From her signature green hair, frying pan earrings, and fully vegan menu items, Monique Williams is a pop-up culinary artist who offers a no-animal-byproduct and dairy-free experience for many of those within the Coastal Empire.
Affectionately known as Mo’Vegan, she offers many signature dishes from her menu with the use of oyster mushrooms to make her fried chicken sandwiches, kale to accompany her signature soups and pastas, as well as matcha for her green dairy-free milkshake. Monique’s delicious veggie alternatives to some of our favorite meat dishes makes it hard to ask the age-old question of “where’s the beef?”
Monique received her start in the culinary world after a call to action from interested customers through her personal social media accounts. As a hobby, the mother of three would post her vegan-friendly meals that she prepared for her family via her Facebook and Instagram pages. Over time, many people started to ask her to cater for various event spaces and in-home dining opportunities. In two years, she quickly met her requests by creating a lucrative catering business that grew quickly into an operated delivery space that uses social media and mobile ordering for delivery services.
Monique credits much of her success to her eye-catching photos and artistic nature. She is more than food, but also an experience. With robust colors for marketing, as well as her attention to detail, she uses a rich color palette from plating to artwork to attract her vegan-friendly customers.
Recently, I caught up with Monique during the “Veggie Tales'' episode where we tried her top selling signature dish Mo’Vegan Rasta Pasta. Monique said the dish is a customer favorite that offers the right amount of heat index, as well as veggies, to satisfy any foodie. Typically, one order of rasta pasta is $15 and includes a side salad, fried plantains, and garlic bread.
Rasta Pasta is a common Caribbean dish that’s heavy on spices, veggies, and cream. Monique transformed the Jamaican entree into a vegan weeknight meal that includes kale, rainbow peppers, mushrooms, scallions, and coconut milk to satisfy the familiar creaminess of the dish. Her spin on the dish is including her own blend of Mo’Vegan jerk seasoning that she prepares specifically for the pasta.
Monique’s focus on her healthier lifestyle choice has been a three-year transition to veganism. Over the course of the few years that she has been in business, she has received close to 5,000 views on many of her social media posts with over 1,500 shares on her Facebook and Instagram pages separately. Through her social accounts, she would distribute her menu items for the week and connect with various foodies under her social media food page “Mo’Vegan.” Unfortunately, due to a hacking experience in early 2020, her social media pages were dismantled, and Monique was forced to restart her social media footprint. This turning point caused financial hardships for her and forced her to recreate her brand and clientele in over a year's time. However, like a tree, Monique continued to grow through this experience and picked up the pieces leading her to embark on testing pop-up venues and vendor spaces at various events across Savannah and neighboring cities.
Contact Monique “Mo’Vegan” Williams for food delivery or a pop-up via direct messenger on Instagram at movegan2021 or through Facebook messenger at Movegan MiyannasCurl Williams.
Martina Yvette produces the Dine and Dash videos and contributes columns for Savannahnow.com. Contact her at adashofthat1@gmail.com. See more columns by Martina at SavannahNow.com/lifestyle/food/.
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Eat a little Mo’Vegan without missing the beef
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