My name is Rangadevi Dasi. I am the founder and owner of Govinda’s Catering and have been vegetarian for over 30 years. Eating a plant-based diet is second nature for me, and yet I realize that is not the case for everyone. Many times people make a dietary change due to a health challenge. Sometimes people come to understand the ethics involved in the dairy and meat industries, and thus to maintain harmony with values of love and compassion, they opt to follow a plant-based diet. Regardless of what motivates someone to make a dietary change, the fact is that people often lack the know-how or the nuts and bolts of how to navigate a new and foreign dietary realm.

What if you have also decided to remove gluten from your diet? Removing all animal products and gluten at the same time, can throw your world into a vortex from which you may feel you will never recover. “Good-bye cruel world! Good-bye doughnuts! Good-bye meringue! Good-bye marshmallows, cake, cookies and so much more!” You may be convinced that never, ever will these taste treats ever pass your lips again.  

Here at Govinda's our goal is to make food both healthy and fun. I love me some healthy food. I love vegetables. Strangely enough I am not a huge fan of salad, especially when that is the only vegetarian thing on the menu. Come on now. How many times have you heard (or thought that) - “You eat salad, right?” “No actually, I don’t really eat salad, and I am trying so hard to have patience and compassion in the face of a culture that has so little creativity around how to put vegetables, nuts and grains together in a nourishing and tasty way.” That in a nutshell pretty much explains how Govinda’s Catering got started and what motivates me to keep cooking week after week - a simultaneous rebellion against the you-eat-salad-right? culture and a burning urge to create more and more exciting plant-based foods.