Columnists :: Your 15 Minutes
Delicious dishing with Andrea Mason by Brian Jewell
contributing writerMonday Dec 3, 2007"You’ve got to try this corn chowder!" Chef and caterer Andrea Mason is pressing some of her creations into my eager hands. The thick, steaming chowder is rich and gentle, with the comforting taste of corn perked up by ... is that some kind of ham?
"This is vegan," says Mason, explaining that there are no animal products in the chowder. Its ingredients include soy cream, soy bacon and silken tofu. I never would have guessed - which is just how Mason likes it. Busting clichés about vegan and vegetarian cuisine being dull - "twigs and berries food," laughs Mason - the Groton-based chef has established herself as a gourmet caterer who happens to specialize in meatless fare.
Ironically, Mason herself is not a vegetarian. She calls herself a "flexitarian": She doesn’t abstain from animal products, but she doesn’t eat much meat. But between a longtime interest in whole foods and healthy eating, and being married to a vegetarian, the self-taught cook has spent years mastering meatless food. When she launched her personal chef business in 2000, it seemed natural to include vegetarian options.
It was a lesbian wedding that made Mason see the potential for vegetarian-friendly catering, but the story doesn’t go the way you’d guess. At this fateful fete, the only food Mason’s poor hungry wife could nibble on was a spinach pie appetizer. After the reception, Mason was motivated - after fixing her sweetie a snack, of course - to research vegetarian caterers. What she found was a lot of not much.
"Most caterers could put together a good veggie spread," she says diplomatically, "but if you’re looking for something interesting, you might be out of luck. A lot of caterers hear ’vegetarian option’ and think ’pasta primavera.’ I think they get stuck on the idea of vegetables and forget about protein."
The lack of veggie options on the local catering landscape was bad news for vegetarians but good news for Mason. Since then, she’s catered plenty of lesbian weddings, and made sure there was more than hors d’oeuvres on hand for the veggie guests. But she rules her niche not because she’s the only game in town, but because she never forgets the most important consideration: Does it taste good?
"If you’re veg or vegan," she explains, "your parents probably think the way you eat is weird. So at the wedding, they really want the family to like the food. They don’t want anything that looks weird."
Recipe development is one Mason’s favorite parts of the job. She enjoys the challenge of taking a traditional recipe and removing the meat but retaining the flavor, heartiness and protein content. "When I’m working on a recipe I gather 10 or 15 recipes that are sort of like what I want to do," she says, "and borrow elements from them to discover my own process."
For vegan cooking, just gathering the ingredients can be a challenge. "It’s amazing how many products have whey in them," Mason continues, "or some other additive that turns out to be dairy related. So for vegans we make a lot of things from scratch."
"My experience as a counselor really helps with clients," she laughs. "When I get that panicked phone call the week before, I can talk them through it and remind them to breathe." Developing an eagle eye for additives, and finding tasty substitutions, comes in handy for all kinds of special diets. Mason has created meals for people with various food allergies, for instance, and recalls putting together a gourmet party, complete with wheatless cake, for a man with Celiac Disease.
"There are a lot of things that people with Celiac can’t eat," says Mason. "I knew if I screwed up, he would get sick. That’s a lot of pressure!"
Staying calm under pressure is a skill Mason picked up while preparing for her first career. The Brooklyn native moved to the Boston area 30 years ago to complete a degree in Counseling at Northeastern University. As an entrepreneur, she’s learned that patience isn’t just for patients.
"My experience as a counselor really helps with clients," she laughs. "When I get that panicked phone call the week before, I can talk them through it and remind them to breathe."
Counseling was just the first step on a winding career path that allowed Mason to pick up every skill a small business owner could possibly need. After a stint working with college-bound high school students, she launched a pottery business. "I went from making plates, to making what goes on plates," she chuckles. But a car crash left her with a back injury that made the physical demands of pottery too strenuous, and Mason moved into the corporate world.
"I was at Digital for 16 years," she says. "I thought it would last a couple of years, but it’s such a big company that I kept moving into new positions." Beginning as a technical writer, Mason made lateral moves into video production, curriculum development and marketing. Her eyes twinkle when I suggest she’s got all the necessary experience to write a cookbook.
"I might be heading in that direction," she allows. "I would love to write one, though part of me wonders if the world really needs another cookbook. But maybe my view on food is a little bit different."
One tidbit she probably won’t share in any future cookbook is the story of her own wedding reception. She looks a bit embarrassed when I ask who catered her wedding.
"Trader Joe’s," she admits. "I just didn’t want to cater my own wedding."
If you’d like to put your event in more capable hands than Trader Joe, learn more about Andrea Mason’s creative catering and personal chef service at www.veggiecatering.com.
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