole foods cuisine.
Stepkin’s influence can still be felt through two well-known vegetarian
eateries, Evanston’s Blind Faith and the Chicago Diner, both of which
are owned by former Bread Shop employees. Chicago Diner Co-Owner and
Chef Jo A. Kaucher first began making bread at the Bread Shop, which
the Chicago Diner calls, “Chicago’s original natural food restaurant”
and Mickey Hornick, the other Co-Owner, was a Bread Shop Kitchen
employee. In other Bread Shop honors, Mayor Richard M. Daley
proclaimed October 6, 1991 Bread Shop Day; a photo of the Bread Shop’s
Produce Section was featured on the box of Kellogg’s Product 19 cereal;
the Bread Shop was mentioned in a May, 1990 Time magazine article on
gourmet bread; and Studs Terkel included an interview with Stepkin in
his acclaimed book Working (1973). In her interview in the section “The
Age of Charlie Blossom,” she is quoted as saying: “Work is an essential
part of being alive. Your work is your identity. It tells you who you
are. It’s gotten so abstract. People don’t work for the sake of
working. They’re working for a car, a new house, or a vacation. It’s
not the work itself that’s important to them. There’s such a joy in
doing work well.”
A vegetarian for 36 years, Stepkin was active in the Chicago Vegetarian
Society (CVS) and served as its President from 1994 through 2000,
arranging for appearances for CVS by such nationally known speakers as
Diet for a New America author John Robbins. In January of 2001, she
founded Go Veggie! and as president, she plans a full schedule of Dine
Outs, potluck dinners, and other educational and social events,
including an annual TurkeyLess Thanksgiving Banquet with both a
traditional and a raw food gourmet vegetarian dinner option; a
nationally known speaker, and a silent auction (scheduled this year for
Sunday, November 19 with Speaker Michael Greger, M.D., author of
Carbophobia). In the five and a half years the organization has been in
existence, she has planned and held more than 75 Dine Outs to introduce
members to healthy vegetarian cuisine at various ethnic and other
restaurants; more than 50 potluck dinners allowing members to enjoy
vegetarian food together; and more than 65 educational events with such
programs as speakers, cooking instruction, demonstrations of organic
gardening practices, or the showing of relevant videos.
Her cooking classes have been held at the Chicago Children’s Museum
(Petite Chefs Series), Oakton Community College (Alliance for Lifelong
Learning adult education), Whole Foods Market locations, Wild Oats
supermarket, and Karyn’s, a raw food restaurant and deli on Halsted
Street near North Avenue. In addition, as a Chicago Public Schools
teacher/librarian, she taught cooking to elementary school students and
parents at Wolfgang A. Mozart and Graeme Stewart elementary schools.
A seemingly tireless advocate for vegetarianism, Stepkin often arises
as early as 3 or 4 a.m. to work on the GoVeggie! with Kay TV show and
Go Veggie! organizational work, before going on to her full-time job
at Stewart Elementary. She has been a CPS teacher for approximately
nine years, since she closed The Bread Shop in 1996; at about this
time, several national natural food chain stores began gaining an
increasing share of a market that the Bread Shop previously had had
pretty much to itself.
Stepkin wrote her own mission statement to express the raison d’etre of
Go Veggie!: “to educate people to the many benefits of vegetarianism
for human health, the environment, and the well being of all life on
our planet.” She also is fond of calling vegetarianism “the greatest
lifestyle on earth.”
Born and raised in Chicago, Stepkin lived in the Austin neighborhood
until she was 10 years old and then moved with her family to the
Budlong Woods area of the city, near Foster and California avenues.
She is a graduate of Amundsen High School and gained her B.S. degree
in elementary education from the University of Illinois at
Chapaign-Urbana. In May of 2003, she received an M.S. degree in
library science from Chicago State University. She has been nominated
for a 2006 Chicago Tribune Good Eating Award for her work to promote
vegetarianism and vegetarian cooking in Chicago. In addition, she was
honored for her years of service by the Chicago Vegetarian Society.
Stepkin is a resident of the Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago.
GoVeggie! with Kay was funded through a generous grant from the
Colonel Stanley R. McNeil Foundation and through grants from the AHIMSA
Foundation and from a third, anonymous foundation. Whole Foods Market
contributed demonstration kitchen studio space for the show.
Those interested in learning more about the GoVeggie! with Kay TV
cooking show, Go Veggie! events, or membership in Go Veggie! can visit
the Go Veggie! website at www.go-veggie.org or request a copy of Go
Veggie!’s bi-monthly newsletter by calling the organization’s hotline
at 773/ 871-7000.
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