People Magazine, 6/16/97: Raw Talent

[Guest guest]

" Raw Talent "

People Magazine -- 6/16/97

 

As the owner of " RAW, " a San Francisco eatery devoted to uncooked

cuisine, Juliano (yes, just one name) can emit more hot air than a

deflating souffle. " I'm sorry to be immodest, but I'm a genius, "

says the 24-year-old chef. " I invented a whole new cuisine! "

 

Of course, that depends on one's definition of edible food.

Featuring an all-vegetarian menu that includes sun-baked pizza

topped with avocado and cured eggplant ($13), rice fermented for 30

days ($9), and sushi made of tofu, apples,a nd portabello mushrooms

($7), RAW may not exactly have Wolfgang Puck running scared, but it

does have a rabid following among gereneration Xers -- as well as

celebs including, says Juliano, Robin Williams and Danny

Glover. " The taste is so distinct, " says Jennifer Munro, 33, a

regular. " Each time I come, they become more creative. " Adds Julian

Levenson, 28: " It's energizing -- it leaves you feeling fresh. You

eat here and you don't feel like taking a nap. "

 

The son of a Las Vegas chef and his wife, a former casino worker who

now helps manage RAW, Juliano realized early on that he didn't want

to eat anything from animals. " I knew it was wrong to bite into

veins, " he says. Making his first raw dish -- a fake salmon formed

from carrot pulp -- as a teenager, he continued developing raw-food

recipes after moving in 1995 to San Francisco. But his taste for the

natural doesn't apply to just food. Living alone in a small,

sparsely furnished warehouse space, he proudly refuses to use

toothpaste or shampoo. " Animals never take medication, never go to

the doctor or dentist and they're fine, " he says. " A bar of soap is

all you need. "