A few years ago my friends Niki and Leon hosted a delicious dinner at their home. Instead of slaving over the kitchen themselves, they decided to hire a "touring chef."

As a former punk/hardcore rocker, chef Joshua Ploeg was familiar with the ways of the road. However instead of touring with his band he's now touring with his knives and has been taking his tasty treats on the road since 1998 — winning over audiences one dish at a time. His specialty is dinner parties, but he also does demos and classes. If you've ever wanted to host a memorable dinner party — and it really doesn't get much more memorable than a touring former hardcore punk rocker turned vegetarian chef catering a full dinner in your home — then look him up and see if he's headed to a town near you.

He does primarily tasty vegan treats, however he has been known to dabble in butter and can prepare full vegetarian meals as well. If you think a vegetarian dinner can't be fantastic, I'll put an end to your cynicism by saying that it was absolutely wonderful — in fact two non-vegetable eating pals also loved the meal.

If he's not headed to a town near you, you can bring his ideas home instead. Over the last few years, Ploeg has self-published several vegan cookbooks including Something Delicious This Way Comes and Twelve Knights In My Kingdom, which contain things like anise tea cookies, breaded eggplant in spicy garlic sauce, ginger stick salad, and a delectable fried orange bread with coconut relish and orange sugar.

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