From Meat Lover to Plant-Based World Explorer ♡

Plot Twist / I Wasn’t Always Vegan!

I grew up in a household where meat was on the menu every single day. Vegetables? Well, potatoes counted, right? Let’s just say I wasn’t exactly born with a kale smoothie in my hand.

2011 – Three Countries, One Wake-Up Call

Three weeks travelling through Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam with a dear friend. She gave me some not-so-subtle but very loving brainwashing about animal welfare. Even when I desperately tried to look away, she made me face reality. And it changed everything.

From Meat Lover to Pizza Vegetarian

Back home, I quit meat overnight. Slight problem: meat had basically been my vegetable. So I survived my first vegetarian week on pizza. Luckily, two wonderful friends stepped in with an emergency vegetarian cooking crash course.

The Burger That Made Me Cry

Craving a fast-food burger at work, I watched a video of a cow being slaughtered. Bad idea in an open-plan office with 20 colleagues. Tears everywhere. But my decision to stay vegetarian became stronger than ever.

2015 – A Vision Waiting to Happen

At a seminar in Zurich about overcoming personal limits and turning visions into reality, something stirred inside me. The theory was inspiring. Putting it into practice? Not quite my superpower back then. Little did I know that vision would return years later.

2017 – Searching for Something More

After years in marketing, I wanted to do something meaningful for myself. So I enrolled in a distance-learning nutrition counselling course. A full-time job and studying eventually pushed me beyond my limits. No diploma, but a head full of knowledge I still use in my kitchen every day.

Vegan, Vegetarian, Vegan-ish…

If I stopped eating meat for the animals, going vegan was the logical next step. I managed almost two years! Then cheese and eggs defeated me. Back then, vegan alternatives were rather tragic. Remember those rubbery pizza melts? Thankfully, times have changed. And so have I.

Summer 2026 – An Unexpected Plot Twist

After 27 years in marketing, I was made redundant. The first two weeks were awful. So I cooked. A lot. And kept sending food photos to a friend. Somewhere between chopping onions and taking pictures, an idea began to grow.

195 Countries. One Slightly Crazy Idea.

Why create just another recipe website? Almost everything has been cooked before anyway. So I gave myself a challenge: cook at least one plant-based dish from every one of the world’s 195 countries by December 31, 2026. Ambitious? Absolutely. Sensible? Let’s not discuss that.

Via Veggie Vegan – The Vision Comes Alive

My wonderful brother turned my crazy idea into this website. Huge thanks to the world’s best brother for putting up with my perfectionism and rather limited patience! And that vision from 2015? It finally found its way into the real world.

Welcome to Via Veggie Vegan!

Whether you’re a carnivore, flexitarian, pescetarian, vegetarian, ovo-lacto vegetarian, vegan – or simply someone who loves good food – you’re warmly welcome here.

No matter where you are on your journey, I’m truly happy you’re here.

Let’s Cook the World Together!

Together, we’re proving that plant-based food has no borders. That it’s not about giving things up, but about discovering a whole world of flavours, colours and possibilities.

Delicious, nourishing, wonderfully diverse – and a little kinder to our planet and the animals we share it with.

195 countries. Countless flavours. One shared table.

And who knows? Maybe together, one delicious plate at a time, we can make the world a little better. 💚