In the Mood for Healthy Food

[Guest guest]

http://www.oaklandmagazine.com/media/Oakland-Magazine/November-2008/In-the-Mix/

 

About a Vegan Chef

In the Mood for Healthy Food

When we sat down in the kitchen of his West Oakland industrial loft space to

chat over a morel and tofu frittata, sweet potato hash and grilled peach, Philip

Gelb had already wrapped up a catering job for a bachelorette party.

“It’s all peach stuff this week because the Masumoto Farms heirloom

peaches are in,†says Gelb, describing a grilled-peach salad with peach-miso

dressing; seitan with spicy peach sauce; and a peach-rosewater tart (the shell

made of walnuts and dates) with homemade peach-vanilla ice cream. “The ice

creams, made from a cashew base, are one of my specialties.â€

Making ice cream from nuts is a vegan trick, just one of many that Gelb, 43,

has mastered as a vegan chef. In addition to gigs as an event caterer and

in-home personal chef, doing business as In the Mood for Food, Gelb teaches

vegan cooking classes at Berkeley’s Kitchen on Fire.

Widely known as a unique improviser on the shakuhachi (Japanese end-blown

flute), the Brooklyn-born, Florida-educated Gelb honed his culinary skills after

moving to the East Bay 11 years ago, determined to make a living as a performer

and teacher. But he was barely making ends meet.

So Gelb—who developed an interest in healthy eating as a child (he was

diagnosed with leukemia at age 4 and underwent chemotherapy for nine years) and

turned vegan three years ago—took meatless and dairy-free matters in his own

hands. Two years ago, he commingled his passions for music and food with monthly

dinner concerts around Oakland: Before dessert during the gourmet four-course

vegan meal, world-class virtuosos play solo or duet sets. Performers have

included Gelb’s master shakuhachi teacher from Kyoto, Yoshiro Kurahashi,

saxophonists Roscoe Mitchell and Oliver Lake, and bassist Mark Dresser (who

improvised on Passover themes during Gelb’s innovative vegan seder).

“It’s definitely not a music series,†says the holistically minded

Gelb. “It’s a food and music series that I approach in the same way I

approach cooking. The only prerequisite is that it be someone I want to hear,

music of extremely high quality, something unique.â€

For details about Phil Gelb’s catering, vegan cooking classes and

dinner-concert series, visit www.myspace.com/inthemoodforfood.

 

—By Derk Richardson

—Photography by Lori Eanes