Chris Tucker (vegan) - Vegan Baker of Goodness, Part 1 of 2

Today, it is our pleasure to feature Chef Chris Tucker, an innovative vegan baker contestant of The Great American Baking Show in 2018, and founder of the company Betta With Butta.

Chris grew up learning about food preparation from a very young age, as his family owned a restaurant they purchased the year he was born. “I actually became a vegan only three years ago. So, I guess I'm definitely considered a baby vegan still. But when I became a vegan, it was because of watching the documentaries that probably have changed a lot of people. It was watching Seaspiracy, it was watching What the Health, it was watching Cowspiracy. And it really opened my eyes to what the industry was doing to our environment, what it was doing to our animals. And I was a vegetarian for a very long time. Before that, I was a pescatarian, thinking that I was doing the right thing by just eating fish. Cut to Seaspiracy comes out, and I'm like, Oh! I definitely wasn't doing the right thing.”

Following Chef Tucker’s transition to the vegan diet, his next undertaking was to veganize his many exceptional recipes. “For instance, sometimes you can swap in your eggs for a cake, you can use just a simple vegan egg replacement that you find in your local grocery store. So it's not as complicated as it used to be. But there is your tried and true, you know, flaxseed, there is one of my favorite things to actually use is just a simple baking soda and apple cider vinegar and a little bit of oil; that combination is actually an incredible egg replacer when it comes to cakes and things like that because it doesn't change the texture of your cake and it acts the same way that an egg would.”

Chris Tucker is the founder and CEO of Betta With Butta, which, in addition to being vegan, is an allergen-friendly bakery. The business started by creating cakes for birthdays and catering for small events and has grown exponentially since. “We did just get done shooting the first-ever vegan culinary food competition show. It's going to premiere in September. And I'll be sitting on the judging panel of that show. Everybody that has their hands in the show is going to be vegan.