Wolfgang Puck gave a vegan cooking lesson on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.” | Gabe Ginsberg/Getty Images
Chef Wolfgang Puck gave a vegan cooking lesson to Ellen DeGeneres and Academy Award winner Diane Keaton on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.”
The Austrian-born chef, who is catering the Academy Awards Governors Ball for the 25th year in a row, gave the pair a taste of what the stars will eat on the night of the ceremony and revealed how to make egg whites vegan.
“So we are going to make a few vegan dishes because I know you like vegan stuff,” Puck said. “And then I’m gonna make a little pasta over here also.”
Puck started with apple ribbon rolls – a dish he described as “sushi rolls, in a way” that consist of wrapping thinly-sliced apple around fresh vegetables like celery and carrots.
“So all you have to do is make it for a thousand people and you’re done,” he joked.
He also made a pasta dish, featuring homemade vegan pasta and a sauce consisting of garlic, tomato paste, capers, fresh herbs. “If it’s bad, I don’t want to know,” Puck joked.
“I make tacos. I’m good at it and that’s it,” Keaton commented while Puck prepared the dish.
The vegetarian actor has credited her good health to her diet in the past. “I don’t eat meat or fish and I’m a nut person. I like a lot of walnuts in the morning, because walnuts are great and I eat yogurt and things like that. I’m careful about what I eat, but now it’s become such a habit that I can’t imagine another way of eating,” she told BT in June 2017.
The three then moved on to dessert – mini Oscar statues made from dairy-free chocolate with a strawberry marmalade filling painted gold. According to Puck, the team starts making the vegan chocolates three weeks before the Governors Ball.
“And here we have pavolva, but we made it vegan. So you say, ‘how you gonna make egg whites vegan?’ But we use chickpeas – reduce the juice of them and then whip it – it cooks like egg whites. It cooks like a meringue, so it’s really amazing,” Puck explained.
The liquid fro ma can of chickpeas is known as “aquafaba.” Not only can it be used to make vegan meringue, it can also be whipped up and added to cake recipes to add fluffy texture.
“And all the cookies are all vegan,” Puck added.
“That’s really great. So you’re going to have vegan options at the Oscars,” DeGeneres said.
“A lot of them – we have them in our restaurants, too,” Puck replied.
Hollywood stars will dine on the vegan dishes Puck shared with DeGeneres and Keaton at the Academy Awards Governors Ball on Sunday, February 24.
This post was last modified on September 23, 2021 4:27 pm