Imaginative, innovative and completely cruelty-free, Dragonfly Neo-V Cuisine, located at 247 King Ave., in Columbus, Ohio, has found the recipe for success in contemporary vegan dining. Chef Magdiale Wolmark produces a delightfully diverse menu, incorporating locally grown organic food. Menu selections change seasonally, complementing the local harvest. Since opening in 2000, the restaurant has experienced phenomenal success and continues to evolve. In 2004, Dragonfly was named one of the top 10 best vegetarian restaurants in the nation by USA Today. Magdiale recently shared some thoughts on being a vegan chef and his goals for the future of Dragonfly Neo-V in an exclusive interview with VegOhio.com.

What made you interested in becoming a chef?

Restaurants can be very glamorous places. Giant glossy photos of sculpturally exotic culinary works of art can be very alluring. Suddenly from behind the curtain emerges these creations, seemingly effortlessly conjured by crazy magicians in white coats, all the time sipping fine wine as they dance amongst the fire and knives. Of course, I couldn't resist. It was the lifestyle that first seduced me, and what a lifestyle it is. But also behind the curtain are people working very hard, very grueling lifestyles. There are enormous pressures and deadlines. The guest must have an exceptional experience. It's not all fun and games. I learned early on that you have to be tough and disciplined. I revisit the early lessons all the time. Especially as I prepare to move forward and do greater things like the Kitchen Garden.

	Do you have a cooking philosophy?
	I am always looking at the big picture and constantly asking the question - How can I do this better?

What made you decide to focus solely on vegan food?

I don't care what anyone says. When it comes right down to it vegan cuisine is a more spiritually evolved way of interfacing with life. Unfortunately these 'spiritual diets' have a bad rap for being bland and deprivational, as if some by divine decree the pleasure of food should be removed so that one can more lucidly commune with the creator. I think that generally we are experiencing an endemic pathology at the dinner table. A lot of people are not enjoying their food—carnivores and herbivores alike. People are just eating on the go, filling there bellies but not truly experiencing there food. I don't agree with a veganism based on meat substitutes and packaged foods. It may be a transitional stepping stone but we must move way beyond that. There are animal rights issues outside the food system that also implicate the system that transports goods around the globe. Entire animal species are being wiped out in the movement of industrial globalization. We must localize our food systems and eliminate unsustainable energy sources and toxic waste from our global commerce system. The Dragonfly Neo-V Kitchen Garden exemplifies that approach. For me the dining experience rules. All of my senses are alert in the kitchen and at the table, I love design and collaborating with designers and artists to create a beautiful environment for the dining experience. Cooking with vegetables is very chic and now. To all carnivores I say, "Let's move on people!" The Kitchen Garden will have a chef's table for up to six guests to experience a multi-course tasting of ingredients harvested before your eyes and prepared in the Dragonfly Neo-V kitchen. It will be the most amazing dining experience that you will ever have.

	Do you feel limited in this choice?
	Limited? I am liberated. Infinite possibilities are out there and I've only just begun to explore. I am shocked that people aren't just over eating chicken every night. Even the restaurants same old choices - Salmon, steak, chicken, perhaps some odd species of wild game. For years it's been like this. Have you seen my menus? I don't fit a mold.

Who or what has been your influence in your cooking style?

There have been many different sources. Many are not in the culinary field but in other arts or endeavors. Mario Musso, one of my early mentors, taught me many lessons about seasoning dishes and developing sensory awareness in the kitchen and dining room. In Washington, D.C. I was given an opportunity to explore the more conceptual and whimsical opportunities of menu design and collaboration. Traveling through Latin America and Asia exposed me to incredible cuisine. I consider those experiences to be invaluable. I constantly reference the indigenous cuisines of the places I've visited and cross catalog them with our local ingredients. It's remarkable how our native Ohio produces foods that work well in Latin and Asian dishes. I also regard my spiritual training in the martial arts as a key component of developing the empathy and awareness that attracted me to create a new vegan cuisine.

	What is your most requested dish at home?
	My wife and kids love my gyozo, and chocolate donuts.

With spring arriving, what local distinctive foods do you plan on incorporating into your menu?

I always use Ohio walnuts, and I've begun to cultivate my own shiitake mushrooms. I still have beans from the winter that I can stew in a cassoulet with young spring ramps, and preserved and dried tomatoes still are wonderful with local garlic confit and microgreens on a pizza. Remember early spring is still early and we won't really get into some serious local produce until late spring. I will be growing totsoi for early harvest, and I will plant asparagus and some jostaberry bushes. I plan to vine apples, pears and Jacob's climbing bean.

Do you have any visions for your restaurant in the future?

Of course! I've discovered that there is enormous potential for our local food system, and meanwhile I've been hankerin’ to get my own hands dirty in the garden to grow and harvest vegetables for my professional kitchen. I started a Kitchen Garden/Community garden project over two years ago with a landscape architect, Jennifer Bartley. Jennifer is currently concluding a beautiful book about Kitchen Garden design to be released in 2006. She's included Dragonfly's garden in the book among a select few others from around the world. This is a pioneering project here. In fact, Jennifer talks about my Kitchen Garden's mission in a chapter she titled 'Small Garden, Big Ideas.' This beautifully designed Jardin Potager, modeled after the great Kitchen Gardens of provincial France, is also the entrepreneurial training garden for the Columbus Foodshed project community garden network. The garden is in the final stages of construction and will be complete this spring. I basically excavated a parking lot behind the restaurant and I'm turning it into a beautiful food producing zone and I'm giving it to our community as a learning model on how to transform our world. Potential impact is huge for both community gardens and veganism. We're teaching kids how to grow and prepare and truly experience the vegetable kingdom. As I continue to expand this garden and build new gardens, I am considering adopting animals that we associate with the farm. Pigs and chickens, perhaps a cow or two on a larger urban plot and our young community gardeners can care for their animal brothers and sisters as companion pets. The excellent compost will fuel more amazingly delicious produce.