Thursday, April 1, 2010

b.alive! meets Hollywood: Viktoria Boutenko's new DVD

During the last 3 days, my little 46 square meter loft in Berlin turned into an (almost) Hollywood movie set ;-) Victoria Boutenko, famous inventor of the Green Smoothie and loving mother of the Raw Boutenko family, is currently on Europe Tour promoting her new book Green For Life. And nowhere else than my small raw food laboratory was chosen to be the set for shooting her new film.

Right after the Rohvolution, the biggest raw food event in Europe with more than 5000 visitors this year, where I was representing and selling my latest products, an even more exciting and amazing 3 days followed.

Monday through Wednesday, my little loft turned into a movie set with Victoria talking about the amazing effects of her Green Smoothies and demonstrating her favorite recipes, an interview on the medical benefits of introducing green smoothies into your diet and recipe demonstrations of some of Germany's top raw food chefs.

Nelly Reinle-Crayon from Rohköstlich.com presented her menu "Sinfonie in Grün". My close friend Melanie from Aphrohdisia presented her beautiful Spring Rolls with Mock Peanut Sauce from her Living Light Class repertoire and also gave an inspiring talk from her experience as a practitioner in alternative medicine and shamanic healer.

I myself presented two of my own creations from my gourmet dinners. One dish, I recently created, inspired from my 7 years of living in Italy: Bed of Spinach with Almond Ricotta, Balsam Infused Figs and Pine Nuts. The second dish got inspired by my extensive Asia Travels: A Zucchini Lime Mousse with a Red Bell Pepper Foam.

Markus Rothkranz, who has been involved in famous Hollywood productions like Die Hard or Lethal Weapons, and now famous for promoting and inspiring a healthy and sustainable raw food lifestyle full of love and compassion, was here to capture the entire footage on camera and will be cutting the final DVD. When I first looked at his website, I thought "oh my god, is this guy really going to come to my apartment? That Typical American, big media type of guy..." I was so wrong. Markus turned out to be the most loving, sweet, compassionate and inspiring person and it was great to have him around for these days and to get to know him a little better during a few deep talks during and after the shoots. Thanks for a great new connection and another reminder that first impressions don't always tell the truth.

The most amazing energies were set free within these days and I am so grateful for having been able to host this film shoot at Dresdener Strasse 114, Berlin, Mitte, a historical place, because it is actually former Berlin Wall territory. I think that actually for this reason, it "miraculously" happened to be shot here and of course thanks to my friend Heike Michaelsen from rohspirit.de and co-creator of Germany Goes Raw, who brought me in touch with Hans Nietsch, who published Victoria's new book in German (German title: Grüne Smooties) and is also the producer of this movie together with Burkhard Hickisch from gruenesmoothies.de.
The square was empty and without energy up until 2 years ago and now it is attracting all these colorful people with amazing energy and healing powers. I think something amazing is happening here and I am more than happy that I can contribute to this little magic.

Victoria has been a big inspiration for me. Her energy was so amazing, she was so accessible and full of love and compassion. I have also gained a few new good insights into raw food nutrition. According to her research, we should eat at least 1 kg of greens a day to get all the minerals we need. She never washes her greens, because the microorganisms on them can provide us with the necessary B12 and there is no need to be afraid of germs if you have a healthy terrain and strong system! The cause for diabetes according to her is actually not the carbohydrates but the fat. So including fruit into your diet is actually fine, if you reduce the fats to a minimum and limit the fats to mainly the fatty fruits and veggies like avocado, young coconut or durian. I learned a lot about using local herbs and so called "weeds" in green smoothies and I am definitely going to include this as a regular now into my daily diet. This morning, I started my day with a full Vitamix Blender of a Green Smoothie made from Wheatgrass, Wild Herbs, Parsley, Spinach, Banana, Pineapple and Orange. Thanks for your inspiration, Victoria!! Hail to the Grail of the Green Smoothie :-)