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Wojciech Linek is 36 years old and has worked in the kitchen for half of his life. Obesity did not prevent him from becoming one of the popular chefs of the contemporary Polish gastro-generation. 9 months ago Wojtek switched to a vegan diet. While learning a new kitchen, he lost about 30 kg. He told us how eating only vegetables and fruits influenced his body.

Beginnings with the smell of sugar and coal

End of the 1990s. Zgorzelec in the Dolnośląskie Voivodeship. A small, neighborhood confectionery like many in Polish cities. 15-year-old Wojtek Linek, instead of going on winter holidays, looks through the windows to see what is going on inside. One day, she gets up the courage and asks if she can enter the kitchen. There he inhales the scent of sugar, yeast, almonds, licorice, vanilla, cinnamon and carefully observes what the local confectioners make of them. This is where the first frosting is squeezed out of a handmade paper tube.

Wojtek spends even more time in Dolnośląskie Złoty Stok by the kitchen of his great-aunt's house. Under her watchful eye, she recreates old family recipes, incl. for young cabbage with lovage and a mixture of dried vegetables. When the aunt-grandmother is gone, Wojtek's grandmother will take over culinary education. Both teachers will leave him with priceless memories of dishes with a unique wood-charcoal aroma and a cookbook with family recipes. Teenage Wojtek, a student of the gastronomic technical school in Zgorzelec, knows for sure what he wants to do for the rest of his life - he will be a cook, he will be a chef.

Too capable to be stuck on a dishwasher

With a degree in gastronomy technician Wojtek attends the University of Hotel Management and Gastronomy in Poznań. During his studies, he is on an 8-month internship in a French restaurant near Nice. The chef of the local kitchen notices and appreciates Wojtek's "confectionery knack". With his decision, Wojtek skips the next stages of "kitchen initiation", i.e. washing dishes (the so-called dishwasher), peeling, cutting fruit and vegetables (the so-called peeler) and finishing dishes, and after a month of internship he begins to prepare tarts on his own.

Too young for the "old chef"

In 2005, Wojtek finishes his studies and finds a job offer for a restaurant chef in a hotel that is being built near Zgorzelec. Send the application. The hotel owners are very impressedWojtek's culinary skills, but they are afraid that he is too young to handle such a responsible position. Determined Wojtek comes to Warsaw and asks for recommendations from one of the capital's famous chefs, Wojciech Pasikowski. He not only gives Wojtek an enthusiastic opinion, but also asks for the support of other bosses and, in addition, undertakes to help Wojtek in his new job on an ongoing basis. Wojtek gets a job and has been managing the hotel kitchen for 2 years.

-You are young, you should travel around the world, gather experience, and you are stuck in this Zgorzelec like an "old boss"- Pasikowski is surprised to his "charge". And that Wojtek himself feels that he is "starting to wear it", he quits his job and follows his mentor's advice.

During travels, he gets to know new products, flavors, kitchens and techniques. In France, he learns to make cheese, grow mold on dried sausage and make a pork ear roulade. In the Netherlands, he visits gardeners, growers and processing plants with local friends. In Italy, he realizes that pizza is not a wheat cake. He lives longer in the Austrian Aplach, where he becomes a chef in one of the local restaurants.

Getting back on my feet

Wojtek leads his life on the road. He divides his time into work in Austria as well as workshops and new culinary projects in Poland. It becomes, inter alia, co-author of a book about snail dishes. Wojtek's life on the run is interrupted by an accident. During one of the trips, his car collides with a truck. Wojtek is hospitalized in a serious condition. Doctors leave no doubt that long treatment awaits him, including several major surgeries and even longer rehabilitation. Wojtek does not allow himself to think that he will not walk. He changes the doctor whenever he hints at it. Wojtek is thinking intensely what to do during this forced break. And he thinks:I will go vegan .

Wojtek has already de alt with vegan dishes. Restaurant customers asked about them, so Wojtek introduced a few simple dishes to the menu. When there were more and more people, Wojtek began to "combine" and invent something more for them than rice with broccoli or cauliflower. He didn't want vegans to be "second-class" customers in his restaurant.

Despite the doctor's assurances about the beneficial effects of a vegan diet, Wojtek, who likes and eats all meat, is skeptical about changing his diet permanently. He had read or heard about mineral deficiencies and concentration disorders. -I will boil and container vegan for some time and see what will come of it- Wojtek decides. March 20, 2022 announces publicly on his FB profile that he is going throughon veganism. For now, for 2 months. The main goal of the challenge - he wants to learn vegan cooking. He treats the potential weight loss as a bonus.

"Right posture" cook

When Wojtek "switches" to a vegan diet, he weighs 126.5 kg. With a height of 190 cm, his BMI, i.e. body mass index, is over 35. Wojtek is obese of the second degree, but he does not realize that it is a disease.

He remembers that as a child he was simply "bigger" than his peers. When he started working in his profession, he also began to gain weight more intensively. He had never experienced any unpleasantness because of it, and he felt good. He remembers two disadvantages of obesity. He had to order professional jackets for work in the kitchen from a special tailor, and after a whole day in the kitchen, he had pain in his overloaded knee joints. But to lose weight …? No, it never occurred to him …

Vegan diets are so bright …

Wojtek has a professional approach to changing the diet. She happily covers the variety and abundance of vegan cuisine. During the breaks between consecutive hospital stays and rehabilitation classes, he comes up with and tests new dishes - different every day. In the few free moments, he "works out", for example, how to improve the color of beetroot purée, or how to make eggplant mayonnaise more velvety. The crisis comes once and unexpectedly. Wojtek is overwhelmed by the urge to eat roasted chicken. Cheats the appetite by preparing … bulgur with spices identical to those used in poultry.

Day by day Wojtek has more energy, he is more joyful, he needs less sleep to regenerate and he sweats less. On the other hand, it feels smells and flavors more intensively - it can smell meat stuffed with preservatives from a considerable distance. He also feels the clothes have become looser. So he buys a scale to monitor the amount of pounds lost. The weight "goes down" very fast. After the first month, Wojtek weighs 7.5 kg less, and after the second month, another 4 kg. "Fired on" with an unexpected "side effect" of a vegan diet, he decides to continue it. In total, on a vegan diet, Wojtek loses 26.5 kg in 9 months.

… and shadows

Wojtek's "run away" from the body of vitamins. The blood count results, which Wojtek takes once a month, do not improve despite supplementation with special preparations. Doctors watch Wojtek's tests and accuse him of… alcoholism. This is at least indicated by a high level of uric acid. And the higher this index, the greater the risk to Wojtek's kidneys. When he explains that it is the effect of a vegan diet based on: chickpeas, peas and beans with a high concentrationuric acid - doctors advise you to immediately correct or even change your diet. To balance the uric acid level, Wojtek starts drinking birch bark tea with mint, and removes legumes from the menu. Fate decides about returning to the previous diet …

Back to the top?

Later this year, Wojtek will start working in a new restaurant located in the panoramic station in the Alps. As a chef, he will try to taste all products and ready-made dishes - including meat, fish and dairy. In order to get used to them, the body slowly includes them in its daily menu. At the beginning of his "vegan journey" he had a plan that when he finished it, he would finally eat a decent steak. But he rarely craves steak and other meat dishes. Fear appears more often… What if the lost 30 kg comes back? What if he returns more than 30 kg and obesity develops …?

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Important

Poradnikzdrowie.pl supports safe treatment and a dignified life of people suffering from obesity. This article does not contain discriminatory and stigmatizing content of people suffering from obesity.

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Obesity