Articles: We Like it Raw & I Am Woman, Hear Me Raw

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We Like it Raw

The ultimate fringe food culture sexes it up for the mainstream

 

By Becca Campbell and Ritzy Ryciak

May 2007

 

Even within the natural food movement’s inner core, Raw foodists

can’t get no love. Tell most folks you limit your diet to just fresh,

uncooked fruits, veggies, nuts and seeds, and responses range from

bewildered admiration (“Wow. You do that?!? I could never deal”) to

bemused skepticism (“uh, whatever floats your boat, I guess”) to

snark bordering on hostility (“what are you, a f’ing rabbit?”). Even

the possibility of “increased energy and vitality” — the raw foodie’s

beckoning promise — couldn’t persuade most of us to consign to a

lifetime of carrots and celery. And so the “Raw Way” has largely

remained a path for only the most disciplined zealot and/or

narcissistic celebrity with the disposable funds to bankroll a

personal chef.

 

But like any great idea whose time is nigh, raw food is maturing

beyond its uncooked beginnings to a lifestyle choice that allows for

flexibility, creativity, and above all — (dare we say?) great taste.

Glossy cookbooks, fresh new restaurants, raw chocolate smoothies and

healthy, happy raw enthusiasts — who are anything but cultish or

militant — are moving Raw out of the fringe and into the mainstream.

 

 

 

I Am Woman, Hear Me Raw

 

May 2007

 

“I have the longest standing raw food restaurant in the country,”

states Karyn Calabrese, owner of Karyn’s Inner Beauty Center, Raw

Vegan Gourmet and Fresh Corner Café. “I’m so proud of that because

I’m in Chicago, a meat-packing town.”

 

Through private diet counseling sessions and raw food prep classes

out of her home, Calabrese supported her restaurant until it could

stand on its own. 20 years later, Karyn’s, a gorgeous 7500 square

foot raw mecca in Lincoln Park, provides nutritional counseling, food

preparation classes, detoxifying services and mouthwatering living

food everyday. “It was just a dream and I stuck to it.”

 

 

 

Full story - both articles:

http://commongroundmag.com/2007/05/rawfood0705.html