Pleasanton Cooking Teacher Wins Vegan Iron Chef Competition

Some might think vegan food is healthy, but not exactly tasty. Well, a Pleasanton chef would strongly disagree and has prepared winning dishes to prove it

Lisa Books-Williams of Pleasanton blew away the judges, beating out two other professional chefs to win the Vegan Iron Chef Competition in San Francisco last week.

The moment they announced me as winner, I was shocked," said Books-Williams, who teaches vegan cooking in the Bay Area and Tri-Valley. "I could not believe it!"

While the other chefs cooked, baked, grilled, sautéed and fried their foods, everything Brooks-Williams made was raw/live.

So what did Books-Williams make? Here was her winning dishes:

Lisa's Appetizer Tea Trio:

• Kohlrabi Apple Slaw with Creamy Green Tea Dressing
• Coconut Noodle Udon with Oolong Tea Dashi 
• Lisa's Luscious Live Dumpling (using green tea leaves in the filling)

Lisa's Dessert Trio:

• Green Tea Ice Dream topped with Cardamom Pistachios and Candied Blood Orange Ginger Chili Peel
• Green Tea Cacao Truffle 
• Green Tea Sesame Ball

Books-Williams said one of the judges, Colleen Holland, an Associate Publisher of VegNews Media, said about her dish, "I felt like I was transported to a spa in Bali with her gorgeous food."

Books-Williams has been teaching vegan cooking and raw/'live" food preparation classes and catering events in the Bay Area since 2005.

After winning in San Francisco, she will now compete in the Vegan Iron Chef national competition in Portland, Ore.