The Raw Chef Blog

Raw Food certainly has come a long way and no more so was that on display than last night at The Plant in Brooklyn, NY.  I was fortunate enough to be a part of the weekly themed dinners, this week inspired by the films of Stanley Kubrick.

My thanks and admiration go out to Matthew Kenney and his team, particularly his Head Chef, Kristen Rayes who created the menu and masterminded the realisation of it on the night.

Here’s a few photos of the event…

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This recipe was inspired by a picture of pink pasta I saw on the internet.  Here I use beetroot juice to colour the courgette which isn’t purely asthetic, it sweetens and gives a nice subtle flavour.  This recipe will make a huge plate full so is great to serve and enjoy between 2 people, healthy comfort food!

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Before I get started, I just wanted to remind you that anything that I’m up to that isn’t related to being happy, healthy or raw (the first two being a result of the latter) gets posted in my personal journal so anyone who doesn’t want to hear about every detail of my life can just get straight to the good stuff.

I’ve just been writing a personal blog post about my general maneuvers around NYC over the first week and something occurred to me that I want to share here.

I’ve just moved into a hostel and as soon as I opened the door to my private room I was disappointed.  There’s no TV, the flooring isn’t great, it’s smells a bit and the shower doesn’t look as if it would even wash the shampoo out of my hair.  I haven’t even unpacked my suitcase because I don’t want to fully acknowledge that I’m staying.

So I decided to get a train downtown where I like life a lot better than right up here at 96th Street.  I got off at Union Square and walked up to Pure Juice & Takeaway to grab some comfort food.  Despite not being particularly hungry I bought some chocolate cherry biscotti, a pinacolada (coco meat, coco water, coco oil and pineapple) and some tacos.

So then I walked up to 23rd Street and caught the train to Central park thinking that I’d get on another train to take me back to the hostel.  As I walked my eye was caught by the bright lights of Times Square and I was drawn like a moth to a lamp.  I’ve been to Times square already this week but it was during the day and I was slightly disappointed I have to say.  But at night it’s a whole different situation!  It was beautiful (in a man-made, overpowering, bright, in-yer-face type of way).
It certainly took the edge off my dissatisfaction about my new temporary accommodation.

As I walked further, I passed a homeless guy who was clearly having trouble ‘keeping things together’ and I had a moment of clarity.  I realised how much abundance I have in my life - here I am feeling bad about a room I’m not too keen on, carrying a bag full of amazing food, having the trip of a lifetime, walking through the famous Times Square and looking forward to checking my email on my laptop via wireless internet access.  The list of things I could be grateful for just goes on and on.

Sometimes it can be so easy to feel a sense of loss even though we’re surrounded by such abundance and the antidote is gratitude, being grateful of what you have whilst in search of what you want.  I’m constantly surprised at my ability to forget that.

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If you’re like me, you’ll always be on the lookout for new raw websites that are actually any good!  And by ‘any good’ I mean they have something to offer you, and the thing that I love is photos of raw foods!  That’s why you’ll be seeing more photos and recipes on my site over the coming months.  A site that I wasn’t aware of that has great photos is that of chefs Kristen and Anna - The Ladies Of The Plant In DUMBO .  By the way, DUMBO, which stands for Down Under (the) Manhattan Bridge Overpass, is an area of Brooklyn that has been mostly developed by one developer and is very up and coming.  It’s populated by some very creative people such as artists and musicians and is the perfect place for The Plant.

Anna is passionate about posting on their blog and will be photographing the events they do (there’s already been a raw wedding there), the shopping in the wonderful green market and anything else of interest, of which there is plenty in the NYC raw scene.

Just so you know, all the photos are of raw food.  I say that because when  you look at some of the creativity that is on going on there, you won’t believe it’s raw.  Enjoy and leave them a comment if you like it, because it’ll make them happy!

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Wow, what a few days I’ve had.  Flew out of Heathrow on Tuesday having got on the plane 10 minutes before it was supposed to fly.  Readers of a previous post could be forgiven for thinking that I didn’t leave enough time and was late, but actually it was due to the extra security checks.  I wasn’t the last one on either so take-off was delayed by about 40 minutes.

I’m here now though and absolutely loving New York.  It all feels strangely familiar to me, as if I have been here before.  From the minute I got here I felt completely at home.  That could be the fact that I’ve seen it all on so many films, and I have to say, it really is like you see in the films, there really is steam coming out of the drain covers!

I’ve been getting myself acclimatised to my surroundings; learning to use the Subway, and studying maps to work out how the whole street numbering thing works, not to mention working out whether Taxis are actually supposed to stop when you’re crossing the road in front of them!

Found myself in Madison Avenue today after getting some Portabella Fajitas and a Blue Green Smoothie from Matthew Kenney’s Blue Green Organic Juice Cafe (yes I have been eating very well, but more on that later) and taking a stroll through Central Park.

I’ve also been finding myself a nice little sublet apartment to stay in and I think today I cracked it.  I’m really pleased I’ve found somewhere as it was playing on my mind that I didn’t have anywhere to stay for the time I’m here, there’s no such thing as a cheap hotel here so that just wasn’t an option.

Usually I’m quite comfortable with leaving things to the last minute but leaving without sorting accommodation (the flat I did have sorted fell through at relatively the last minute) did fill me with a certain amount of fear.  It was a real fear of the unknown because I’ve never been to NYC before and didn’t know what to expect, right from how I was going to get from the airport to how I was going to get on the right bus for my hotel!  Fortunately I’ve been reading Eckhart Tolle’s ‘The Power Of Now’ which helped me to deal the situation better.  Whenever we create psychological time, that is, thinking about the future, we create a space between the ‘now’ and some illusory point in time.  And if we see a future event that worries us ("what if I can’t find somewhere to live?!!") we fill that gap with anxiety.  That’s why we must live in the now, because there is nothing other than the moment we have at this precise point in ‘time’.  If nothing can be done about the situation we imagine (which is always imagined worse than it is) then don’t think about it.  In the past I would have told you that is easier said than done but all it really involves is being conscious of the present moment.  This also has the benefit of bringing into play all sorts of unseen forces that cme alive when we stop imagining the worst and trust in the Universe to deliver what we really need.  Being fully conscious is where it’s at!

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