The glut of cooking shows, foodie magazines and recipe blogs that have popped up over the past decade has transformed chefs into celebrities—in some cases overnight. Yes, the rock star may be going the way of green bean casseroles and green Jell-O salads (sorry, Mr. Roth), while modern-day chefs are working kitchens like a catwalk and twirling pairing knives like a pair of drumsticks (sorry, Mr. Ramsay).
The web has also spawned its share of food pornstars. Enter Brian Manowitz, a 31-year-old Jewish kid from Orlando, Fla., with a wicked sense of humor who wields his cooking utensils more like a mystical knife—probably because he really uses a mystical knife. And studded bowls. And cutting boards emblazoned with pentagrams.
For the past year Manowitz has assumed the unholy moniker of the Vegan Black Metal Chef, spreading darkness while answering one of life’s eternal questions: What do vegans eat? His first attempt to answer that question came in the form of a vegan Pad Thai recipe, the video of which debuted in May of last year. Screaming the ingredients over blast beats and synths, the Vegan Black Metal Chef’s Internet debut quickly earned him notoriety, and the video has captured nearly 2 million views on YouTube. Manowitz was featured on Nightline and noted vegan hater Anthony Bourdain hosted him on a 2011 holiday episode (which premiered Vegan Black Metal Chef’s “Holliday Hell Roast”).
Ten episodes later and Manowitz is still at it, proving that he might be more than just a flash in the spiked pan. There’s a DVD, T-shirts and CDs of all the music with and without the vocal tracks. Best of all, the food is good. I recently made the Buffalo Seitan Bites and—even as someone who eats meat—really enjoyed it.
And he’s got more evil episodes in the works. Paste caught up with Manowitz in his Orlando lair, where he discussed the turning point from carnivore to vegan, making music and, of course, all-mighty seitan.
Paste: When you got into this did you expect this to last a year?
Brian Manowitz: Honestly, when I got into it, I didn’t expect it to take off so quickly. In one sense, I was going to be making these things whether people cared about it or not because I wanted to teach the vegan cooking. It’s really cool that people cared about it.
Paste: What immediately struck me was how well it’s done.
Manowitz: I had basically no experience with camera or video editing before, but I had seen a commercial that I did the audio for once being shot with just an SLR camera. Then I saw what came out of it, and I was like “Oh my god, you can make movies with these things!” I could do the audio all right, and it seems like all you need to do to make a really good video is one of these awesome cameras and some decent lighting. The lighting that worked out the best for me was just candlelight—everything is just shot with candlelight. I spray-painted a bunch of junk black and made it happen.
Paste: You knew some people who helped with the set pieces…
Manowitz: More so for the castle wall in the background; and I had some help setting up the cabinets. I have a friend that does stunts for movies and shows, and he helped me do that.
Paste: You should sell those pentagram cutting boards…
Manowitz: We obviously thought about selling those for a while, but they take too long to make, and you’d have to sell them for a pretty extreme price to make it worth anyone’s time [laughs].
Paste: How long have you been vegan?
Manowitz: I’ve been vegan for about 12 years.
Paste: Growing up did you have a pretty traditional diet?
Manowitz: I grew up on the standard American diet—which included McDonald’s, fast food, chicken wings and all sorts of crap.