Vegan Black Metal Chef Makes Delicious Dishes With Hellfire and Brimstone

Oct. 19, 2011— -- His YouTube videos open with thunderous drums and a crackly voice that sounds like it is from the bowels of hell, as the camera pans over an eerie candle-lit kitchen, complete with black appliances and a pentagram stove top.

It's time for the Mask of Demons... time for the Armor of Hell... it's time to cook some food?

Brian Manowitz is a 30-year-old food lover and freelance sound engineer, but to his one million plus YouTube viewers, he is the KISS-esqe-make-up wearing, armor-clad Vegan Black Metal Chef with an Internet cooking show.

"This is where the heat of Satan engulfs your food, and it becomes from pieces of vegetable into fine vegan meals," Manowitz said, referring to his kitchen.

His pentagram stove top is the "main alter where we sacrifice all the main vegetables," he said, and also the center piece for his show.

"You can't summon the essence of Satan into your food without the pentagrams," Manowitz added.

Underneath the make-up and costume, Manowitz said the Vegan Black Metal Chef persona is simply his attempt to explain what it means to be a vegan -- someone who doesn't eat or use anything that comes from animals, including everything from meat, cheese, eggs or leather products. In fact, Manowitz's armor tight-body-sleeve is made of vinyl material.

"I don't believe in the exploitation of animals," he said.

So what about the "Black Metal" part of his title? Well, that's just his hobby. Manowitz is in two bands and has been listening to black metal music for years, slightly different than death metal.

"One analogy that I use is death metal kind of sounds like Cookie Monster and black metal sounds like Donald Duck," he said.

On his cooking show, the chef prepares recipes -- Udon Noodle stir fry, Pad Thai and sushi -- while screeching out ingredients and chopping while wearing finger daggers. While Manowitz has, forgive me, a devilish sense of humor, he takes his vegan commitment and his cooking very seriously.

"Just bring consciousness to your actions," he said. "And if everyone did that, myself included of course, just always bring consciousness to your actions, the world would be a much better place."

Along with Satan's fire, let's not forget.

Raised as a Jewish kid in Florida, Manowitz said he doesn't really worship Satan, unless you're talking about wheat gluten spelled "seitan," which he has cooked with. While some of his instructions include telling viewers to "CHOP SOME ONIONS WITH AN AX!!!," the contents of the chef's refrigerator looked fresh and beautiful.

"Absolutely, that's why the food is so damn good," he said. "Maybe the real danger is in what other people are eating."

It's loud, it's unusual, but the food tastes good. Indeed, some (vegan) food for thought.

Click to the next page for a recipe from the Vegan Black Metal Chef