Mastering the Art of Plant-Based Cooking: Vegan Recipes, Tips, and Techniques.(2024) Cool Beans: The Ultimate Guide to the World's Most Versatile Plant-Based Protein, with 125 Recipes. (2020)
Yonan initially worked as a reporter for Boston media outlets.[9] After many years in "hard news," however, and not receiving a promotion fromThe Boston Globe, Yonan explored a career change.[12] He readWhat Color Is Your Parachute?[9] and realized that he wanted to focus onfood writing.[9][12] He recalls that, “I knew I didn’t want to become a chef... I just wanted to combine my biggest passions and that was writing, journalism and food.”[12] Realizing that he needed a culinary background, Yonan joined theCambridge School of Culinary Arts in 1999,[9][12] and graduated in 2000.[13] In 2006, he joinedThe Washington Post as food editor and food writer, where he wrote the "Cooking for One" column for five years.[11] He then wrote the Weeknight Vegetarian column from 2013 until 2025, when he took a voluntary separation package and left the newspaper.[2][11]
Although Yonan grew up on a diet of "T-bones" and "the first thing he remembers learning to make as a kid was chicken-fried steak,"[7] he publicly "came out" in 2013 as avegetarian via a column in The Washington Post.[14] He was living on his sister's and brother-in-law's homestead inMaine in 2012 when he became a vegetarian. The homestead grows vegetables, mushrooms, beans, walnuts, rye, wheat, and fruit.[15] He states that he made the switch for health and environmental reasons,[16] and credits growing up in San Angelo as vital towards his interest in beans, due to his constant consumption ofTex-Mex.[6] Some of his favorite vegetarian cookbooks areTen Talents (1968),Moosewood Cookbook (1977), andVegetarian Cooking for Everyone (1997).[17]
Yonan has said he is "90%vegan," and primarily writes about plant-based food.[18]
Yonan's first book,Serve Yourself: Nightly Adventures in Cooking for One (2011), was born out of his monthly column forThe Washington Post,Cooking for One, to help "single folks to realize that they don’t have to resort to takeout all the time, or processed food."[23] Later, when describing his 2013 book,Eat Your Vegetables: Bold Recipes for the Single Cook, written as he was transitioning to a vegetarian diet,Publishers Weekly, argued that the "greatly appealing dishes in this collection open up a whole new culinary world for veggie lovers."[24]Tasting Table includedCool Beans: The Ultimate Guide to the World's Most Versatile Plant-Based Protein, with 125 Recipes (2020) in its list of “The 14 Best Vegetarian Cookbooks That Even Meat Eaters Will Love,"[25] andFood & Wine listed it as one of their "Favorite Vegetarian Cookbooks."[26]
Yonan's 2024 cookbookMastering the Art of Plant-Based Cooking won the 2025James Beard Award (Media: Vegetable-Focused Cooking).[3]VegNews included it in its list of "The Best Vegan Cookbooks of 2024,"[27]Food & Wine lists it as one of "The Best Cookbooks of 2024, According to Food & Wine Editors,"[28] columnistAvery Yale Kamila lists it among "The year’s best vegan cookbooks" in thePortland Press Herald,[29] T. Susan Chang ofNPR lists it on "Cooks We Love: 11 cookbooks from 2024 recommended by NPR critics and staff,"[30]Chowhound lists it as one of the "15 Best Vegetarian Cookbooks Of 2024,"[31]The New York Times lists it among "The 16 Best Cookbooks of 2024,"[32] and Laura Brehaut ofThe National Post featured the book in her Cook This column.[33]
Joe Yonan (Mastering the Art of Plant-Based Cooking, 2025)
Nominees
Moosewood Collective (Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant, 1991),(Moosewood Cooks for a Crowd, 1997), (Moosewood Restaurant New Classics, 2002), and (Moosewood Restaurant Celebrates, 2004)
Deborah Madison (This Can't Be Tofu, 2001), (Vegetable Soups from Deborah Madison's Kitchen, 2006),(Vegetable Soups from Deborah Madison's Kitchen, 2007), (In My Kitchen, 2018)
