A plant-based chef who grew up in a barbecue restaurant shares his take on a vegan lifestyle along with an easy weeknight dish

Michael Qandah of Happy Bear Cooking didn’t grow up going to the garden to get dinner. Rather, he came of age in his family’s Benton barbecue restaurant, Smokey Joe’s. “I started bussing tables early on and then got more and more responsibility—by high school I was working there three or four nights a week,” he recalls. As he grew older, his love for meat continued when he began a career as a butcher. “Food just makes sense to me,” Michael says.
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