Robert Oser

Robert Oser (1948-) Born and raised in East St. Louis, Illinois, Robert began his career in the food industry at the age of 15 working for National Foods. He worked his way through college in commercial grocery stores (Tom-Boy, A&P and Kroger) and received a degree in English Education. Although he never taught English, as he had planned, he used his college teachings to write cookbooks and teach culinary classes. He was the owner of two health food markets, The Natural Habit, in Belleville and Granite City, Illinois from 1983-1986 and moved to Tucson, Arizona in 1988, where he worked at Canyon Ranch Spa as a demonstration chef and at Sierra Tucson as head of the CEAD (Center for Eating Addictions and Disorders) kitchen. He also worked as executive chef at the Oasis Vegetarian Eatery and the Conspiracy Cafe' (part of the Food Conspiracy Co-op), as well as deli manager at New Frontiers in Sedona. He also worked 10 years as department manager and part of the management team at Food Conspiracy Co-op, 4 years as grocery manager at Aqua Vita and 2 years as frozen food manager at Sunflower Farmer's Market, and as store manager for Local harvest Marketplace. Robert was co-founder of the Vegetarian Resource Group of Tucson and served as vice president of the board for several years. He is currently serving his third term on the board of the Food Conspiracy Co-op. He has written three vegetarian cookbooks (Flavors of the Southwest, Chili!, and Smoothie Power) and co-authored Munchie Madness: Vegetarian Meals for Teens. He has written hundreds of articles, recipes and restaurant reviews for magazines (Chile Pepper, Vegetarian Times) and newsletters (the VRGT's Enlightened Times, The Tucson Organic Gardeners' The Composter, the Tucson Funny Times, the Food Conspiracy Co-op Newsletter and others). He appeared in the cooking video, Good Eats, for Canyon Ranch and presented 1-minute "Cooking Tips with Chef Robert" on KXCI radio in Tucson. He has lectured and taught vegetarian gourmet culinary classes for 25+ years at health food stores (New Life, Food Conspiracy, Aqua Vita), churches (St. Francis in the Foothills, St. Mark's), culinary schools (Culinary Concepts), schools, (Khalsa Montesorri) and free-lance. He is semi-retired and does private cooking in Tucson, Arizona. He is also a musician playing at Tucson coffeehouses and small venues.