Iron Deficient Chef

By Jackie McMillan 

It’s always nice to run into people who get as excited about food as I do. When I recently bumped into Suzy Spoon (who used to own the popular MacDonnas vegetarian burger bar which was opposite the Newtown Police Station) I was keen to hear about her new food related project. These days she’s kept busy making a vegetarian cooking programme called Iron Deficient Chef, which you can catch online at www.irondeficientchef.com.

As Suzy tells me, the name ‘is a play on words, Iron Chef – the TV show and people always think vegetarians are iron deficient – I think its funny.‘ You see Suzy’s been a vegetarian since she was sixteen, and ‘stayed on a chicken farm in New Zealand.‘ She’s particularly passionate about fighting the ‘profit driven direction of factory farming and also the amount of junk food in the modern diet.‘ She’s also passionate about making her show entertaining ‘because most other cooking shows are boring and conservative and dominated by meat recipes.‘ When you watch an episode, I am sure you’ll agree, she makes vegetarian cooking both funky and fun!

To whet my own appetite, I asked her about her favourite vegetarian dish. She replied: ‘I have a few favourites but I especially like to try salt and pepper tofu when I’m out whenever possible. I love how crispy it is and the full on blast of flavour you get from the chili and salt, and how it all goes perfectly with the milky soft centre of the tofu.‘ Get inspired by her cooking online ‘ and if you have a pressing question, she loves getting viewer suggestions for future episodes!