Gabrielle Reyes: Singing Vegan TikTok Chef Gabrielle Reyes Mixes Beats With Beets – Exclusive Interview
This interview contains discussion of eating disorders.
Gabrielle Reyes has the kind of career that’s only imaginable in the age of the internet. She’s probably most famous for her TikTok page, One Great Vegan, where she turns colorful, vibrant vegan recipes into little music videos complete with danceable beats and groovy, soul-inflected vocals that she writes and sings herself. She often collaborates with her husband, Ace Anderson, a rapper, comedian, and photographer with his own impressive TikTok presence. In addition to the cooking videos, the two have also made an album together, so you know Reyes is just as serious about music as she is about cooking.
Somehow, the TikToks and music aren’t enough for Reyes, who also published a cookbook and has made appearances on many TV shows, including “Access Hollywood” and “Good Morning America.” We’re not sure when she sleeps, but it’s clear that this multi-hyphenate is bursting with talent and energy. We sat down with Gabrielle Reyes and asked her about her creative process, the secrets to making delicious vegan food, and more.
Meeting Oprah and Sylvester Stallone
Ernesto S. Ruscio/Getty & Fred Duval/Shutterstock
You sang on tour with Oprah. Did you learn anything from traveling with her?
It’s so interesting you say that, because I learned a lot, absolutely. I learned everything because that was the first job I did that was professional. I’d been doing theater. I did some stuff in New York on Broadway, and in regional theaters, but this was the first opportunity I had to sing in front of hundreds of thousands of people, and my voice was actually being selected as a good voice. I was like, “Oh my gosh, I can actually do this.” I learned confidence and how to perform to a huge audience. Getting to meet Oprah wasn’t bad, either. She was so much taller than I expected. I was like, “Girl. Hello.”
It’s always interesting to meet people you’ve only seen on a screen.
I’m an actress in my other life, and I just did a film with Sylvester Stallone, and I got to meet him. I was like, “Wow.” I’m not starstruck, normally, but I was like, “Wow, that’s you. Wow. You exist.” It was interesting because [of] the height — whenever you meet celebrities, you’re like, “Whoa, you look so much bigger.”
It’s really cool to get to interact with people of notoriety, but on a creative level, not so much as a super-fan but instead as a peer, a comrade. “Yeah. We working together.”
Why she went vegan
Ace Anderson
For our readers who might just be discovering you, what inspired you to go vegan?
Back in 2011, I was in college. I was studying theater, acting, singing, all that. The performance space can be pretty toxic. There’s a lot of ideas about what a woman should look like, how her body should be, how much she should eat, dieting, all that nonsense.
I was deep in that for a couple of months, and that developed into an eating disorder. I was really struggling. I was binging, purging, over-exercising, undereating. Everything bad you shouldn’t do, I was doing it. And then, one day after a huge tailgate, I ate all this food and I felt like crap. I was going to go do what I did at the time. I heard a voice in my head, and it sounded like my late father (he passed when I was younger). It sounded like him, and it was literally, “Go vegan.”
That was it, and I was like, “All right.” I never went back. People think it’s crazy when I tell them that, but it was something that was almost a higher universal calling, because I’d been struggling so much with feeling guilty about what I was putting into my body for so long. I was feeling at a low vibration. I wasn’t feeling like how I feel today.
After that, I never looked back. I never craved meat, never craved cheese, never craved eggs ever again. It was like a light switch went off, and then I started cooking. I’ve been cooking for a while. I’d been making Haitian, Caribbean, Latin food, and soul food for a while with my family. This was my chance to cook for myself, become an adult in a way, and take ownership of what I was doing to make myself feel incredible every day. I’ve been doing it ever since.
If you need help with an eating disorder, or know someone who is, help is available. Visit the National Eating Disorders Association website or contact NEDA’s Live Helpline at 1-800-931-2237. You can also receive 24/7 Crisis Support via text (send NEDA to 741-741).
Dallas is a shockingly great vegan city
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You grew up in the Dallas area, right? Is there something that makes DFW a special place for food?
In Texas, they love their meat. They love their cheese. It’s Texas. Texas barbecue, right? What’s so cool about Dallas-Fort Worth, it’s [one of the best cities] in America to live in if you’re plant-based or vegan. There’s a [huge] Indian population out there. Most Indians eat vegetarian-vegan already, and there’s also the Ethiopian population out there. A lot of them eat vegan or vegetarian. It’s almost like it’s a mixture of the cultures that have come to Texas for better opportunities, set their roots, and then were like, “I’ve been making plant-based food already, so I’m going to make a restaurant.”
What’s been cool, too, is, especially in the Black and brown communities in Texas overall, all these couples, young people, moms, dads, older people, grandmas, and grandpas are realizing, “I love soul food. I love things fried. I love my cheese. I love my creamy. I love all that goodness, but I’m not feeling so great. How can I still make this food? How can I share my love of Black culture, African culture, but help people feel better?” It’s been really cool watching and helping Dallas grow.
How Gabrielle Reyes creates her musical TikToks
Ace Anderson
What’s the creative process for creating one of your musical cooking TikToks? Is it music first? Is it food first? Is it both at the same time?
Every day is different, but I’ve gotten now to a point where I’m consistent. I plan what recipe I’m going to make. I make the recipe video. I edit the video. I released an album recently, and I work with the same producer to create beats — African, Afro beats, Latin beats, whatever’s the vibe of the recipe. He’ll create a beat for me, and then once everything’s edited, the beat has been selected, I’ll watch the video, and I’ll sing some random little tune to it.
I won’t say words at first. It’ll be like “doo doos” and “la las” or “oohs” and “ahs”. Then, I’ll start to incorporate the recipe.
I’ll start feeling how the words fit with a little song. I’ll change up the tune. Once I have the core title or the first two lines that rhyme, I run with it and I go with the flow. At that point, I start rhyming. I try to make it different. I try to make the tunes different. My husband helps me too sometimes, because I always want to make sure that as a creative, I’m bringing something completely different — not just completely different than you’ve ever seen, but something you’ve never seen from me.
Each video takes 48 hours to make, [from] beginning to editing. The recording — oh my gosh, the recording process — it takes two to three hours each video, but it’s a labor of love. I do not complain. I always feel so fulfilled when I’m done with it. I’m like, “Yes, it sounds so good. I’m dancing.” I start working out to it. I always feel great.
Speaking of music stuff, if you could cook and eat a meal with any musician, living or dead, who would it be?
I’m going to have to say Beyoncé. I know it’s pretty cliché, but it’s Beyoncé. Come on now. Number one, Beyoncé can sing. I already feel like we could be best friends. Number two, I know she’s interested in plant-based. She’s invested in a lot of plant-based stuff. If I had to pick two others, it would have to be Lizzo and Rihanna, because they’re a vibe too. I know they’re also into eating plant-based Caribbean food.