Knife drills, 5 Element Theory, all about sweeteners, and living food chef to the stars

Tuesday, October 3 and knife drills...

This morning I discovered a useful device to help me with my knife cuts. It's called a "Visual Model Set" for chefs and it is a small plastic card with the all the basic cuts in plastic models with measurements. How smart! I guess some other people have come before me with the same challenges of precision cuts and developing an eye for it.

5 Elements Theory...

This afternoon we studied the Five Elements Theory and how it relates to food, cooking, health and emotions. This is the same theory that is used in Chinese medicine such as accupuncture, herbs, food, Qigong, Tai Chi, Moxibustion (mugwort herb and heat), Feng Shui, Astrology and meditation, with the focus being Yin and Yan as opposite and complementary foces. So we studied the 5 Elements of Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water or the five forms of energy (tangible and intangible) and how this relates to food, flavours, emotions, etc. Our chef instructor has worked in a variety of places, some which she created with her husband, and also worked for two princes in Saudi Arabia as their personal chef. It's been five years since she's worked for them and the agreement was that she could not discuss her work for five years.

In order to help us learn this theory, we have to keep a chart of what we're eating, what element is associated with it, our moods, etc.

How sweet it is...

This afternoon, we learned all about refined and related sugars and were provided with a list of 78 ways sugar can ruin our health, based on a book by Nancy Apppleton called "Lick The Sugar Habit".. http://www.nancyapppleton.com, and includes suppressing the immune system, kidney danage, colon cancer with an increased risk for women, speeding up the aging process, weakening eyesight, increasing the risk factor in gall bladder cancer, hypertension, etc...

Related sugars such as Turbinado (Sugar in Raw) and brown sugar (white sugar with small amount of molasses or caramel) are not much better than refined sugar. We were provided with an overview of healthy alternative sweetners and their properties:

- Maple syrup, with grade C and glass containers being the best vessel

- By the way, did you know that Nalgene water bottles are leaching xenoestrogens that have been linked to diseases and there have been awareness campaigns by groups such as the Sierra Club to get people not to use it and other plastic bottles. Also, the teacher encouraged us to use glass as much as posible for storage of anything. I asked her about the freezer and she said she didn't keep much in there as it changes the texture and tastes of most foods and when she does she uses plastic bags. I'm don't think I'm giving up on plastics yet but it makes one think twice and I need to conduct more research on this...

2. Maple Crystals

3. Sucanad

4. Honey - raw and local if possible

5. Brown rice syrup

6. Barley malt

7. Date sugar

8. Agave

9. Stevia

10. Fruit juice concentrate

Also, we went over best salts such as sea salt and land-mined salts and healthier thickeners han cornstarch such as kuzu and arrowroot.

Living Food Chef to the Stars...

Tonight I participated in and audited (review to see what works and doesn't in terms of teaching a cooking class) a public evening class by one of North America's experts on raw and living foods, Renee Loux. She is truly beautiful inside and out is an amazing chef and instructor. Renee lives in Maui and used to own a restaurant called Raw Experience restaurant and taught there. She teaches courses on incorporating whole foods into a balanced lifestyle and serves as a consultant for restaurants, spas and private clients, with a focus on green living and organic whole foods. Now she hangs out with the likes of Andrew Weil who she teaches with, Dean Ornish who prefaces her book, and has worked on a book with Woody Harrelson and debuted in his film GoFurther. Numerous celebrities and musicians are her fans. She says the pillars of her philosophy include practicing yoga daily, eating fresh, organic food and her approach is based on organic, macrobiotic and ayurvedic principles. She lives in a solar-powered home with a bountiful organic garden on the shores of Maui and runs her car on bio-diesel veggie oil which smells like French fries. She endeavours to incorporate the green aspect into whatever she does and who ever she consults for. For example, she passed around biodegradeable spoons and plastic cups that she is encouraging people to use. Her most recent book is called The Balanced Plate. Visit her website www.reneeloux.com and you'll see what I mean about her, and she's only around 30!

She has recently converted to "living foods", which means mainly a raw diet but cooking very slightly some raw ingredients to bring out their best, for example blanching green beans to bring out their colours, flavours, nutrients and save on time. She said she decided this was the best approach for her as she is very busy and on the road often and needs to have approaches to save her time in cooking and just to provide options. There is nothing wrong with a raw diet but it takes more prep time to develop creative and balanced meals. For example, as a raw foodist, for her cabbage wraps she used to marinate the collards for at least one day to soften them and now can blanche them for a few minutes to soften them and bring out their colours. I can attest to the prep time as I was one of the 5 people there in advance to help prep and one of my jobs was to take out the pomegrante seeds from about 10 pomegrantes, which took me a lot of time and I was covered in red juice by the end. However, the result was delicious and she said we could use pomegrante juice, unpasteurized is best, to save time. Why the craze about pomegrante juice? It has antidioixants that kills the cancer causing free radicals that are so much part of our food these days.

So she prepared for the class:
- Pomegrante Ginger Saketini - she said that cold sake, especially organic sake, is the best alcohol you can drink and it doesn't affect you like other alcohols. She said that even Andrew Weil agreed with her that if you are going to drink alcohol sake is the best. I was thrilled to hear this as I love cold sake and there are plenty of places to drink it in NY, even several sake bars. People think of it as a wine but it is a beer as it is made of grains, rice. Sake is classified by grouping vs. name. She had us try an organic sake.

- Kabocha Dubarry Creme Chowder - kobacha is a Japanese squash and she said traditional Dubarry is a cauliflower soup that is said to be named after Comtess du Barry, mistress of Louis XV and she always like a little scandal with her chowder. It is quite light as it is made with nut milk.

- Salade Nicoise with Jerusalem Artichokes.

- Spicy Thai Lettuce Wraps with Tamarind Dipping Sauce

- Shaved Brussel Spourts

- Wild Mushroom Ragout with Pine Nut Basamella Sauce