When Jessica Mahady became a vegan, she wasn't thinking about the lack of vegan cooking competitions out there. And when she had the idea for a vegan cooking competition, she wasn't thinking about it being the kind of thing that sells out in a mere 10 minutes. But, as it turns out, there were no other vegan cooking competitions in NYC and Veggie Conquest has started selling out in just 10 minutes (and it's only been around just over a year!), so we guess Jessica may have gotten a bit more than she bargained for. After all, the whole thing started with just a simple idea for a friends and friends-of-friends potluck dinner. Which, by the way, never happened.

Before she could even get the in-home meal together, the ideas for awards and prizes and judges ballooned into something much bigger than her own kitchen could handle and she went for it all at once. Why start small when you can start big? We totally get it. So, we caught up with Jessica in Union Square for the official Veggie Conquest explanation, so you can get it, too:



For the 411 on Veggie Conquest events and to sign up for their email alerts (highly recommended if you want any shot at getting into one of their cook-offs), visit veggieconquest.com.