Joe McNamee: After an exceedingly carnivorous Christmas, I found myself doing Veganuary

After an exceedingly carnivorous Christmas that left me feeling like a bear on the cusp of hibernation, I find myself craving the non-meat option

In all my years in professional kitchens, I was never more than a solid line cook working mostly with meat and fish until my final professional gig, as head chef in a vegetarian restaurant. 

Though I stockpiled wine in quantities sufficient to make a small vineyard blush, I endured an alarmingly abstemious Christmas holiday, so my usual Dry January hasn’t been any great shock to the system. If anything, it was a logical conclusion to a tapering off that began during Christmas itself.

On the other hand, I did not consciously set out to do Veganuary, but, for all intents and purposes, my diet over the last while is presenting as something of a close cousin. I have eaten meat and fish, albeit on a mere handful of occasions and almost entirely for professional purposes, but, for the most part, I have been vegetarian or even vegan.