Carole Levy

Carole grew up loving to cook in the kitchen alongside her grandmother. Her formal education was in fine arts and she spent many years as a working artist. To support her studio work, Carole worked in a number of restaurants, in many roles, including as a pastry chef where she developed a life-long love of baking. After a decade of working with top chefs, she opened a café in San Francisco that incorporated a culinary job training program into its mission. While her career shifted away from food to creative advertising for the film industry, she never lost her passion for cooking. In early 2019 she participated in Plant Powered Metro NY, 21-Day Jumpstart Program and shifted her 23 years of vegetarian eating to a whole-food, plant-based, SOS-free lifestyle—eliminating dairy, salt, oil, and sugar. With her transformative experience she immediately got involved in her community becoming a Culinary Educator for PPMNY. She went on to earn a certificate from the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies and eCornell, and became a Food for Life instructor. The Veggie Vanguard launched in 2020 when she decided to combine her artistic and educational background with her love of the whole-food plant-based lifestyle. Her greatest ambition is to encourage, inspire and teach people to take chances in the kitchen and to cook without fear, be open to creativity, and embrace more health-minded, nutrient-dense food combinations for a healthier lifestyle.