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By Mackenzie Mount

With a surname fit for a fairy godmother and the blessing of the Bay Area Green Business Program, Karine Brighten’s calling is to bippity-boppity-boo enchanting events that are easy on the atmosphere. An event planner with a “can do” M.O. and an eponymous, green-certified company, Brighten specializes in animal-free events.

Since livestock account for 9, 37 and 65 percent of respective carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide emissions worldwide, and they consume more human-edible protein than they yield, Brighten’s ethos – veganism – is her edge.

When clients hire Brighten, she always recommends eco-friendly options. When Brighten throws her own events they are always sustainable and vegan.

In Vegan Iron Chef’s case, which Brighten is presenting with the San Francisco Vegetarian Society, vegan is the point. The culinary competition is a fun way for Brighten to live the dream – for her vocation to reflect her values – and entrepreneurial fairy godmothers know they sometimes must make dreams come true.

While planning for 2013, Brighten realized she wanted something for March. Somewhere between the sold-out Veg Speed Dating series, a few weddings and Berkeley Vegan Earth Day in April, Brighten sensed a lull. And so, an eye trained on doing Vegan Iron Chef for some time, Brighten started planning. “Some time” became 7 p.m. on March 21, 2013.

More times to come? “I’m already thinking about a summer event. Maybe even make it a Raw Vegan Iron Chef.”

In the meantime, she’ll keep busy. Check out Brighten’s upcoming projects, including a series of marketing bootcamps for vegan professionals, at www.facebook.com/karinebrightenevents.

Mackenzie Mount is a San Francisco-based journalist who studied at The Natural Epicurean Academy of Culinary Arts in Austin, Texas. You can see her work at www.mackenziemount.com and reach her at [email protected].

By Mackenzie Mount

Vegan food: not animal meat, not animal products, just everything else.

Showing “everything else” is so much more fun than telling through negatives. Hence, Vegan Iron Chef, a live cooking competition between professional chefs that incorporates the key element of its TV namesake – a surprise secret ingredient.

Vegan Iron Chef debuts in the Bay-area on March 21, courtesy of The San Francisco Vegetarian Society and Karine Brighten Events, but the plant-based gastronomic throw-down has Portland roots. The nonprofit organization Vegan Iron Chef began as a competition in July 2010 sponsored by Try Vegan PDX, a Portland nonprofit devoted to connecting the vegan community. By the second competition in July 2011, Vegan Iron Chef had become its own Portland nonprofit with a similar mission.

According to Elizabeth Miller, one of Portland’s Vegan Iron Chef organizers, the goal is to educate people about veganism through amazing food. “We really do get people in the door that are like, ‘Wow, I had no idea.’”

If Vegan Iron Chef’s heart is the people behind it, its soul is the food. See the winning team’s dishes from the 2010 competition: caramelized plantains and chocolate coconut sauce with microgreens, chocolate groundnut stew with onion rice, and gari peanut candy hearts with cashew chocolate cream and berries. Secret ingredient: chocolate.

Fortunately, Portland’s happy to share the plant-based wealth, and Vegan Iron Chef is expanding. In 2013, it comes to Ontario, to San Francisco, and likely beyond. Miller hopes to have a “a bunch of independent groups around the country.”

“It’s new, it’s fun, it’s not Portland’s Vegan Iron Chef. It’s overarching,” she said.

As Vegan Iron Chef spreads, the goal is to have Regional competitions, then Nationals. Winners get a statue called the Golden Whisk. For everyone else? “We just get the word out there that vegan food is damn tasty.”

Mackenzie Mount is a San Francisco-based journalist who studied at The Natural Epicurean Academy of Culinary Arts in Austin, Texas. You can see her work at www.mackenziemount.com and reach her at [email protected].