About Me

My name is Leigh Scott, and I am a vegan chef living in the DC area.  Here’s a bit of information about me.

Born to a Family of Cattle Ranchers

People often ask me how long I have been vegan — and why I chose that lifestyle.  I have three near-and-dear-to-my-heart reasons:  1) Farming, even at its best, usually results in suffering of animals; 2) Plant-based cuisine has been shown to be healthier and can even reverse serious diseases; and 3) Animal agriculture is a significant contributor to climate change.

My transition to a totally plant-based diet has been gradual.  I grew up in a meat-eating household.  In fact, I come from a family of cattle ranchers!  My grandfather, Dr. Everett Lee Scott (for whom I am named), was the owner of several cattle ranches that bore the name of Suncrest Hereford Ranches.  A photo of several cows at one of the ranches, shown here, was recently published on Facebook by the City of Phoenix for Throwback Thursday.  And during the middle of the 20th century, my grandfather was very active in the ranching industry.  He served as a professor of animal husbandry at The University of Arizona.  He also directed the inaugural Phoenix Stock Show in 1948 and served as president of the American Hereford Association in 1951.  My father, Robert Lee Scott, was managing the family flagship ranch in Springerville, AZ, in 1956, when my grandfather died of a heart attack shortly before his 60th birthday.  Not long afterwards, I was born.

“Moo-ving” Toward Veganism

As I grew up, my family ate the Standard American Diet. I’m sure that my mother meant to feed us healthy foods.  But she cooked as she had been taught, and our meals were rich in meat, dairy, and processed foods.  My father died of a heart attack at the age of 52, when I was 20 years old.  With a serious family history of heart attacks, I had plenty of reasons to adopt a heart-healthy diet.  In fact, when I was in my mid 20’s, a doctor advised me to increase my consumption of vegetables, fruits, and whole grains.  He didn’t tell me to become vegetarian.  But the more veggies and whole grains that I piled onto my plate, the less room I had for meat.  And I didn’t miss it.  I lost weight and felt better.  Eventually I became aware of ethical and environmental reasons for eliminating meat from my diet.  In my early 30’s I became vegetarian, though until recently I still ate dairy and eggs.  

A Lifetime of Culinary Adventures

I’ve always loved to cook. As a teenager, I discovered my mom’s copy of The Gourmet Cookbook. It’s nearly three inches thick and covered with a rich, cabernet-colored leather.  The front is richly imprinted with my mom’s initials and an ornate gold banner that depicts all kinds of tasty treats. The copyright date is 1950, so the book is only a few years older than I am… and, like me, it’s holding up well despite a few wrinkles here and there.

Decades later, still marked with a yellowed piece of paper towel, I can go straight to the section that first caught my interest: Desserts! As a teen, I was fascinated with pastries and cakes, so I decided to try my hand at scrumptious sweets like eclairs and doughnuts. Often I’d impulsively test a recipe on weekday afternoons while my mom was still at work. Intending to surprise her, I was always reluctant to call for advice. Sometimes I was able to find my way through the recipe successfully, although I vividly remember one time when I unknowingly substituted bacon drippings that my mom had stored in an old Crisco container for the vegetable shortening that the doughnut recipe specified. Oops.  Shortly after that experience, I became vegetarian and stopped eating and cooking with bacon.  Little did I know then that I would eventually learn to make tempeh bacon.  (Yum!)

Treading a New Culinary Path

In the decades since then, my adventures in the kitchen usually tended to take a back seat to raising two beautiful daughters and dedicating my professional energies to environmental conservation. But in the past few years I’ve changed gears and have started treading a new path that’s centered on my kitchen and is filled with food and fun — as well as animal advocacy. In June of 2016, I completed the professional program at the School of Natural Cookery. At the same time, I made the transition from vegetarian to vegan, and now I am enthusiastically promoting the advantages of a whole-foods, plant-based diet.  With the objective of increasing my knowledge of nutrition, I’ve completed the Plant-Based Nutrition certificate program offered by Cornell. I’ve also recently finished the Forks Over Knives program in oil-free, plant-based cooking taught by Rouxbe, and I am a graduate of Main Street Vegan Academy.

My current activities include offering meals and cooking classes through the EatWith platform and serving on the boards of Unitarian Universalist Animal Ministry and the Veg Society of DC.

Join me on the journey to a healthier, greener, and more compassionate world.  And let’s have fun with food!