Finally, A Good Article

[Guest guest]

This was in the San Francisco Chronicle, October 17th, page E6, and

there are no derogatory remarks!

 

Annette

 

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They know how to put the sizzle in raw vegan food

Dishes are anything but boring

 

Laramie Treviño, Special to The Chronicle Friday, October 17,

2003

 

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If you've got the notion that raw food is synonymous with rabbit

munchies and that it lacks luster, you might nix the idea after you

taste it and behold its sometimes luscious looks.

 

Burritos, pizza, lasagna, carrot cake, ice cream, homemade crackers

and marinara sauce are among the wide range of dishes prepared --

and enjoyed by its devotees.

 

Raw food followers believe that at around 115 degrees, enzymes in

food die off. Dehydration is the method used by chefs and pupils of

the organic gourmet cuisine when cooking is undertaken.

 

" Raw food doesn't necessarily mean cold food, " points out Dan

Ladermann, co-director of the Fort Bragg-based Living Light Culinary

Arts Institute, which is conducting one of its three annual, month-

long raw food vegan sessions at Harbin Hot Springs in Middletown,

Lake County. Classes range from two-day fundamentals workshops to 10-

day chef/instructor training. There's a course on the art of food

design and one on raw food catering.

 

The Living Light Culinary Arts Institute was founded seven years ago

by Cherie Soria, a self-taught chef who studied with Ann Wigmore,

the late founder of the Hippocrates Health Institute and a

foundation in her name, both in Boston.

 

While back East learning of the healing qualities of wheat grass,

juicing and other Wigmore staples, Soria found the

menu " boring. " " Everything was a salad or a blended salad -- it

wasn't tasty, " she recalled. " It was a diet for healing. "

 

So Soria expanded on the Wigmore meal plans with her

personal " interpretations " that emphasized " textures, aroma and

love. "

 

The latter had been a priority since Soria won her first cooking

contest for spice cookies at age 12 while she was in summer

camp. " That's when I found out that people love you when you give

them good food. "

 

An introductory talk on raw food will be presented at an ice cream

social Thursday at Harbin. Several flavors of nondairy ice cream

will be served with various sauces such as carob, chocolate and

fruit.

 

A chocolate sauce was on the menu at a lunch break during a recent

class session. Matt Samuelson of Santa Cruz, one of several

chef/instructors, discussed its versatility with Soria. A dead

ringer for chocolate pudding, the sauce becomes a mousse when the

amount of liquid is altered, Fudgsicles when frozen and Tootsie

Rolls when dried. People react with disbelief when told avocados are

among the ingredients. Some pupils smeared it across the top of the

Black Forest cherry brownie served for dessert -- a firm, moist,

chewy square that was prepared in about 10 minutes and wasn't cooked

at all.

 

Samuelson, through a chef-placement service, is hired by clients

worldwide who are unable to attend the institute's classes but want

to learn about raw foods. That includes meat eaters. " There's only

so much you can do with dead animals, " he says. When he prepares his

tomato sauce he says a richness of flavor is evident because the

vegetables haven't lost it through overcooking.

 

Another Santa Cruz County chef/instructor, Elaina Love, will be

teaching a " FUNdamentals of Raw Living Foods, " a prerequisite for

taking other institute courses, in San Francisco in December.

Traditionally a two-day session, the workshop will be condensed to a

one-day event.

 

While pupils in class sizes that range from 30-34 eat vegan -- that

means no animal products are consumed -- while school is in session,

they aren't required to be non-meat eaters to enroll. While the food

plans rule out dairy products and 99 percent of the food is raw, a

few things used in flavorings have been cooked. " We're not like food

Nazis, " Soria says.

 

But transformations occur nevertheless. As the executive chef for

Bon Appetit Management Co. at Dreamworks Studios in Glendale, Alicia

Ojeda served 1,400 persons daily and marinated 300 pounds of meat at

a time. Her curiosity about raw food led her to the institute a year

ago when she weighed 216 pounds. She now weighs 174 and still is

losing without trying to diet. " I'm very satisfied with the food, "

she says.

 

Her last meal before heading up to Harbin Hot Springs was in San

Francisco where she ordered center-cut pork loin and cornbread.

After the raw food chef school was a wrap she realized " I couldn't

go back to the same job " and resigned her Southern California

position last January.

 

Over a lunch of salad greens, spicy salad dressing and half an

avocado, pupil Leslie Marioni of Sonoma said she's down to 150

pounds from 240 pounds a year ago. " Nothing changed my body like raw

foods has, " says the nutrition educator at a spa and wellness

center. Marioni says her husband, who owned a restaurant that was

heavy on steak and fish, has dropped 40 pounds in two months while

on a raw food plan that hasn't left him feeling hungry.

 

" You need to feed your emotions and your spirit, " says Soria. The

lifestyle is not about deprivation. " We feast here. " A revised

edition of Soria's " Angel Foods " recipe book recently released by

The Book Publishing Co. features 125 recipes, of which about one

third involve some cooking.

 

Last week as the students prepared a dinner featuring curried

vegetables and cilantro chutney, spicy aromas filled the air. One

chef worked with students at each of the six tables or " kitchens " in

the classroom. Each station was home to a food processor, knife

sets, measuring cups, cutting boards and other food-preparation

items. The pace is swift and the lesson plans are very structured.

 

One of the institute's more well-known graduates is Roxanne Klein,

who owns Roxanne's, a raw food restaurant in Larkspur. Soria says

perhaps one third of those who enroll have plans to prepare raw food

professionally, others just want to learn a better way of eating.

 

Around the time of Soria's conversion to raw foods she was living in

a motor home in Bend, Ore., and working on a vegan cookbook. She

soon removed the stove and television set from her recreational

vehicle and built a pantry for sprouting and added counter space.

And she bid adios to her book project since she realized she

couldn't " go back " to cooked oils.

 

Pupil Naomi Hirahara is going back to her native Tokyo, Japan, to

incorporate a weekend raw food cafe at her healing center, she says.

She is serving as translator to four of her countrywomen also taking

raw food classes. " I want them to remember that raw food is

important to us, " Hirahara says.

 

 

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Raw details

An ice cream social with a free introductory talk on raw food will

be held at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Harbin Hot Springs conference

center in Middletown (Lake County). Visitors must arrange for

entrance into the center grounds. For details, call (800) 622-2477

or visit www.harbin.org.

 

For information about the Living Light Culinary Arts Institute,

visit www.rawfoodchef.com or call (800) 816-2319.

 

E-mail comments to nbayfriday at sfchronicle.com.