Turn Down The Heat

Raw food is hotting up in Asia.

Plenty of vegetables, oranges and chickpeas to boost calcium ensure good bone health.

In February, American chef Matthew Kenney flew into Asia. Famous for his raw food restaurants and culinary schools, as well as his celebrated nut-based fermented cheeses – a taste revelation for raw foodists – the chef had a packed schedule. First he stopped by Hong Kong’s School of Hotel and Tourism to teach students a few classes in raw food production and then went onto Hua Hin in Thailand, where his culinary school is located at the Evason retreat.

His visit marks the larger adaption to raw food happening across Asia, and a growing demand for more information and education. “It’s still a few years behind the US where ‘raw’ is a label identifier in supermarkets,” says the James Beard Award-nominated chef. “But I see raw food slowly working itself into the mainstream in Asia.”

A classically trained chef, Kenney switched hand-churned butter for coconut butter and the flash pan for the spiraliser over a decade ago. Eating raw re-energised him, made him feel lighter. “I did it once, then I waited a day or two and I did it again for a week and it just felt incredible,” he says about the change. Since then he has used his professional training to spearhead a raw food movement that feels modern and fresh. Celebrated dishes are his kimchi dumplings, made with a Thai coconut wrapper, and beet ravioli.

Students on Kenney’s courses learn the intricacies of sous vide, master recipes using a dehydrator and experiment with making their own nut cheeses. Almond ricotta is heaped with heirloom tomatoes, tomato sauce, and strips of courgette with homemade pesto in a raw lasagne, and raw chocolate goes into some tempting puddings. But Kenney says going raw doesn’t need to involve lots of preparation or expensive equipment – although a quality blender and good set of knives are musts.

Simple go-to foods for him include collard green wraps filled with fresh veggies, mango and spicy almond chilli, or a huge salad, with greens and sauerkraut or avocado – he has an ongoing obsession with the plump green orbs – and seaweed. “Simple stuff,” he says.

Still, switching can be a big deal. Going raw signifies a big change for the body. Before diving into a new diet it’s worth evaluating why you want to make a change, as well as how you do it. “So many people go into a new diet because they aren’t feeling good, but that’s because they maybe aren’t addressing a current issue,” says Jolle Bradford, a naturopathic doctor with Integrated Medicine Institute (IMI) in Hong Kong.

She advises taking a blood test before changing eating habits. Testing for calcium, vitamin and iron levels could highlight existing problems and offers a benchmark later, after a raw food diet is introduced. Bradford says it’s a good idea to take the same tests again three to six months in to measure how the body is adapting.

More energy, greater clarity and better immunity are all associated benefits of eating a good raw food diet, but fatigue, hormonal imbalances and shortness of breath may signal that the body isn’t getting the nutrients it needs. Raw nuts, often a celebrated staple in the cuisine, are actually hard to digest unless they have been soaked, activating enzymes that allow easier digestion, and grains and seeds are easier on the system.

Since raw food sidesteps dairy, experts have mused that bone health is at risk. Bradford disagrees. “A raw food diet is completely able to give you everything you need, but if you notice changes, you may need to adapt your intake.”

Plenty of green vegetables, oranges and chickpeas boost calcium ensure good bone health, and supplements can be used for nutritional needs not being met through actual food. (Matthew Kenney says he gets a vitamin B12 shot every week in LA).

It pays to start small. “Go in baby steps, with a raw breakfast or dessert,” says Angie Lam, a raw food coach and author of Raw in the City, a bilingual Chinese/English guide to going raw. A green smoothie with spinach, banana and blueberries is an easy way to pack in the green veggies at the start of the day, and avoids a reliance on fruit, which is high in sugar and not the best AM kick-starter.

Raw food doesn’t have to mean a raw deal when it comes to treats. ‘No cheese cheesecake’ and chia puddings are tasty and easy to make too Lam says, while the boom in organic and natural stores means dehydrated snacks are becoming readily available, and are easy to pack into a bag for the day.

Western restaurants offer big, hearty salads and Japanese restaurants have plenty of raw foods too, so date nights and dinner celebrations do not have to be banished. “Scan menus. If you see one dish offers avocado but it isn’t included in the salad description you want, ask them for some. Most places are happy to handle requests these days,” says Lam.

And don’t think you can’t eat heated foods. Raw food fans say that cooked foods are taxing for the body, and creates toxins in it, but this occurs in temperatures over 118 degrees, so gently warmed soups, pastries and veggies are all palatable.

And when your blender is empty because your creative juices have run dry? Turn to the growing number of communities cropping up online across Asia. Raw food is increasingly popular in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand with Facebook groups, Youtube channels and forums springing up to support them. Put ‘raw food Asia’ into a search box. Or, book yourself into one of Matthew Kenney’s courses.

Matthew Kenney’s Famous Raw Tomato and Courgette Lasagne.

The chef has adapted one of his most admired dishes for home cooks.
He favours heirloom tomatoes – “they look so bright and vibrant on the
plate,” he says, but any will do.