Randy Graham Books In Order

Publication Order of Cookbooks

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Randy Graham is a popular author that is best known for his achievements in the kitchen. Randy takes pride in pursuing a vegan lifestyle filled with plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables. He also enjoys spreading his knowledge of veganism to the world through his literary works.

+Biography

Randy Graham put Ojai Valley on the map. Even before he came onto the scene, Ojai had a decent following because of its arts community and restaurants.

However, Randy definitely gave its image a boost when his cooking books hit the shelf and began to entice some readers away from their carnivorous lifestyles. It wouldn’t be out of the norm to find Randy at a farmer’s market in Ventura County.

The chef knows how to market his brand. Randy Graham’s life changed in 1975. He was 25-years-old at the time and for various reasons, he decided to become a vegetarian. The author wasted no time in making the announcement to his parents.

The times weren’t particularly friendly to vegans. The lifestyle made no sense to most members of society and only a select few individuals had shown a willingness to publicly embrace the idea of removing meat and fish from their diets.

Sufficing to say, the author’s parents were not impressed. His father was sure he was going through a phase; he assured Randy that he would get over it. But Randy never went back to his meat eating days.

Part of the reason Randy believes his parents didn’t know how to embrace his vegan lifestyle was that books like the ones the author has written were not available. Randy’s mother didn’t know how to begin cooking for him. No one believed that vegan diets could be delicious.

It was that notion that drove Randy to become a chef. He grew frustrated that every vegetarian meal he asked for in a restaurant was peppered with meat. Everyone around him seemed pretty certain that food couldn’t be delicious unless you injected meat into it.

So Randy Graham made it his goal to prove them all wrong. ‘So You’ve Inherited a Vegetarian’ saw Randy collect several dozen recipes into a book that readers could use to produce delicious appetizers, soups, and salads that would appeal vegans and non-vegans.

It wasn’t long before the author’s books were flying off the shelf. Randy isn’t the first chef to publish a cook book. In fact, it could be argued that there are one too many cook books in bookstores.

However, at the time that Randy Graham’s books were hitting the shelves, there weren’t that many cook books available catering towards the vegan diet. So the author was able to carve out a niche market for himself.

Randy has since produced numerous other books, most of them geared towards proving that the vegan lifestyle has the capacity to produce some truly satisfying meals even in the absence of meat.

When Randy isn’t writing vegan books, he is giving readers a peek into his vegan lifestyle via his blog. The author also has a column in a local Ojai Valley publication. Randy encourages vegetarianism as a means of living a fuller, healthier lifestyle.

The author specifically encourages the pursuit of the vegan lifestyle rather than the mere consumption of vegan food. The many talks he gives in a year are designed towards showing people the fruits that the vegan lifestyle can bring to bear.

Randy Graham has been commended for the wide appeal that his books have. Whether he is writing to busy moms struggling to make quick vegan meals on short notice or speaking to curious carnivores toying with the idea of dipping their toes into the vegan diet, Randy’s books try to reach as many different groups of people as possible.

+Ojai Valley Vegetarian Blog

This book from Randy Graham could be described as an exploration of his vegan blog. It could also be described as a companion to the author’s Ojai Valley cookbook.

The book might come as a surprise to fans because it has no recipes of note. Rather, the book explores Ojai as a town, spanning the years of 2009-2012. The many articles contained within look at Ojai through the lens of food.

Randy talks to readers about the local organic markets and the reasons why he favors them. He also takes the time to explore his own life and the reasons that drove him to become a vegetarian.

That involves taking readers back to the 1970s. Randy explores the negative reactions he got from people whenever he told them that he was a vegetarian. The era wasn’t too kind to him. Everyone thought he was weird because they didn’t get vegetarianism.

Randy explains that people were happy to dismiss him in the 70s because they thought vegetarianism was a trend that would eventually disappear. The author never stopped telling people that the lifestyle was far healthier.

An interesting aspect of the story is the teasing Randy’s brother attracted when he moved to Texas. That was still in the 1970s. And the fact that his brother was a vegetarian didn’t bode well for him.

These anecdotes and more provide insight into the man that Randy Graham became. The book shows where he started and how he slowly transformed to become the chef and author whose name is known all over the world.

+A WWI Journal

This Book from Randy Graham is an exploration of his father’s career in the army and his role in the Second World War. Dad, as Randy refers to him in this book, was stationed in North Africa. There he flew planes.

Randy provides readers glimpses into Dad’s life by compiling the writings from his letters and diary entries. The book spans the years of 1942-146. The journey Randy embarked upon to write this book began in the 1980s.

When his son came into this world, Randy realized that the boy could grow acquainted with the grandfather he would never meet through his letters and journal entries. Over the years, though, Randy began to pursue a different purpose.

Randy grew interested in revealing his father’s contribution to WWII. The story he eventually tells here looks at the decision Dad and uncle Bob made to go fight the Germans and how it eventually affected them.