{"id":52024,"date":"2024-11-01T07:00:56","date_gmt":"2024-11-01T12:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.escoffier.edu\/?p=52024"},"modified":"2024-11-05T09:55:33","modified_gmt":"2024-11-05T15:55:33","slug":"lolita-sereleas-plant-based-tradition-and-innovation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.escoffier.edu\/blog\/success-stories\/lolita-sereleas-plant-based-tradition-and-innovation\/","title":{"rendered":"From Goat\u2019s Milk to Tofu: How Escoffier Grad Lolita Sereleas Blends Tradition with Innovation in Plant-Based Cuisine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong>Listen to This Article:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<div id=\"elevenlabs-audionative-widget\" data-height=\"90\" data-width=\"100%\" data-frameborder=\"no\" data-scrolling=\"no\" data-publicuserid=\"d443feec80bf8c8f2e009e26dafa4118e6eb9f14056a5516af577c77d4404c4e\" data-playerurl=\"https:\/\/elevenlabs.io\/player\/index.html\" data-projectid=\"1Njx4nWjnI4BynmHlSOP\">Loading the <a href=\"https:\/\/elevenlabs.io\/text-to-speech\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Elevenlabs Text to Speech<\/a> AudioNative Player&#8230;<\/div>\n<p><script src=\"https:\/\/elevenlabs.io\/player\/audioNativeHelper.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Lolita Sereleas has cooked a lot of Greek meals in her life. A first-generation American raised on Greek food who spent summers on the outskirts of Athens as a child, she knows her spanakopita. And when Lolita looked at a spanakopita recipe during a plant-based world cuisine class at Escoffier, she had her doubts.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I looked at this recipe,&#8221; she said during a recent interview, &#8220;and said, &#8216;Oh my goodness, my yiayia is turning over in her grave. There\u2019s tofu!'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Skeptical of the ingredients and of her late grandmother&#8217;s reaction, Lolita soldiered on with the tofu, and a funny thing happened.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is the most delicious thing I have ever tasted.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Moments like that were exactly what she had hoped for when Lolita enrolled in the online <a href=\"https:\/\/www.escoffier.edu\/plant-based-programs\/\">Plant-Based Culinary Arts program<\/a> at Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts. She had long loved cooking but never considered a career in it. But when the pandemic hit, Lolita&#8217;s latent dream reawakened when she found herself with a little extra time and a lot of extra vegetables.<\/p>\n<h2>Steaming Hot Goat&#8217;s Milk and Olive Groves<\/h2>\n<p>Lolita grew up in the south suburbs of Chicago where, despite the proximity to a major metropolis, many of her friends didn\u2019t venture to the city until their junior or senior years of high school\u2014and never mind traveling abroad.<\/p>\n<p>As for Lolita\u2019s family, they\u2019d spend two months every summer in Greece on the coast outside of Athens. The beaches in Greece were filled with tourists, and Lolita played with kids from around the world.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSummers in Greece also gave me some of my strongest food memories,\u201d she said. \u201cTomatoes that tasted nothing like the bland tomatoes in the U.S., so many fruits, and out-of-this-world vegetable dishes. And of course, fresh seafood.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_52027\" style=\"width: 778px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-52027\" class=\"wp-image-52027 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.escoffier.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Lolita-Sereleas-stands-in-an-olive-grove-in-a-village-in-Greece-768.jpg\" alt=\"Lolita Sereleas stands in an olive grove in a village in Greece.\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.escoffier.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Lolita-Sereleas-stands-in-an-olive-grove-in-a-village-in-Greece-768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.escoffier.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Lolita-Sereleas-stands-in-an-olive-grove-in-a-village-in-Greece-768-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-52027\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lolita Sereleas\u2019 cooking is inspired by her Greek heritage and her many visits to Greece growing up. Here, she stands in an olive grove outside their family village in Greece.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Lolita remembers ladies from the village showing up at the door with steaming hot goat\u2019s milk, and her father looking at her with a \u201cYou\u2019ve gotta drink this\u201d look. She was grossed out by the goat&#8217;s milk but loved the homemade cheeses, the olives the locals would harvest, and the olive oil. Everyone in Greece would grow their own food \u2014 including tomatoes \u2014 and had one or two goats.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll never forget tasting a tomato the first time, how sweet and full of a sugar taste it was,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd then coming back, in the &#8217;70s and &#8217;80s, grocery store tomatoes tasted like cardboard.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Lolita cooked with her dad, her grandmother, and her mom. Lolita\u2019s given name is Theodora; her grandmother&#8217;s nickname was Lola, and Lolita is &#8220;little Lola.&#8221; But despite her love of cooking and the strong influences from southern Greece, she never considered a culinary career.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I just never thought of it as a career option,\u201d she said. \u201cI don&#8217;t know why; cooking was just something that we did. Like, we&#8217;re Greeks. We feed people all the time.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Instead, Lolita got a Master&#8217;s Degree in Public Service Management with a concentration in Urban Planning, and she started a boutique consulting firm focused on community development finance. The company, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fundconsulting.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">FUND Consulting<\/a>, which she founded with a close friend, focuses on economic justice and healthy food financing. Over the next 20 years, they grew the business to include about 25 people, and Lolita remained an entrepreneur who loved to cook as a hobby.<\/p>\n<h2>An Abundance of Veggies, and an Opportunity<\/h2>\n<p>In 2020, Lolita\u2019s husband, Cian O\u2019Mahoney, began developing a new business idea during the pandemic\u2014specifically, a delivery business. With a background in sustainable food systems, he built an online farmer&#8217;s market, coordinating with local farmers to deliver produce.<\/p>\n<p>He grew the business to the point where he needed an office and happened upon the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.greenexchange.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Green Exchange<\/a> building, not far from Wrigley Field and the southern shore of Lake Michigan. The building, a sustainable mixed-use space, included a defunct urban farm.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;So we were kind of given a farm,&#8221; Lolita said.<\/p>\n<p>As Cian built the business, he brought home a lot of veggies, and Lolita saw an opportunity.<\/p>\n<div class=\"flex max-w-full flex-col flex-grow\">\n<div class=\"min-h-8 text-message flex w-full flex-col items-end gap-2 whitespace-normal break-words [.text-message+&amp;]:mt-5\" dir=\"auto\" data-message-author-role=\"assistant\" data-message-id=\"84d3a91e-0ed2-47bc-81e5-4c5892e25f3f\" data-message-model-slug=\"gpt-4o\">\n<div class=\"flex w-full flex-col gap-1 empty:hidden first:pt-[3px]\">\n<div class=\"markdown prose w-full break-words dark:prose-invert light\">\n<p>\u201cBecause he was bringing all these vegetables home, I was like, \u2018I need to study food,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cAnd even though I was always a natural cook, I was interested in the plant-based program [at Escoffier].\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>She had been cutting back on meat already, influenced by her father\u2019s stroke a few years earlier and her own challenges with Metabolic Syndrome. \u201cIt&#8217;s super easy to make meat and cheese taste good, and there&#8217;s a lot of really crappy vegan food out there.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>An avid diner, Lolita had also heard from friends that her food was just as delicious as anything they ate when they went out.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I would get a lot of feedback,\u201d she said. \u201cLike, this food is amazing, but you know, yours is as good as this. I was like, Is it? Well, maybe I should give it a shot.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2>A Deep Dive Into Traditional Greek Dishes<\/h2>\n<p>Lolita enrolled at Escoffier because it was the only plant-based program she could find that was so deeply focused on the foundations of plant-based cooking. She talked to vegan and vegetarian friends as she researched plant-based diets, and she set out to find out more about how to adapt some of her beloved Greek dishes.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;My background is Greek, and so most people think of Greek, and they think of gyros and lamb.&#8221; \u2026 but the traditional food, she said, is beautiful stewed vegetables and salads and pies. &#8220;So I really wanted to take a deep dive into that. So as [Cian] was growing that business around vegetables, I was learning more about vegetables at Escoffier.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In fact, this approach aligned really well with her cultural heritage. Although Lolita would adapt dishes like spanakopita or moussaka\u2014a lasagna-style dish with eggplant, ground meat, and a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.escoffier.edu\/blog\/recipes\/how-to-make-the-five-mother-sauces\/\">b\u00e9chamel sauce<\/a>\u2014she really focused on vegetables.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wish more people knew that most traditional Greek foods are plant-based\u2014veggies stewed in tomato and olive oil, satisfying beans, and more,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Lolita found that many <a href=\"https:\/\/www.escoffier.edu\/blog\/culinary-arts\/veganism101-the-basics-of-vegan-cooking\/\">vegan<\/a> offerings in the grocery store and at restaurants were highly processed. She appreciated Escoffier&#8217;s focus on whole food substitutes instead of overly-processed options, and on applying classic principles to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.escoffier.edu\/blog\/recipes\/10-dishes-every-vegan-chef-should-know-how-to-make\/\">plant-based dishes<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>She also appreciated how many new skills she picked up.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There was a lot of work, and I could see the skill development, even for someone who knew how to cook, just for the technique and the chopping and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.escoffier.edu\/blog\/culinary-arts\/8-knife-cuts-every-professional-cook-should-know\/\">knife cuts<\/a>. And like, understanding you always maybe knew how to cook, but not why you were doing some of the things you were doing. And it was pretty amazing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>As for the tweaks she made, Lolita found many uses for ingredients like tofu, jackfruit, and mushrooms. She said diners have told her they prefer her gyros made with mushrooms over the meat version. And she figured out how to make spanakopita without dairy cheese.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The amazing chef instructors came up with this magical combination,\u201d she said. \u201cIt&#8217;s firm tofu, nutritional yeast, ground almonds, lemon, and salt mixed all together with the traditional ingredients, and then olive oil. And, of course, I always tweak things. I put way more olive oil than any instructor would ever tell me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On May 2, 2023, Lolita and Cian opened <a href=\"https:\/\/trogo.co\/?srsltid=AfmBOoosvQi30e-dAg398B9kA7cz66zT3_1v65ksrLNFESVqjX8Tcj1x\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Trogo Kitchen &amp; Market<\/a>. The process was \u201can absolute rollercoaster,\u201d Lolita said, full of starts and stops as well as challenges related to staffing. But they made it work.<\/p>\n<h2>Making Vegetables Sing<\/h2>\n<p>Trogo is located on the second floor of an office building whose claim to fame is that the pilot episode of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt14452776\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Bear<\/a> was filmed in its kitchen.<\/p>\n<p>Trogo, which means \u201cto eat, nibble, chew,\u201d in Greek, is a three-pronged business: it&#8217;s primarily private dining and catering but the business also does pop-ups. In addition to the dining area on the second floor, there are 24 seats at the urban farm downstairs.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_52028\" style=\"width: 778px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-52028\" class=\"wp-image-52028 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.escoffier.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/The-interior-of-Trogo-768.jpg\" alt=\"The interior of Trogo, which has a mix of furniture styles. High-top tables are in the background, a standard dining table has diners seated by a chef, and a sofa with coffee table and two chairs is in the foreground.\" width=\"768\" height=\"512\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.escoffier.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/The-interior-of-Trogo-768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.escoffier.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/The-interior-of-Trogo-768-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-52028\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Scenes from a Trogo popup, which have attracted top-notch chefs. Photo credit Jessica Mlinaric.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Although catering is the mainstay of the business, Lolita said the pop-ups are probably the most fun. And she takes pride in converting meat-eaters into diners who appreciate a vegan meal\u2014and she jokes that Trogo is &#8220;sneaky&#8221; about it. For example, that spanakopita? She doesn&#8217;t make a big deal about it being vegan.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ll put the little &#8216;v&#8217; for vegan (on the menu) but we don&#8217;t say &#8216;vegan spanakopita.&#8217; We&#8217;ll say &#8216;spanakopita,&#8217; because it is a delicious spinach pie. That is what it is,&#8221; she said. &#8220;And they&#8217;re like, &#8216;No bleeping way that there isn&#8217;t cheese in here!&#8217;\u201d she said. \u201cI&#8217;m like, &#8216;Nope.\u2019 It&#8217;s pretty amazing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, she doesn&#8217;t try to make vegan food taste like something it isn&#8217;t.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think the one thing that I also liked about this program, and I think also what defines me as a plant-based chef, is I don&#8217;t try to make things taste like meat or taste like cheese,\u201d she said. \u201cI want people to see that vegetables are freaking delicious, and you don&#8217;t have to add bacon or cheese to vegetables to make them delicious either.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2>Future: More Collaboration, More Fun<\/h2>\n<p>Lolita still does consulting in addition to Trogo and raising two teenage boys. At Trogo, she heads up the catering and develops the menus.<\/p>\n<p>She&#8217;d like to continue the business and attract more chefs for a variety of pop-ups. Among other publications, they\u2019ve been featured in <em>Eater Chicago\u2019s<\/em> list of <a href=\"https:\/\/chicago.eater.com\/2024\/1\/4\/24025220\/pop-up-dinners-bars-restaurants-events-chicago-winter-2024#:~:text=handmade%20gyoza%20at-,Trogo%20Kitchen%20and%20Market,-%2C%202545%20W.%20Diversey\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">best pop-up restaurants<\/a> and in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/chicago\/things-to-do\/heaven-on-seven-pop-up#:~:text=pop%2Dup%20at%20Trogo%20Kitchen%20and%20Market\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>TimeOut Chicago<\/em><\/a>. And Lolita has done recipe demonstrations on the local news.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We kind of call it a place where chefs come to play, because we have one here who&#8217;s testing out his next concept, and it&#8217;s just really fun and creative and collaborative,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_52029\" style=\"width: 778px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-52029\" class=\"wp-image-52029 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.escoffier.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Lolita-Sereleas-stands-in-between-her-two-sons-with-an-arm-around-their-waists.-768.jpeg\" alt=\"Lolita Sereleas stands in between her two sons, with an arm around their waists. The boys are wearing Trogo tshirts that say, \u201cSip, Bite, Chew, Crunch.\u201d\" width=\"768\" height=\"576\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.escoffier.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Lolita-Sereleas-stands-in-between-her-two-sons-with-an-arm-around-their-waists.-768.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.escoffier.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Lolita-Sereleas-stands-in-between-her-two-sons-with-an-arm-around-their-waists.-768-300x225.jpeg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-52029\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lolita Sereleas and her two sons during a popup event at Trogo.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Lolita said she\u2019s grateful for her experience at Escoffier.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I just want to underscore what a really transformative experience Escoffier was,\u201d she said. \u201cI will always be indebted and find ways to give back. And it just led me down a path that I never thought I would actually (pursue) in a practical way, and I&#8217;m just really loving it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2>Is It Time To Act Upon Your Dream?<\/h2>\n<p>Lolita never imagined the ways she could transform traditional Greek dishes into plant-based meals, nor did she anticipate turning her lifelong passion for cooking into a thriving business. But when the opportunity presented itself, she jumped at the chance.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe <a href=\"https:\/\/www.escoffier.edu\/plant-based-programs\/\">Escoffer&#8217;s plant-based program<\/a> appeals to you as well, or you\u2019ve wondered about pursuing another career in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.escoffier.edu\/academics\/culinary-arts-online\/\">culinary arts<\/a>. Escoffier has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.escoffier.edu\/about\/campuses\/\">campuses in Boulder, Colorado, and in Austin, Texas<\/a>, as well as online courses.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;ve wondered whether you could turn your culinary passion or interest into a career, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.escoffier.edu\/contact-us\/\">contact us<\/a> to find out more.<\/p>\n\t\n\t<h3 class=\"additional-articles-heading\">CHECK OUT MORE INSPIRING STUDENT SUCCESS STORIES HERE:<\/h3>\n\n\t\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.escoffier.edu\/blog\/success-stories\/from-desk-job-in-finance-to-texas-barbecue-expert\/\">From Desk Job to Pitmaster: A Culinary Journey with Escoffier Graduate Michael Fields<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.escoffier.edu\/blog\/success-stories\/chef-instructor-steven-nalls-builds-a-farm-to-table-lifestyle\/\">How Chef Instructor Steven Nalls Built a Sustainable Farm-to-Table Lifestyle<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.escoffier.edu\/blog\/success-stories\/the-unlikely-leap-from-ballet-dancer-to-culinary-artist\/\">The Unlikely Leap: How an Injury Transformed a Ballet Dancer into a Culinary Artist<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>*Information may not reflect every student\u2019s experience. Results and outcomes may be based on several factors, such as geographical region or previous experience.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Find out how Escoffier graduate Lolita Sereleas was inspired by her Greek heritage to build a plant-based culinary business. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":52025,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1371],"tags":[238,1319,491,221],"class_list":["post-52024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-success-stories","tag-locally-sourced","tag-plant-based","tag-vegan","tag-vegetarian"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How Escoffier&#039;s Lolita Sereleas Blends Tradition and Innovation in Plant-Based Cuisine - Escoffier<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Find out how Escoffier graduate Lolita Sereleas was inspired by her Greek heritage to build a plant-based culinary business.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.escoffier.edu\/blog\/success-stories\/lolita-sereleas-plant-based-tradition-and-innovation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"From Goat\u2019s Milk to Tofu: How Escoffier Grad Lolita Sereleas Blends Tradition with Innovation in Plant-Based Cuisine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Find out how Escoffier graduate Lolita Sereleas was inspired by her Greek heritage to build a plant-based culinary business.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.escoffier.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52024\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Escoffier\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-11-01T12:00:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-11-05T15:55:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.escoffier.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/From-Goats-Milk-to-Tofu-How-Lolita-Sereleas-Blends-Tradition-with-Innovation-in-Plant-Based-Cuisine-social-image.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sarah Larson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"From Goat\u2019s Milk to Tofu: How Escoffier Grad Lolita Sereleas Blends Tradition with Innovation in Plant-Based Cuisine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Find out how Escoffier graduate Lolita Sereleas was inspired by her Greek heritage to build a plant-based culinary business.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.escoffier.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/From-Goats-Milk-to-Tofu-How-Lolita-Sereleas-Blends-Tradition-with-Innovation-in-Plant-Based-Cuisine-social-image.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sarah Larson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"10 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How Escoffier's Lolita Sereleas Blends Tradition and Innovation in Plant-Based Cuisine - 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