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Real men eat meat. They kill it and then they grill it.

That's the stereotype, or cliche, that's about as old as time.

At a recent barbecue in Brooklyn, N.Y., a half-dozen guys who resist that particular cultural stereotype gathered together. Many of them are muscled semi-professional athletes, including triathlete Dominic Thompson, competitive bodybuilder Giacomo Marchese and mixed martial arts fighter Cornell Ward.

They're also all vegans and eschew all animal products. Because these guys are so seriously, well, built, they say some people find it hard to believe they never eat meat, fish, dairy or eggs.

"Everyone always thinks vegans are weak, skinny, frail, pale," Thompson says. "I get people that think, 'You're like Gwyneth Paltrow.' "

Unlike Paltrow (who is no longer vegan), Thompson grew up in a rough Chicago housing project. He was he kind of kid who would rush in to save stray cats or dogs if he saw people picking on them.

"[There's] nothing more cowardly to me than taking advantage of something that's defenseless," he says.

The Salt

Can You Call Yourself An Environmentalist And Still Eat Meat?

On his family's conflicting attitudes about its slaveholding past

My grandfather took almost a perverse pride in being the grandson of slaveholders. It was something for him to brag about. In Texas, countless people will tell you that they're fourth generation, fifth generation, sixth generation Texans. There's this amazing sense of pride in your family being an early settler. During the civil rights era, my grandfather — who as a young man I suspect was a member of the Klan — liked to provoke people by saying, "My family owned slaves — and they loved it so much, they took our last name." He was very proud of that.

My father, on the other hand, was not. In fact, he considered it something shameful. And it was strange growing up as a child, hearing my grandfather take this one view and my father telling me, "You know, that's not really something you should be so proud of."

On how he was taught about slavery in school in Texas

We learned slavery was bad. Roots came on television while I was learning about slavery, but the teachers always used the passive voice to talk about it. Slavery was evil but no one was responsible. There was no agency. There was no confrontation of the fact that maybe our ancestors had held slaves.

It was: "Mistakes were made. Slavery was a thing and it's not anymore and that's good and slavery is bad. Let's move on and go sing [the Confederate anthem] Dixie and be proud of our heritage."

On how he was inspired by post-apartheid South Africa

It was inspiring to me to be in South Africa after the election [of Nelson Mandela] and to see that reckoning. Bishop Desmond Tutu established the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and at the time, his argument was that before there can be reconciliation, you have to have a sharing of the truth and it has to be a common truth. One community can't have one idea of what happened and the other community ... a different idea. If you want them to reconcile, they have to agree about what happened. And that requires — for lack of a better word — confession and contrition. ...

I don't think that's something that's happened in the United States. And it certainly didn't happen in my life. And so writing this book was my opportunity to go through that process — if, for no one else, [than] for the African-American Tomlinsons and my side of the family, that we have that truth and reconciliation.

If you go to France this summer, you might notice a new logo in restaurant windows or on menus. It's a simple graphic of a rooftop covering a saucepan, and it's supposed to designate fait maison, or homemade. It's designed to highlight places that make their own dishes rather than bringing in frozen or sous vide — prepared meals cooked in a water bath, sealed in airtight plastic bags and designed to be heated up later.

I know, you're thinking, French restaurants don't cook their own food? A recent catering union survey shows some 31 percent of restaurants in France use at least some prepared foods, but others suggest the number is much higher.

Regardless, now the establishments that use shortcuts will have to own up to it.

Jean-Paul Arabian is the owner of Le Cameleon, a cozy bistro tucked into a side street in Paris' Montparnasse neighborhood. He's thrilled about the new law.

"Homemade will be the war against restaurants that buy their food already cooked and in plastic bags, ready to heat up and serve to clients at ten times the price," he says.

It's not hard to understand Arabian's frustration and relief. He makes everything from scratch and everything is seasonal and fresh. And it's not hard to verify. His bustling, stainless steel kitchen is part of the dining room dcor. Diners can peer in at preparations as they sink their teeth into succulent, sauced meats and perfectly cooked vegetables.

Starting next January, if you don't see the logo on the menu - the food is not homemade.

But what does that really mean? Just days after the measure was passed, it's already stirring controversy. Many wonder if the fait maison label will really guarantee better eating.

The linchpin of the new rule is that homemade fare must be made only from "raw ingredients," meaning the food product has undergone no significant modification, including being heated, marinated, assembled or a combination of those procedures. But the definition does allow for "smoked, salted, refrigerated, frozen or deep-frozen" produce as well as vacuum packed food as ingredients for dishes other dishes.

In Le Monde newspaper, one restaurant critic called it a "dud decree" that pandered to frozen food lobbies because "any frozen raw product from spinach stalks to shrimp can figure in a dish dubbed 'home-made.'"

Except for potatoes. Frozen fries can never be called homemade.

"That's because French restaurants don't want to be called fast food," says Stanislas Vilgrain, who operates three sous vide food packaging plants in France and the U.S. and is totally against the new measure.

Vilgrain sells high quality meats, sauces and prepared dishes to restaurants on both sides of the Atlantic under the name Cuisine Solutions.

Vilgrain says the new measure is pointless and misleading.

"The important thing in a restaurant is that you get high quality food served in the most efficient way. Why stigmatize someone who is using a sous vide product?"

Vilgrain prepares dishes such as Beef Bourguignon and Coq au Vin. He says his meals have fresh, quality ingredients and the new homemade label ignores that.

"We do a short rib from a Michelin three-star chef's recipe. We cook it 72 hours at low temperatures. No restaurateur can do that in his restaurant because he can't tie up his ovens for that long. It's an outstanding product backed by some of the world's best chefs," says Vilgrain. "But under this new law, it wouldn't qualify for homemade."

But, of course, frozen green beans would.

The annual progressive gathering known as Netroots Nation wraps up its annual conference in Detroit this weekend.

In the hallways and the meeting rooms, much of the buzz was about the presidential race in 2016 — and who might run on the Democratic side.

But Vice President Joe Biden, who gave the keynote address on opening day, didn't factor much into that speculation, despite being President Obama's wingman on everything from the stimulus package to the Affordable Care Act.

Biden was even ahead of the administration's position on same-sex marriage.

"We literally saved this country from moving from a great recession into a depression," he said in his speech Thursday. "And we established that progressive government did and does have a role in the economic health and well being of the American people."

On foreign policy, Biden has been a key player for decades dating back to his days in the Senate — he showcased those credentials as he explained why he was late to his Netroots speech.

It turns out he was on the phone, getting details about the Malaysia Airlines plane crash from the president of Ukraine.

"I was on the phone for a better part of a half an hour with President Poroshenko, and I've been in contact with our president as well as our national security team," he said.

Biden has more than just experience. His political style is one-of-a-kind.

He's known to give it to you straight. No filler.

It's exactly what people say they want in presidential candidate. But here, among the party's progressive wing, that candidate ain't Joe Biden.

Outside the main ballroom, where Biden spoke the day before, the group Ready for Warren is hard at work. They are passing out hats and signs trying to draft Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren for a White House run.

Another group that backs former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton co-sponsored a party last night.

There was nothing like that for Biden.

Gabriela Lemus says she's been working in the progressive movement for years. She talks of the vice president almost like they are related.

"Uncle Joe ... yeah. That's what we lovingly call him," she said. "He's our uncle. I look at it from a familial term. Like he's part of the family, you know."

Lemus says Biden's been a good adviser to the president. But she admits that as a potential candidate, Biden just isn't resonating with her.

"Maybe sometimes if it's too familiar, you kind of overlook it even if it is the right person," she said.

That's not the case for Rick Massell. He says there are many reasons why Biden shouldn't be the party's nominee in 2016.

The main reason? Too many gaffes, he says.

"Maybe I'm being too hard on the guy, maybe it does make him more human and maybe we should have someone that is more human, but he also misspeaks a lot. I don't know if you can ever overcome that," said Massell.

Sandra Kurtz, on the other hand, says she's glad the vice president came to Netroots.

Kurtz says he's got the right experience on both foreign and domestic issues but she's just not quite sure what to make of a potential Biden run. And then it hits her — she's got the perfect job for him.

"For Joe? I don't know, I'd personally like to see him as VP for life, but that's just me," she laughs.

The election is still a long way off. The vice president hasn't announced any plans for 2016 just yet.

But if Biden is doing his due diligence — kicking the tires on what would be his third run at the White House — he's still got quite a bit of work to do to excite the Democrat base.