I have seen Josh Ploeg recipes around for a while now. Always inventive, always creative and always cool as fuck. The latest Molotov Rag issue would be a pretty decent example; he comes up with a recipe for post-apocalypse vegan haute cuisine! If he is coming your way, book him for a dinner party, let him sleep in your guest room and book a show for his band!

I don’t want another Guh-nah-dee disaster (again, sorry Adam!). How would one go about pronouncing your last name?

PLOOOOOOOOOOOOG
It’s Dutch, means plow (yeah baby u know it!)

On your blog it says you sang in a couple of bands, Behead the Prophet, Mukilteo Fairies and Lords of Lightspeed, how long has it been since you have played in bands/are you singing in any bands now (Warm Streams)? Would you have been the “traveling chef” if you didn’t used to be in bands?

Yes, Warm Streams are still playing, even though I moved to LA and they still live in Sac. It’s a fun rocked out punk band, good for your “special party” or bar mitzvah. If I hadn’t toured in bands I would never have the blueprint for how I tour with food now, that’s the whole reason I used the tour model for cooking in the first place. Punk rock almost killed me. Or wait without punk rock I would have never not done what I do not do now?

Tell me about where the best underground cafes are!

Haha! These can change so often- so I don’t know- your place?
Wherever I am, that’s where the best one is at, I tell you what!

“…he shows up at your house with a load of groceries, makes an incredible multi-course vegan meal using your pots and pans, and then he’s gone like the Lone Ranger riding into a big Texas sunset.” Adam Gnade said this about you. All of the stuff you will find online about you and your cooking uses descriptions that no one else would use when it comes to vegan cooking and cookbook authors. How have you managed to stay out of the “vegan cookbook author narrative?”

I feel like if there is any case to be made for veganism/vegetarianism that is really solid it is good food that people love on some intrinsic level. Can’t argue with that can you naysayers out there? It’s heart and soul food that I am making and I don’t mind being a little mysterious about it, I will also make anything vegan that can be made at all in the world of food without qualms or pretentions and don’t make a big deal about it being vegan. It just IS and the reason that this is the case is so that anyone can eat it. Vegan food sometimes seems a bit cultish to outsiders (and insiders) or people feel judged (for whatever reason) for not being vegan (or for being vegan as well!). It comes to be viewed as exclusionary, a lot of no no no and a very judgmental style. I think everyone appreciates that this (my food) comes from a place of inclusion and is not trumpeting particular benefits or detractions and I do not give great pontifications about the lifestyle or laundry lists of terms and taboos in my cookbooks. So people tend to view it as more “yes I can and it can be fun, good, mind expanding and as creative as I want without limitation” rather than the oft strictured formats that others tend to promote. You won’t catch me saying “healthy” or such things too often, because I view the term as extremely subjective and I feel that food is very personal and goes back to a person’s oldest memories. I want to be a part of that. I think people can sense that something a little different is going on.

Your recipes are crazy, in a good way, how do you hold all of this information in your head? How many meals do you have stored in your head at one time?

It is all swimming around in there and tends to bump out other information. I must have a special part of the brain that stores food information because I may not think of a particular menu item for a while but then when I do, dozens of other related ones will come streaming out. Let’s be conservative and say A MILLION

You have been around the hardcore scene long enough, I am wondering if much has ever changed in the diet of the hardcore kid?

Yes in the 80s punks ate mostly junk food like everyone else, now there are a shit ton of vegans and people with special diets.

Is there anyone you would absolutely refuse to cook for / poison?

I think I really would cook for anybody. Might try some mind control ingredients though, I hope to learn more from my tour mates about those!

Have you ever had any MacGyver like experiences when cooking on the road? What can you make out of two matchsticks, a paper clip and some chewing gum?

Yes, I think those things make a microwave. I sometimes have to make levelers for the oven out of broken ceramic and things like that so that my shit doesn’t spill in a crooked oven. Baking or sauteing on lids, that sort of thing (improvised gear). Also, of course if some spice or ingredient is missing I can mimic the taste by combining other things together, a talent which most people do not possess.

You have a new tour coming up, tell us a bit about that and how it all came together. Also, what’s next for Josh Ploeg after that?

Joe concocted this scheme in his fantabulous mind. I insisted it be west coast for a change and we can party more, that was my contribution. It’s me with a cooking show and vegan snacks, Joe Biel showing his PlanItX Documentary “If It Ain’t Cheap It Ain’t Punk”, selling books and zines from Microcosm and doing Q&A, and Michael Hoerger and Mia Partlow from “Edible Secrets” with a touring history/presentation on the secret history of food and espionage, which should be bizarre and fascinating. There will be gourmet popcorn. Good tour.
After that I need to do some southern, east coast and Canada visitation, Europe again, put out a few more obtuse/arty cookbooks and hopefully do some conceptual dinners in Japan. This is the 2-year plan.

Tempeh vs. Seitan vs. Tofu

Tempeh is probably better for you (I do love it!) but tofu is more versatile.

Hemp vs. Rice. vs Almond vs. Soy vs. Oat Milk

I like oat a lot. Hemp is gross. Just smoke the shit and quit worrying about all that other stuff- THEY’RE GONNA LEGALIZE IT!

Oi Polloi vs. Propagandhi vs. Crucial Unit vs. Fugazi

Haha, this one is funny, Propagandhi for sentimental reasons.

All Ages Shows vs. All Ages Shows.

Give me a beer. It can be in a sippy cup though! Haha
Quit makin’ me feel old