Raw food movement

No cooking. It's the uber-healthy food craze sweeping Perth. Meals such as raw pizza on a buckwheat and flaxseed base topped with fresh tomato sauce, vegetables and macadamia nut "cheese", spaghetti made from dehydrated spiral-cut zucchini and cold-pressed fruit juices. Just thinking about it makes you feel good.

"What we're seeing is the start of a major turn to more intelligent eating," Raw Kitchen owner Heath Daly said. "People want everything stripped back to its honest, complete state, without colourings, flavourings or chemicals."

Mr Daly's tiny Fremantle cafe has been at the forefront of the raw food movement for two years and business is booming. There's a queue out the front on weekends. Come October, he and partner Emma Gilbert will relocate to an 800sqm revamped warehouse in High Street with seven-day trade and seating for 130 people - and expand the predominantly raw menu with some cooked vegan food. Curries, vegan pizzas and baked potatoes will be on the card. It will be licensed, as well, with ethically produced wines.

"It's a matter of making healthy choices," Mr Daly said. "We should all aim for 60 per cent raw and that means more fresh fruit and vegetables. I cook only as much as I need to liberate the life- affirming essence of the food. The whole point is that after you've eaten, you should feel lighter, better and energised - that's what food's about. Mine is an experiential cuisine."

Raw is hard work. All that soaking, sprouting, grinding, chopping, shredding, blending and pulverising. A pizza base takes 24 hours to make. Nachos, three days. Then there's the nut meat sauce made from olives and sundried tomatoes, nut mayo, plus guacamole and salsa on the side.

Laila Gampfer's Rawsome mini banoffee pies take two-and-a-half days to make. They're raw, gluten-and-grain-free, egg-free, dairy-free, sugar-free and soy- free. Paleolithic eating at its best with no refined ingredients.

Gampfer was diagnosed with coeliac disease in 2010 and yearned for sweet treats that didn't taste like cardboard. Mint slices, caramel chunks, moon rocks, lamington bliss bombs, cheesefakes, mudfakes and brawnies are made with cocoa, coconut and nuts. People can't get enough. The business started a year ago and has grown eight- fold in three months. "By the end of August we will be in about 100 cafes and retail outlets," Ms Gampfer said. "It's very labour- intensive and I use only top-end ingredients."

Raw Ecaduorian heritage cocoa powder is a staple ingredient - Ms Gampfer goes through 30kg a week. So are nuts, seeds, cold-pressed extra-virgin coconut oil - about 70kg a week - and sweeteners such as organic agave, organic raw honey and Medjool dates.

For purists, raw is not cooked or heated above 37C. "This ensures the enzymes which speed up and improve digestion are still alive - and without living enzymes the food we consume may not be assimilated efficiently and will use a lot more energy to break down and digest," Perth Raw Foodies' Clinton Smith said. "It's that feeling of tiredness you get after eating a bowl of pasta, which is dead food."

Mr Smith has just started GAIA Detox & Wellness in Belmont, using raw principles and cleansing as the cornerstone of this approach. Cold- pressed fruit and vegetable juices are givens, along with salads and raw soups. Two recipe books - soups and five favourites - will be on his website soon.

"It's more a lifestyle choice," he said. "We all have family and friends, so it's not always possible to eat 100 per cent raw - and not even advisable because it's good to have a bit of variety. It's more about the food quality. Not everything is better raw than cooked. You might want to lightly steam cruciferous vegetables, such as broccoli and cauliflower. I don't, but children prefer them done that way."

It's midmorning and he's just made a vegetable juice with beetroot, carrot, wheatgrass and lettuce. Follow it with a fruit smoothie later in the day and a big salad for lunch - Smith typically piles on the mixed greens with lettuce, kale, herbs from the garden and throws in some pine nuts and raw parmesan made with cashews and nutritional yeast. Add some dehydrated crackers made with flaxseeds, olive oil, sundried tomatoes and carrot for a balanced meal. Raw lasagne for dinner, anyone?

Source: Good Food, 15 August 2013