Priest of Seitan has arrived.

[Priest_of_Seitan]

Hi Folks!

I am a Hungarian bloke, currently living in Austria. Vegan for like 8+ years, got veganism in London, got infected in an anarchist place called Pogo Cafe (Clarence Rd, Hackney, now aka Black Cat). I became a vegan chef, worked in London. Moved back to Budapest, where I was a head chef for a short period of time, then moved to the countryside and did a little bit of a vegan agriculture experiment for 3 years.

Meanwhile for the fourth attempt with fellow vegans we established the Hungarian Vegan Association (maveg.hu), where I was elected to be the founding president. Lately ('18 September) I moved to Austria (Lower-Austria, Mistelbach county) with my Austrian partner, where I am unemployed currently, learning German and try to find a kitchen or any other job In Vienna, or anywhere near.

I have a fair amount of time on my hand so I am tempted to do some vegan online activism.

[Jebus]

Welcome Priest of Seitan,

Are you a certified vegan chef? If so, do you find it easy/difficult to find work in Europe?

[Priest_of_Seitan]

Hi there, no I am not a certified chef, Job opportunities varies from country to country.

In Hungary it is quite easy to get a job.
90-95% of workplaces have problem to find staff, their situation is worse in the catering / hospitality sector, thanks to the huge migration from Hungary (500.000+ working population is living and working abroad mostly in Germany, UK). The cost of living is relatively high compare to the salary - hence the migration crisis. If you want to work there Hungarian (one of the hardest language like ever) is necessary. Anybody who can speak a second language has left the country already. Therefore Hungary is somewhat closed for outsiders, only a few workplaces has foreigners as workers. Other than that you'll be employed grey (min wage on contract, excess in cash) or black.

In the UK if you are good enough you'll find your place.
I think with this tragicomic Brexit the situation will change, but as I experienced UK is a firm capitalist liberal place. If you do good work no mater what you'll be employed, paid. If you don't hit the standard, you'll be fired. A little English is enough, they have the culture to work with foreigners, and you'll have legal contract and work related environments. Cost of living is high especially in London.

Austria
Rich country with a good attitude for outsiders.
German is a must, after that you have a good chance to get a job. I have not found any evidence of grey or black employments. Good money, for good work.

[brimstoneSalad]

Welcome Priest of Seitan. Wow, what a background, very cool!

Hope you'll share some recipes some time.
What inspired you to go vegan in London?

[Priest_of_Seitan]

Well... ...tl;dr: I would say a friendly environment in a volunteer based cafe and a scientific approach.

I went to London to work after 11 years of math teaching. I started in a bread factory which is an awesome 12h tough physical job, but the emotional, social aspects was not satisfying at all. So I bumped into a Cafe which was volunteer based, I ordered my first cheeseburger I thought vegan is just a fancy British word for vegetarian. Then I wanted honey for my tee and then they said it is a fully vegan Cafe and we do not have such a thing. I was confused, had some argument but all of them was really eloquently and politely answered.

Then I got my burger and honestly that was the best burger of my life. It was above all expectations. And then they said they have volunteer shifts so if I want I can work there. I had free time, I was hooked by the food, and you had a chance to cook for people what I always wanted to try so I agreed. I was doing Kitchen Assistant job but I was a fairly good omni cook already so I started to do the Chef role quite soon. Meanwhile I was talking about this veganism thingy with others, sharing my disbeliefs and concerns. All got answered again. As I worked I decided it is not ok to serve a vegan customer with vegan food if I am not vegan on that day, so when I had a shift there, I was vegan on those days.

Meanwhile I constantly debated the whole concept until I run out of counterarguments. I got cocky and frustrated, so I told myself I have to show on my example why it is a privileged thing and not suitable for a physical worker as me. I bought some chicken wings, and a £5 cheese selection in Tesco, ate them, and from the next day I started my vegan self experiment to show those vegan lunatics it is not doable, it is rather silly, and possibly dangerous AF and I was ready to fail. Well, the experiment is still running...

I found this cafe in late October, in November I started my experiment, and after a month or so I had my vegan out in FB, in December.

[brimstoneSalad]

That's pretty amazing, I bet @NonZeroSum would be interested in that experience; sounds a lot like the advocacy he promotes.

[NonZeroSum]

Well... ...tl;dr: I would say a friendly environment in a volunteer based cafe and a scientific approach.

Oh wow yea the black cat cafe, that's so great that vegan anarchists welcomed you in so readily. That really is the grassroots anarchist/socialist movements greatest strength, starting projects which look to find ways to involve as many people in the community as possible and get them talking and organising together. I lived at Grow Heathrow breifly on the edge of London and when traveling through used to stay with big crews of anarchists in squats in the south, always putting on workshops, with libraries, free shops and big kitchens full of the excesses of posh London shops, a wheelybin for everything from candles, carpets, chocolate and frozen foods to the strangest things like truffle infused oil.

[Priest_of_Seitan]

Oh wow yea the black cat cafe, that's so great that vegan anarchists welcomed you in so readily. That really is the grassroots anarchist/socialist movements greatest strength, starting projects which look to find ways to involve as many people in the community as possible and get them talking and organising together.

It changed, stopped to be an anarchist place Pogo Cafe gone down and some of the members made the Black Cat as a for profit place on the same spot. I still have a lot of mixed feelings about it.

I lived at Grow Heathrow breifly on the edge of London and when traveling through used to stay with big crews of anarchists in squats in the south, always putting on workshops, with libraries, free shops and big kitchens full of the excesses of posh London shops, a wheelybin for everything from candles, carpets, chocolate and frozen foods to the strangest things like truffle infused oil.

I was squatting in Southwark a lot, we went a lot to the 56a Infoshop, it was 10 mins away, that is agood place too. Meanwhile we had constant runs at dawn to the New Covent Garden Market, skipping literally tons of foods from the dumpsters there. We had like a network with nearby squats redistributing the loot.

At Pogo we had a regular volunteer from the Heathrow place called Edward, now he runs on FB as Eddy Arthur I believe.

[NonZeroSum]

It changed, stopped to be an anarchist place Pogo Cafe gone down and some of the members made the Black Cat as a for profit place on the same spot. I still have a lot of mixed feelings about it.

Oh well that does sound a shame, as a non-profit they could have payed their workers more, but maybe the high price of realistate in London and all the regulatory requirements for running a restaurant only left a few without those politics in the end. Have you heard of radical routes working co-ops? They basically all put money into a pot and loan it back out at zero intrest to projects who need it most at the time, like social centres just starting up. Also there's the okasional cafe model of running a squatted social centre for a month every year before the owner sitting on his empty delapidated property can get eviction papers.

I was squatting in Southwark a lot, we went a lot to the 56a Infoshop, it was 10 mins away, that is agood place too.

Aces, yea literally 56a was my first introduction to squatting, took the train from North Wales to London for the anarchist bookfair when I was 16, turned up there the night before, they told me the squat could stay in and which free bus to take to get there, the famous bendy busses you could just walk onto the back of aha. Do you remember Colorama squat or the warehouse in Dalston of mainly Dale Farm crew?

Meanwhile we had constant runs at dawn to the New Covent Garden Market, skipping literally tons of foods from the dumpsters there. We had like a network with nearby squats redistributing the loot.

Happy times, I know of networks like it in Marseille and Zurich, just looked up trashwiki for Vienna and they link to an active freegan Facebook group there too. What other campaign approaches would you say are going to get us closer to zero unjustified waste? The three groups I'm most familiar with are Food not Bombs - serving cooked rescued food in public squares, Abundance - mapping and organising urban apple tree foraging days and Feedback - organising field picking days to publicise supermarket standards rejecting wonky veg. Also if you'd like to help edit the wiki article on freeganism or any other page you're more than welcome.

[anajonessy]

Vegan puns are my absolute favorite! •ᴗ• Your vegan culinary background is crazy cool!
I have had similar arguments re. privilege before I was vegan and I am so glad I had the experience so that I could communicate and present veganism in the best way possible, especially to a skeptic.

@Priest_of_Seitan @NonZeroSum "What other campaign approaches would you say are going to get us closer to zero unjustified waste?" My friends and I are starting a community garden here at our studio, everyone's welcome to volunteer and cook vegan meals in our kitchen. We are partnering soon with a local superstore so we could have their discarded veggies to cook, and propagate to add to our garden. Our project is met with a lot of skepticism at the moment but we are getting equal amounts of support too. Are there any similar projects in your area? Would love to get some tips. Also, I absolutely love the Abundance project! We have not been successful to get people involved with this sort of projects. *Sigh*

Community kitchens and food distribution like Food Not Bombs are very much discouraged in our country and doing so might get you in big trouble. The grassroots movements are doing it anyway, of course and I'm really glad.