Get in the Raw

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Misty L. Trepke

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Get in the raw

By William Rice

Chicago Tribune

August 13, 2003

 

http://www.recordonfidylline.com/archive/2003/08/13/bz13.htm

 

Raw! It's a powerful word in the world of food. When applied to

dining, it sets off strong emotions and evokes images of sparsely

garnished plates, overly crunchy vegetables and minimal seasoning. So

it's a skeptical reporter who agrees to dine at Karyn's, a newly

opened Chicago spa with two restaurants that feature only raw food.

 

Owner Karyn Calabrese, the high priestess of raw food in Chicago,

passes a menu over the handsomely set table with its unblemished

white tablecloth and says to her guest, " I hope you'll try a mint

julep, then I want to order the ravioli, some crepes and a pizza. "

Across the room, in a separate casual dining section, a sign bids

diners to attack the " All You Can Eat Organic Salad Bar. " The menu

promises a banana split for dessert.

 

Where's the deprivation? It's nowhere in sight.

 

The julep arrives in a brandy snifter. It is light, foamy, gently

sweet – and without a drop of alcohol. The guest nibbles a kale chip,

then another.

 

" Crisp and intriguing, " he thinks.

 

" Good source of calcium, " Calabrese says, bringing him back to the

reality of raw food and the purpose of this Lincoln Park, Ill., spa's

dining facilities.

 

" The basis of raw foodism is that life promotes life, " Jeremy A.

Safron writes in " The Raw Truth, the Art of Preparing Living Foods "

(Celestial Arts, $18.95).

 

" Food fresh from nature's garden contains a wide range of nutrients

and a powerful amount of life force. Raw foodists believe in living

as closely to the earth as possible and respecting all life. "

 

The raw food movement is gaining momentum locally. It has inspired

Calabrese to build her spa complex with raw food restaurants. It has

motivated Jenny Cornbleet to teach raw food classes. And it has

persuaded Chicago chef Charlie Trotter to co-write a cookbook called

" Raw " in collaboration with California restaurateur Roxanne Klein.

 

First some guidelines: When we say " raw food, " we're not talking

about carrot and celery sticks, though they may have a role in a raw

foods diet. Nor need we worry about the bacteria count of a serving

of tuna tartare. That's because we are talking about a diet that

includes absolutely no animal products and no ingredient that has

been heated beyond 116 degrees.

 

A vegan diet?

 

Ah, then it's a " vegan " diet? Not exactly. While vegans restrict

their consumption to plant foods and refuse to eat anything " with a

face " or animal products such as milk and eggs, they often cook food

before consuming it. And vegetarians consume all manner of cooked

plant foods as well as milk and eggs.

 

Raw foods are meant to create a more vibrant and energetic you.

Calabrese and others are convinced the best way to achieve this is

through making ingestion a pleasure, not a pain.

 

" The idea of a raw foods diet scares people, " she says. " They fear

they will be eating salad with tomato and cucumber every day for the

rest of their lives. We want to help move the raw foods diet from the

scary category into the mainstream. That will not happen if we can

promise them no more than a diet of salads. "

 

The offerings are expanding as some high-profile chefs are

discovering the virtually unexplored area of upscale or gourmet raw

foods. Now celebrities fly to San Francisco to dine in suburban

Larkspur at Roxanne's on an elegant, multi-course luxury-priced

tasting menu, or order a menu of raw foods at temples of fine dining

such as The French Laundry in the Napa Valley and Charlie Trotter's.

 

" I'm doing this for aesthetic reasons, not for health, " Trotter says.

" I took on raw food as a challenge to produce beautiful,

great-tasting presentations and became really intrigued and excited.

Now it has reached a point where I think every serious chef in the

country needs to incorporate some raw food dishes into his menu. "

 

Klein traces her interest in a vegetable diet back to a California

childhood punctuated with " incredible " fresh organic produce from her

grandparents' farm. As an adult, trained in French restaurants, she

" loves discovering the inherent sensuality of each ingredient in its

natural state " and combining them " to stimulate all the senses " with

the finished dish. She estimates that no more than 10 percent of

those who come to eat her food are practicing vegetarians.

 

" People who make a sport of dining out are excited, " she says. " They

haven't had a whole lot new since sushi. "

 

At Roxanne's, as at Karyn's, virtually nothing prepared turns out to

be what it appears to be, nor is it made of traditional ingredients.

Klein uses terms such as " lasagna " and " pad Thai " because, she says,

it " helps guide " diners when ordering. Karyn's ravioli, for instance,

are made from turnips; ground cashews replace cheese to add bulk to

the sauce.

 

Picture this

 

At Charlie Trotter's, recipe titles are ingredient lists. One

evening, two raw dishes were described as follows: " Burgundy carrots,

salsify and white asparagus with avocado puree and Perigord black

truffle " and " Golden beets with dill, daikon radish with soy and

yuzu, watermelon radish with chive and cucumber with shallots and

white wine. " The latter was a glorious garden collection that took

nearly as long to read as to eat.

 

In Trotter's and Klein's new book, the recipes with their gorgeous

photos look challenging, but Klein says they are doable for home

cooks.

 

" We tried to show the possibilities of the ingredients, " she says.

" Home cooks may not necessarily be able to re-create the

presentation, but they still can make the dish. "

 

Nutritionally, a " raw " diet ignites food fights between those

committed to it – a number that appears to be increasing, though it

remains unclear how rapidly and to what level – and those who feel it

is excessively limited and unnecessary.

 

Raw foods devotees select from four segments: fresh food, sprouted

food, cultured food and dehydrated food. There are two sub-groupings,

sproutarians and fruitarians.

 

Semantically, raw food has fostered a new vocabulary featuring a

piggy bank (sorry) of coined words starting with " UNcook " or (un)cook

(the act of preparing raw foods) and " living " (unprocessed) foods.

 

One area of common cause among the dietary dissidents is support for

organic foods and the farmers who grow them.

 

" I avoid extremes, " says Suzanne Alexander Ferrara, author of " The

Raw Food Primer " (Council Oaks Books, $19.95). " I think people should

eat things they love to eat, not obey a series of commandments that

fanatics use to determine who is 'raw' and who is not. "

 

A raw foods tenet: When food is heated, it is chemically altered and

loses most of its ability to provide energy. Eating food raw provides

100 percent of the nutrition available to us.

 

The big factor is enzymes. These are " catalysts which help us digest

our food, " Safron writes in " The Raw Truth. "

 

They " remain intact within living foods below temperatures of 116

degrees (ideally 108 degrees), " he says. " Higher temperatures destroy

the enzymes and our bodies have to work harder to digest the foods we

consume. "

 

Uh oh

 

But that claim has become a major sticking point. The newsletter

Environmental Nutrition points out in its May issue: " A flaw in this

theory ... is that our bodies make their own supply of enzymes for

use in hundreds of metabolic reactions. We do not rely on the enzymes

in foods. "

 

The newsletter acknowledges the many benefits of a raw diet: It is

low in fat, cholesterol and sodium. Nuts and seeds provide protein

and monounsaturated fats. " The diet has been linked to weight loss,

lower blood cholesterol, improved rheumatoid arthritis symptoms, " EN

continues, " though there is only limited research to back the

claims. "

 

Still, food safety experts warn of an enhanced danger of food-borne

illness from a diet of raw foods, especially sprouts.

 

EN's conclusion: " ...eating a 100 percent raw plant-based diet seems

not only unnecessary, but difficult to sustain (all that preparation

and chewing) for no real benefit. EN favors eating both raw and

cooked foods for a healthy balance. "

 

Ferrara recommends a gradual and comfortable transition to a raw

foods diet such as " starting the day raw and going as long as you

can " or " taking one day a week to eat only raw food.

 

" There's way too much all-or-nothing, " she says. " The average person

who starts this diet may have only a couple of raw meals a week, but

the intense flavors get peoples' attention and makes them want to do

more. "

 

" It is not a radical concept, " Cornbleet says. " Nutritionists around

the world agree that fresh fidyl fruits and vegetables should be an

essential part of people's diets. Serving them raw just highlights

them and brings them to the center of the plate. "

 

Cornbleet, a raw foods consumer for five years, began teaching

classes three years ago in Chicago after getting certification from

Living Light Culinary Arts Institute in Fort Bragg, Calif. She trains

apprentice teachers, home cooks and aspiring chefs. She estimates

that a-third of her students are mainstream cooks.

 

She compares her raw-food cuisine to " casual Italian " food. " Both use

few ingredients but ones with vibrant colors and flavors, " she said.

" Raw food is simple and accessible. It's also so tasty that

meat-and-potatoes folks who are turned off by tofu and lentils love

the stuff.

 

" What I teach does not depend on high-end ingredients, and it's

easier to prepare than standard food. "

[Guest guest]

I just wish I lived in Chicago - I'd be eating there all the time!

Carol

 

 

 

Misty L. Trepke [mistytrepke]

Get in the raw

By William Rice

Chicago Tribune

August 13, 2003

http://www.recordonfidylline.com/archive/2003/08/13/bz13.htm

Raw! It's a powerful word in the world of food