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[Note: the " tofu smoothie " referred to below was actually a

Blackberry Parfait made with coconut creme. I'll post the recipe in

the files section. -- Annette]

 

 

Trendy chefs turning off the fire

Evangelists of the raw food movement spread the joy of uncooking

By MICHAELA BANCUD Issue date: Tue, Sep 30, 2003

The Tribune

---

Cooks love the tick-tick-tick followed by the swoosh of a gas

flame turning on under a pot. Most don't mind the occasional steam

burn or run-in with a hot oven rack. Cooks wear their kitchen wounds

with pride.

So what would happen if cooks lost their fire?

Ani Phyo and Ede Schweizer are the healthy-looking chefs behind

SmartMonkey Foods Organic Living Cuisine, a purveyor of gourmet raw

foods and a " no cook " catering company that launched in Southeast

Portland one year ago. They're spreading the word that a raw food

diet, in which food is not heated over 104 degrees, is more than

cold carrot sticks and cauliflower.

Picture instead, they say, a range of vibrant, health-giving

foods eaten the way nature intended. A typical menu at one of

SmartMonkey's monthly dinner events, for example, could include such

tempting items as stuffed zucchini blossoms with cucumber sauce,

sweet sesame crisps with pomegranate sauce and a glass of biodynamic

(100 percent organic) wine.

The raw food movement is catching on in Portland, but the Bay

Area, where the couple started, is considered its spiritual

homeland. That's where the fast-spreading food religion caught Phyo

and Schweizer's attention. Then they fell in with the " rock star of

raw chefs, " Juliano Brotman, author of " Raw: The Uncook Cookbook. "

Juliano, as he's known, runs a San Francisco restaurant, Raw, and

has turned celebrities such as Sting and the Red Hot Chili Peppers'

Anthony Kiedis onto the power of raw. Golden Girl Bea Arthur is

another well-known raw foodist. Schweizer and Phyo worked with

Juliano in San Francisco and then followed him to Los Angeles to

work alongside him in his restaurant there, Juliano's Raw.

Since their move to Portland, they've been spreading the gospel

of raw at the East Bank Farmer's Market and at a widely attended

diabetes convention. Naturally, they also attended the International

Raw and Living Foods Festival in Lebanon, Ore., last month, where

approximately 800 raw foodies converged to swap recipes and attend

seminars.

Linda Checkal-Fromm, who helps organize the annual festival,

heads up Growth and Prosperity International, a Portland-based group

that " anchors new ways of being on the planet. " Most raw foodists

say that protecting the planet is another bonus to this diet.

" There are a handful of people in town driving social change, "

says Checkal-Fromm, who estimates that anywhere from 200 to 300

dedicated raw foodists dwell in the Portland area. Many more

experiment by eating raw food as much of the time as possible.

" What happens at these food festivals affects things worldwide, "

she says. " Someone on the bus next to you might be a new Gandhi. "

 

Let the enzymes live

 

Raw, simply stated, is any food in which the enzymes are still

active. Anything cooked above 105 to 110 degrees, raw food advocates

believe, kills off the living enzymes and electrolytes, thereby

depleting food of its nutrients and minerals.

" By 118 degrees they are definitely dead, " Phyo says.

Therefore, nothing cooked above these temperatures passes between

a strict raw foodist's lips. This leaves a choice of vegetables,

fruits, and sprouted nuts and seeds. Some raw foodies do eat raw

meat, although most are vegetarian or vegan.

Asked what she'd eat if she ever fell off the wagon, Phyo laughs

and says, " Probably cooked tofu. "

For the curious, Schweizer and Phyo hold regular " noncooking

events " at Whole Foods grocery store, where they teach the finer

points of raw food preparation in classes such as " Thai Uncooking

Class " and " Italian Dinner in the Raw. "

Recently, SmartMonkey products have made their way into the

Portland food scene, in part because of aggressive self-promotion

and the plastering of public utility poles in the Pearl District

with information about events.

SmartMonkey's Cosmic Herb dressing, a dip for veggies or salads,

can be found in the perishable foods aisle at Whole Foods Market in

Portland's Pearl District. An extended line of packaged foods (such

as pizza crusts and marinaras), salad dressings, sauces and desserts

soon will be available at Food Front Cooperative Grocery in

Northwest Portland, where a a red-carpet rollout is planned next

month for a new raw food section.

 

Good for brainpower

 

SmartMonkey uses organic produce purchased through local farmers'

markets when possible. In the winter, Phyo and Schweizer buy some

fruit and produce from California farmers.

They insist that a raw diet isn't a food fad or a new kind of

kooky masochism. Demand in Portland is high, they say, and they've

been invited to give seminars on raw food in such hard-charging

corporate environments as Adidas and Mazama, a Portland capital

management firm.

" The biggest misconception is that this way of eating is just for

the fringe, " Phyo says. " But really, most of our clientele are

young, hip designer types who turn to raw food to keep their

brainpower going. They have jobs and the need to keep themselves

going.

" It's all about health, nutrition and energy, " Phyo adds as she

puts the finishing touches on a tofu smoothie topped with

blackberries and chopped nuts in her Southeast Portland kitchen. She

says that neither she nor Schweizer has had so much as a cold since

they began eating only raw foods 3 1/2 years ago.

Their kitchen is equipped with a standard oven that came with the

house, but it's never used except to store light bulbs. The real

workhorse is a nine-rack Excalibur food dehydrator, an appliance

that " bakes " pizza crust and crackers at low temperatures. Food

dehydrators are sold locally at Mirador, a kitchen supply store in

Southeast Portland.

Phyo stresses that with a raw food diet she doesn't feel

deprived -- just energized and healthy -- and that friends love

coming over for dinner at her house.

" This isn't about what you can't eat, " she says. " It's about what

you can eat. Remember, there are 32 types of lettuces. "

 

Contact Michaela Bancud at mbancud .

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