Hi seed fam
Will Guidara, the legendary former co-owner of Eleven Madison Park, which went fully plant based in 2022 (where I had the dinner of a lifetime in June 2024!), talked about the concept of "unreasonable hospitality" as meaning "any successful person who is even remotely talented in whatever craft they have chosen to pursue needs to be pretty unreasonable, pretty creative and pretty intentional in pursuit of whatever product they’re putting out there. It’s just about taking that same almost maniacal focus and putting it towards making people feel seen and giving them a sense of belonging."
Dear friends, this concept is exactly why I'm here. To put it simply: I love food, I love a good party, I love community. I want to turn that maniacal focus toward giving you the most incredible plant-based food festival imaginable.
SEED Food and Wine founder, Alison Burgos, created this one of a kind festival with her partner in 2013 in Miami where I lived for 5 years. I went to my first SEED Festival in 2021 and I was blown away. Every event, every bite of food, every plate and fork was chosen and crafted with intention and purpose. Everything was bright, filled with love and so much fun!
When I moved to Austin in November 2023, I told Alison that SEED belonged in this city full of progressive, non-conformist, free-thinkers and innovators. This city full of incredible vegan businesses. The birthplace of Whole Foods (originally vegan as was the founder, John Mackey). She didn't have the capacity to run it anymore so I purchased the rights to own and run SEED Food and Wine Austin. I put everything on the line because I believe with everything in me that this is important and it just makes sense to grow the festival here where we will celebrate all things sustainability, compassion, consciousiness and the plant-forward lifestyle.
Say what you want about vegans (we've heard it all) but it truly is a lifestyle about living with purpose. It takes a maniacal person to carefully consider every ingredient in every meal, think about the materials in clothing we purchase, whether our sugar was made with our without bone char, the climate impact of almond milk, the morality of cellular agriculture, etc all while being hit with constant criticism and ridicule. It is a daily choice to purposefully lead with compassion, reduce animal exploitation and heal the planet.
All that being said, this festival is meant for everyone! If you're not sure what you think about vegan cheese, if you do Meatless Monday's, if your friend's cousin's sister is vegan, if you think vegans have protein deficiencies - we want you there! We can't wait to show you how delicious, fun, diverse and healthy this lifestyle is.
I so look forward to meeting face to face every single person reading this. (I'll probably give you a hug) I can't wait to eat with you, drink with you and dance with you.
If any of this resonated with you and you would like to Sponsor us, Partner with us, Volunteer with us or Exhibit with us - please contact me. We can't do this without a tremendous amount of support, whether big or small.
See you soon!
With love and gratitude,
Tara