ADINA MULLEN: FLAVORS OF THE WORLD / FOOD AS ART / ALLERGIES TO INNOVATION

·36 min·2 clips

France was the hardest cuisine for Adina Mullen because butter and cheese are in everything.

1. Fell Into Food Podcast centers this episode on Adina Mullen, vegan flavors, and food as art. 2. Host Allie Jackson introduces herself as the host of Finding Mr. Height, then welcomes Chef Adina Mullen, a cookbook author and TV cooking show host. 3. The episode asks how allergy-driven cooking became a global plant-based project through Vegan Flavors of the World Part 1. 4. Mullen says she learned about casein and egg allergies about 15 years ago after feeling sick while traveling and eating dairy-heavy foods in Europe. 5. She describes growing up with parents who loved Indian food and says Indian cuisine was one of the first styles she taught herself. 6. She says she kept falling in love with cuisines in different countries and wanted one book instead of "86 cookbooks" at home. 7. Mullen explains that every country chapter in the book gets 12 recipes so readers can build a full meal with appetizers, mains, and desserts. 8. She names the countries in the book as the U.S., Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Italy, France, Morocco, Ethiopia, China, Thailand, Turkey, and Greece. 9. She says she chose that structure because people want variety and may want to make one dish or all 12 recipes in a chapter. 10. Mullen says she designed the cover art herself after looking at cookbook covers filled with food photos or author portraits. 11. She says Gustav Klimt influenced the artwork, and she used a deconstructed red-and-green pepper with gems and plant imagery to show that plants are important, not just garnish. 12. She describes learning food photography, editing, and plating on her own because hiring a photographer for every recipe would not be economical. 13. She says global vegan cooking becomes harder in countries where meat is built into the cuisine, but easier in places where vegetarian traditions already exist. 14. She says India mostly required replacing dairy with tofu or plant-based dairy, but desserts were harder because many are milk-based or cheese-based. 15. She says raw semolina in India took years to get right because texture matters so much. 16. She names France as especially difficult because butter and cheese are everywhere, though she says modern plant-based butter alternatives help. 17. She says she keeps sauce, spices, and cooking method close to the original while swapping proteins like pork for oyster mushrooms or fish and chicken for tofu. 18. Mullen says she prefers whole food when possible, but still uses some plant-based meat products and TVP because they are useful and shelf-stable. 19. The conversation stays practical and conversational, with host and guest trading examples about lion’s mane, rice, private events, and recipe testing. 20. Listeners who like plant-based cooking, cookbook design, and recipe development will get the most from this episode, while people looking for quick celebrity news may skip it.

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