The Raw Chef

This Blog has moved to www.therawchefblog.com!

I'm extremely excited to be able to announce that my new, sparkling blog is ready and can be found at the (much easier to remember) URL - www.therawchefblog.com.  So if you have bookmarked this site you will need to change it.

I would like to thank every one of my readers who have recommended my blog, posted links to me and generally helped me, in the last few weeks, get the largest readership in the site's history.  It was only just over a year ago that I started writing and was only getting 14 visits a day, and I think 7 of those hits were from me!  Thank you again, sooooo much.

This blog will stay here for the foreseeable future as there are many links to it.  If you have linked to it, and if it's possible, I would appreciate linking to the same article on the new blog.  All previous posts from this version have been transferred over, so there's nothing missing!  If you need help finding the same link on the new blog just email me the details and I'll send you the relevant link.

If you have subscribed to the RSS feed or the email udpates, you don't need to worry about changing over as I have done all that for you :-)

I'm also very excited about launching my new eZine, 'News From The Kitchen'.  This will be starting in the next couple of weeks so you can sign-up here to make sure you don't miss a thing.

I will be publishing Indulgent raw recipes and revealing essential tips and techniques to your email every two weeks, so be sure to sign-up!

I'd also like to ask for your questions for a Q&A feature.  So whether it's a recipe you'd like, a recipe you can't quite get right, ingredients you like more info on, or something that bugging you such as how to get your flax crackers really thin, then send an email with as much detail as possible to ezine@therawchef.com

Thanks again for your attention and I look forward to seeing you over at the new site!

Russell.

Alissa Cohen on Tyra Banks' Diet Wars

When I met Alissa in November she was really excited about going back on Tyra Banks' show because of the results one of her 'team' was getting for the Diet Wars feature.

If you didn't get to see it, check out the video below...

Useful Links:

Alissa Cohen's website

Lasagne Recipe

Ok, so I've received quite a few emails asking for this recipe since putting the photo on my flickr account. I really love this dish, it's great to take to potlucks or give to your non-raw friends and doesn't need any expensive kitchen equipment other than a knife, a chopping board and an inexpensive food processor.  A mandoline would be an advantage, and is also very cheap in terms of kitchen equipment.

Welcome to 2007

Hello and a happy new year to all.  I trust I find you well, having had a great Christmas and looking forward to the year ahead.

I'm really excited about 2007 as I've got lots of great stuff coming up that is sure to further our mission to raise awareness of raw food in the UK mainstream.

Next week I'm off to Lanzarote for 2 weeks to consult for Living Earth at their Winter Sun Retreats.  If you want to start your year in the best possible way, with some sun, pure raw food, chlorine free swimming pools, ionized water, yoga and much more then check out the brochure.  I'm excited to be working with James & Anna, they will commission the planting of a new tree for every guest that flies to the retreat, as a way to compensate the earth.  If only all businesses were this concious.

As you may remember from a previous blog post, I ran the kitchen at Alissa Cohen's course at the end of last year and have just been forwarded this photo. I'm on the left (if you hadn't noticed!), next to me is Abby, and next to her is Ferd.  Both were invaluable in the kitchen and made the weekend so enjoyable.  Behind us you can see Alissa, and Elaine, who is Alissa's course co-ordinator and who's understanding of human behaviour and ability to read energy was amazing.

You're It!

As a kid I used to play various versions of 'tag'.  We called the game 'It', as when you were caught you were 'It' and you were duly awarded the lurgee (pronounced lerr-gee)!

We also played a very British version called British Bulldog, which involved trying to make it from one end of the playground to the other without someone holding on to you whilst shouting, "British Bulldog 1-2-3".  It usually involved the risk of being brought down on the cold, hard concrete floor and often ended in arguments about whether or not someone had let go before they finished saying the whole sentence.  There was one particular person that springs to mind that had to win everything, and who repeatedly lied about whether he'd been 'got'.  Guess I'm still bitter about that.  I'll work through it :-)

Anyway, I never got chased by the girls I wanted to be chased by, but now I'm older, I've been tagged by the prettiest girl in the playground! This is a new, more adult version (keep it clean please!) and it's called 'Blog Tag'.  The idea is that when you get tagged by another blog owner, you have to reveal 5 things about yourself and then tag 5 other bloggers.

Read on for my 5 'secrets' and to see who I tagged...

Do We Really Prefer Bland?

I came across this post on Seth Godin's blog today.  It's interesting to see a marketer's view on how the foods that are presented to us as 'normal' can be made so seem that way, and how anything outside that is made to seem extreme and weird.

"How did we get programmed this way? Is it an inevitable part of the human condition to prefer things that are bland, preprocessed and not so good for us? Or did we market ourself into this corner?"

Is this how we went from eating raw food to cooked food?  I suspect that happened before the marketers got involved, but it's certainly one of those things that makes you go, "hmmmmmmmm".

My Blog On The Web

I'm very proud to say that this blog has been featured on 2 other blogs in the last month.  The first was on the excellent We Like It Raw , a blog I'm sure most people will be familiar with.  They had some very nice words to say about me so if you've come here as a result of seeing me there, welcome to you!

Secondly, I've been awarded the Applied Hacking Award from TypePad Hacks , for the work I did a few months ago , when you may have noticed the appearance of this blog change slightly.  This was a surprise for me, albeit a lovely one, as I never really considered myself a 'hacker' :-).  It's surprising how good you can get at something if you enjoy it!

Wilted Kale Salad with a Creamy Chipotle Dressing

Inspired by the classic kale & avocado salad, this dish was a hit in NY when I made it, almost on a daily basis, for everyone at The Plant.

Chipotle peppers are jalapeno that have been smoked, and so are not raw.  However, I love to use them as they have such a great taste and you don't need to use many!  I have provided an alternative combination of ingredients in the recipe as a substitute to using jalapenos that will give a similarly distinctive taste.

This is a real hearty meal with a kick that's perfect for those cold winter days!

Back to Earth With A Bump!

From Wholefoods to Tesco, the inevitable return to 'real' life after my 7 weeks in New York has finally happened.  And I came down with a crash that could be heard for miles!

I had a gap of 1 day between getting back form NYC and going to the Fresh Festival in Somerset to help with the catering for what turned out to be an amazing 6 days in the kitchen.  More on that in a separate blog post though.

So what brought me back down to earth?  I met an old work colleague in Tesco whilst shopping for my kale & Avocado salad ingredients and reluctantly got in a conversation with him.  We started off well enough but things went downhill after he said, "so, you errrrr, still eating kale then?"

"Is that such a big thing?" I thought.  After nearly 2 months around open-minded people in arguably the raw food capital of the world, it's easy to forget that apparently, in Sussex, it is a big thing!

I miss having brunch at Quintessence!

Who Killed The Electric Car?

Global Warming.  Pollution.  Unrest In The Middle East.  Rising Fuel Prices.

There is an alternative.

Find out more here.