Beverly Lynn Bennett is an experienced vegan chef and baker, writer, and animal advocate who is passionate about showing the world how easy, delicious, and healthful it is to live and eat as a vegan. A certified foodservice operations manager, she earned her culinary arts degree in 1988 from the University of Akron, Ohio, and in the years that followed, gained much practical experience working in and managing vegan and vegetarian restaurants and natural foods stores.Vegan since the early 1990s, Beverly is the author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Vegan Living, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Vegan Cooking, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Gluten-Free Vegan Cooking, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Vegan Slow Cooking, Vegan Bites: Recipes for Singles, and others. Her work has appeared in many national and international print publications, on public television and DVD, and all over the Internet. She has hosted "The Vegan Chef" website at veganchef.com since 1999 and authored the long-running column "Dairy-Free Desserts" in VegNews Magazine.Beverly currently lives and works in the vegan-friendly city of Eugene, Oregon, where her love of organic, healthy, and exciting foods fuels a passion for developing innovative vegan recipes. Her work appeals to a wide assortment of tastes and offers enticing alternatives to those with dietary restrictions of all sorts. In her spare time, she can often be found advising others on all things vegan, developing new culinary creations (an increasing number of which are raw and/or gluten -free), and helping to educate on issues including animal rights, environment, and health, through cooking demos and speaking engagements.