Cooking without Cooking

August 27

After a wonderful relaxing week at Harbin Hot Springs, Dave and I headed further north to Mendocino Country, with Fort Bragg on the coast our destination and resting spot for a few days.

Fort Bragg is the home to the Living Light Institute (www.rawfoodchef.com), which is the leading gourmet raw vegan cuisine culinary school in the world and I have been looking forward to taking a course there for some time. I had heard initially of this school from my classmate Yuki who attended this school many years ago while she was on her quest to find more about whole, living foods as a way to cure her health problems, in particular the terrible skin problems that she had. She had went to several doctors and tried many prescription and non-prescription remedies with no success, and the story that she tells her students, and she has the photos to prove it, is that she started eating more raw food and her health improved dramatically and her skin totally cleared up.

What exactly is raw food? It is a plant-based, vegan lifestyle composed of naturally grown wild or organically and sustainably raised fruits, vegetables, seeds and sprouted grains, and does not include any chemically processed or pasteurized ingredients. Nothing is cooked in the traditional sense however food can be heated below 118 degrees F. One of the most important keys to excellent health is excellent digestion and the human body requires enzymes to digest food. Above 118 degrees F, raw foodists believe that enzymes begin to die, nutrients and vitamins are destroyed, and the metabolic structure of the food is changed. Experts in the field believe that our enzyme pool diminishes with age and aging happens when enzymes decrease in concentration in the body.

When I first heard about raw cuisine, like most people, I was skeptical about what it could include and if it would taste good. Through many experiences and meeting several key people, their stories led me to the path to Living Light this week as I wanted to find out more, learn more about the truths for myself and to share my learnings with others.

My culinary school in NYC, the Natural Gourmet, had an approach that everyone is an individual and therefore no one food or diet is good for them and that's one of the reasons I went there. The best thing people can do is find out for themselves what works with their systems and not, and this means watching what you eat and observing how it makes you feel in terms of physical and emotional signs, and this is one thing that I was failing to do. I used to eat fine French cuisine and love the tastes and experience, but I often didn't feel great afterwards and wondered what it could be. The cream? The butter? The richness? The white pastry and bread? All of the above? Or, you eat some things that are supposed to be good for you and you feel so bloated afterwards. `I know I was uncomfortable sometimes and other times not with food, but I didn't pay much attention to it just hoping it would go away soon if I didn't feel well.

The solution is quite simple and I'm not sure why we avoid the simple sometimes. Why do we continue to give ourselves pain when we don't need to? Perhaps we feel that we should deserve the slight punishment when we eat something that is labeled "bad" or think about short term gain for later pain. That's the other thing my school told us often, there is no such thing as really "bad" but it's a label that we give it, and the most important thing about food is to savour it and appreciate it if we are going to eat it. The guilt and other negative emotions, the rush to eat something without taking the time to sit down and eat it, and other negative actions, certainly do not help our emotional state, and that's an important element of eating as food is for the body and soul. That's another reason I liked my school.

I'm getting a bit off track but why I started speaking about this is that often more strict raw foodists insist or preach that everyone must eat raw or they are harming themselves. This is not
the territory of just raw foodists but those that have started new diets or approaches to life that have helped them and think this is the only way to go. And when you're trying to lose weight and as soon as you tell people they seem to feel guilty about their own weight and pay way too much attention to either encourage you to try this piece of cake because it's very small and "light", or they watch you like a hawk and if you go off and try some chips they will be quick to made snide comments. Therefore why say anything? Maybe you had a big dinner and are just not that hungry. That's fine if people want to ask you about raw cuisine or other but giving lectures or people preaching is a way to lose a lot of friends as the founder of the Living Light, Cherie, said during the class. That's how I feel about my cooking as well. I am enthusiastic and passionate about what I do and what I serve to people, only the food that is most delicious and healthful I always strive for, and they can come along for the ride or not.

How did I come along for the ride of raw cuisine or wanting to learn more was interning at Pure Food and Wine Restaurant in NYC , where the location, ambiance and food is incredibly chique and stunning. The location itself is so beautiful that people come in for some drinks and some food, and in passing they find out it's raw and vegan too, and by that time, they are amazed and hooked. Eating is believing but how can you get people to try things that are new to them if they are skeptical or afraid?

Well, I believe it's not so different from serving kids good food. You don't say this is so healthy and good for you so you should eat it and that's it. You prepare interesting vibrant delicious food and you don't need all the song and dance before to convince anyone. In fact they might even ask for it again and you can say that you'll think about it while secretly grinning.

Ah, the teasing, and that's what Pure does with it's food and it works. It helps that the owner is a beautiful sexy blond bombshell that helps to promote the restaurant and lifestyle in her cookbook and through promotional opportunities. And the thing is that this woman is also bright too and the brains behind the business, being a Yale business grad. Some people get all the genes! Their restaurant and take out is extremely popular and they have a following, including many models and celebrities. When I was there or when speaking about Pure, people would say, oh the Clintons were sitting beside me last night, or that movie star comes in here all the time. In fact, if you followed the Sex and City series, Samantha met the gorgeous Smith at Pure as he was one of the waiters. Well, it was TV and he wasn't one of the waiters but it wouldn't be too out of the ordinary with all the beautiful people there, staff and clients. So that was part one.

Part two was taking some courses at the Natural Gourmet on raw cuisine, in particular with Rene Loux, who is absolutely stunning, the writer of several cookbooks, and a wonderful presenter. She has worked a lot with celebrities such as Woody Harrelson and I believe they even produced a video together on raw cuisine. There is something about the raw foodists that I've met that I've noticed and people talk about with fascination and envy... they often look quite young, with beautiful skin and clear eyes, and they have lots of energy. Again, when I saw Cherie at Living Light I thought here we go again. I couldn't get over how young and radiant she looked, especially after teaching for over 30 years or so, and she had so much energy and light. This was the same for all of her teachers as well. It was delightful to be with teachers that are so passionate and enthusiastic about what they do and look radiant.

Part three, was just hanging out with Yuki and learning more in particular in Tokyo. Again, of this probably becoming repetitive, but Yuki looks young for her age, her health and skin has improved to beyond normal, and she has incredible energy. And I've also heard stories of
people along the way about people putting more raw into their lives and the successful effects.

Part four was the experimenting part, just adding more raw in my food into my meals and seeing the effects. Heh, I thought, if it could make me feel better and look better, even younger, then I'm in. In particular, I've always felt better in terms of my digestion, energy levels and emotions with more raw food. For me, I enjoy adding raw food elements to what I'm eating to make it simple and easy such as fresh sprouts on top of my rice or noodles. And, the more that you eat anything, and raw food is no different, your body will seem to crave it more, and that's a good thing. What did a friend tell me? It takes about 21 days to make a habit so if you want to start a good habit stick with it for at least 21 days and this should become part of your lifestyle.

Well, as you know, when you think about a change or an action, it's often not random or just stand alone, there are often several incidents that have led you there, so la voila. After Tokyo I really wanted to go to Living Light and I thought a good time would be after my interning in San Francisco, and Dave could join me so we could relax at Harbin Hot Springs and tour wine country afterwards, in particular Mendocino County.

Actually, Mendocino is the newest wine region that everyone seems to be buzzing about these days for their smaller and newer growers that are making some kick ass (they often use this adverb for some reason) wines. Also Mendocino wine country is known as the greenest wine area as many of the wineries are using organic grapes and sustainable practices.

Anyway, I'll leave Dave to tell the stories about the wine and the people behind the wine in his blog (http://bignosed.blogspot.com), and he'll also mention the dogs too I hope. There are actually books published about the wineries and their dogs as it's so interesting the dogs that you meet as well at the wineries (to be honest, for me just as interesting as the wines sometimes - by the way, here's a photo of sleepy "Moose" taking a siesta in the tasting room of one of the wineries). At Frey, a winery specializing in organic and vegan wines, they had 23 dogs on their property and we were able to meet several during our tasting outside in a beautiful setting. We also squeezed in a visit to Sonoma and some wineries there and realized that we have just touched, or tasted, the tip of the iceberg, so we will be back for more!

And, if you're not a wine drinkers, several wineries are making some incredible grape juices like Navarro Gerwurtztraminer juice that is something that you will probably like whether you like wines or not. And, there are some great micro brewers in California making some very creative and wonderful artisanal beers like the North Coast Brewery in Fort Bragg. Well, it seems like California is made of regions that promote and encourage "local" and often waiters or store keepers will tell you "it's local you know" as a selling feature as they know that people are hungry for this.

So back to Living Light. I loved Cherie's philosophy and approach about gourmet raw cuisine being beautiful and tasty as well as being nutritious and good for the body and soul, which I feel about my cooking as well. She emphasized the importance of "mouth feel" especially to those trying new foods and that means to be aware of all the taste senses - sweet, salty, sour, bitter and pungent - and incorporating these into our food. Pungent for her is things that give your food more drama and are stimulants such as garlic, ginger, mustard, etc. And the food that we tasted along the way was beautiful and delicious, from a range of savoury to sweet foods.

Also what impressed me was the professionalism of the school. Sometimes raw foodists are stereotyped as a group that are flighty, spacey, and more granola, and sometimes they are. But the culinary school is a top notch kitchen, though no stoves or ovens or grills which is a bit strange at first, with classes that are run by teachers that are excellent and hold classes that are interesting, stimulating and on time, meaning no teachers that are boring or run away with one subject or question to the detriment to the rest of the agenda they are supposed to cover (attended too many of these classes along the way!). One of the elements of the chef program is teaching so that all the students come out being able to teach and hold demonstrations very well, and I think that's 50% or more about teaching, it's fine to be an expert so and so but to captivate and capture someone's mind and imagination and provide lasting learnings is a real skill and art.

Well, as you see by my enthusiasm, this is not the end to hearing about Living Light. I intend to take further classes and learn more about raw cuisine along my culinary journey. I definitely leave inspired, and these inspirations combined with my learnings in San Francisco, will provide me lots to offer to ZenKitchen diners and clients when I'm back in town.