[8] After many years in "hard news," however, and not receiving a promotion from The Boston Globe, Yonan explored a career change.
[10] 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,"[6] he publicly "came out" in 2013 as a vegetarian via a column in The Washington Post.
[14] He states that he made the switch for health and environmental reasons,[15] and credits growing up in San Angelo as vital towards his interest in beans, due to his constant consumption of Tex-Mex.
"[21] 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.
"[22] Tasting Table included Cool 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,"[23] and Food & Wine listed it as one of their "Favorite Vegetarian Cookbooks.