Article: Healthful, raw-food trend is picking up steam

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04/25/2002 - Updated 08:05 PM ET

 

Healthful, raw-food trend is picking up steam

 

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.

 

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. "