Healthful, raw-food trend is picking up steam

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Healthful, raw-food trend is picking up steam

 

http://www.usatoday.com/life/travel/leisure/2002/2002-04-26-rawfood.htm

 

By Jerry Shriver, USA TODAY

 

Before you get fired up about buying a fancy new stove

for your kitchen, consider this growing cooking trend:

uncooked foods. A once-radical form of vegetarianism

called the " raw foods " or " living foods movement " is

creeping into the mainstream via forums such as

gourmet restaurants, upscale food festivals, airline

menus and big-name cookbooks.

 

Read more below

 

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Video See what kinds of raw foods are tickling

tastebuds

 

 

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Since the mid-1990s, the health-food world has

embraced a style of preparation in which all

ingredients are raw, organic and vegan (no fish, meat,

eggs or dairy products), and nothing is heated above

118 degrees.

 

The rationales are that a diet of fruits, vegetables,

legumes and nuts is inherently healthier, and that

heat destroys key nutrients and enzymes. So instead of

ovens and stoves, the essential kitchen tools are

juicers, blenders, high-tech slicers and dehydrators.

 

Until recently, the movement ( " raw foods " and " living

foods " are usually used interchangeably) gained most

of its exposure through Web sites, natural-food

stores, trade shows, a handful of modest cafes and

endorsements from a few celebrities, including Woody

Harrelson and Alicia Silverstone.

 

Now, the larger culinary world is catching on:

 

Veteran chef Roxanne Klein is winning critical acclaim

for her new Roxanne's in Larkspur, Calif., the first

raw-food restaurant to successfully adopt a

fine-dining approach. It features artistic

presentations, an elegant interior incorporating

environmentally friendly materials, an impressive list

of organic wines and an average check of $50 per

person.

Renowned Chicago chef Charlie Trotter, who

occasionally incorporates raw-food dishes into his

tasting menus, is working with Klein and superstar

photographer Tim Turner on a raw-food book for Ten

Speed Press, due out early next year.

Trotter and Klein will give a presentation on raw

foods in June at the Food & Wine Magazine Classic in

Aspen, Colo., the nation's largest annual food

festival.

Lufthansa has begun offering raw-food meals, upon

request, on international flights.

A just-released book from raw-food guru David Wolfe,

Eating for Beauty (Maul Brothers Publishing, $24.95),

promotes the raw-food diet as part of a

wellness/beauty regimen.

The most significant bellwether is the all-raw gourmet

menu at Klein's 64-seat restaurant, the result of more

than five years of research by the classically trained

chef. A recent review in the San Francisco Chronicle

awarded the restaurant 3 1/2 stars (out of four).

Reservations are now a must on weekends.

 

" It has been an amazing challenge to create an

incredible dining experience of sensual flavors with

this kind of cuisine, " says Klein, who adds that she

was introduced to raw foods by Harrelson. " You have to

study how the dishes are presented, how to get the

aromas and balanced flavors and textures to make it

satisfying. "

 

Klein's " lasagna " typifies her approach: Paper-thin

slices of zucchini, substituting for the pasta, are

layered with mushrooms, garlic, herbs, marinated

spinach, fresh corn kernels and cashew-based herbed

cheese. The sauce is a marinara made from fresh and

sun-dried tomatoes, herbs and more than 30 spices.

It's served room temperature on a warmed plate that

has been dotted with herb oils to enhance the aroma.

 

" We get about five people a day at the door wanting to

know more about this after they've dined here, " Klein

says.

 

While Roxanne's appears to be the only raw-food

restaurant to have adopted a consciously gourmet

approach, nearly two dozen more modest eateries have

opened across the country in the past few years.

 

The new Ecopolitan in Minneapolis, for example,

already is looking to expand to other Midwest markets,

and 3-year-old Quintessence in New York has just

opened a branch on the trendy Upper West Side.

 

Wolfe estimates that at least 1 million people in the

USA embrace some aspect of the raw-food diet, based

upon traffic at various Web sites and the 100,000-plus

copies of his book, The Sunfood Diet Success System,

that have been sold since 1999.

 

" And it's just opening up, just beginning, " he says.

 

Wolfe concedes that America is " the fattest nation in

the world, " but he is convinced that many more people

are beginning " to flip around and are getting totally

health-conscious and fit. It's in the American nature

to go to extremes. "

 

And eating raw foods is an extreme but attractive path

to fitness, he says. " After a meal, you come out more

fulfilled, feeling lighter and clearer. It turns

people on to another level of experience. It's for

people who are on the cutting edge. "

 

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