What do you eat every day?

Guess what: The question I get asked the most as a teaching raw food chef and culinary artist: "So... what do YOU actually eat every day?" The more I hear this question and the more I think about it, the more I am convinced that it's so worth sharing this knowledge besides inventing crazy new creations for my fancy dinner clubs and teaching the sometimes more difficult gourmet foods that are not necessarily usable on a daily basis. Now, here is a typical day from my life as a raw food chef :-)

Fruit Salad, Homemade probiotic coconut yoghurt
bee pollen, wild herbs and sprouted walnuts
Green Young Coconut Water (in the back)

The mornings, I like to start very light, mainly fruit based and foods that can be digested very easily and have a high net energy gain. Fruit have simple carbohydrates that give you immediate energy and good vitamins. They are digested in 20 minutes and therefore don't interrupt with your natural cleansing cycle. I also love young coconut water in the mornings, it's full of electrolytes and enzymes and tastes just delicious. Now for comfort and to get the feeling of fullness, something creamy nut based is nice from time to time and in order to make this work for the stomach, it's best to ferment your nuts into a healthy yoghurt. So, my breakfast of today was:

• young coconut water, blended with spirulina, chlorella, barley grass, wheatgrass, moringa olifeira and stingy nettle (all these greens add a lot of minerals and chlorophyll and help you get the day kicked off boosting your oxygen level)
• mixed fruit salad with homemade coconut yoghurt, local bee pollen, sprouted walnuts and fresh wild herbs
• cappuccino (YES, the real one! I can't give up this morning ritual, lived too long in Italy ;-)

Now this keeps me going on really high energy for the whole morning until lunch time comes, when I usually have a substantial salad. Today, the base was spinach, some mizuna and other Asian leafy greens, cucumber, radishes, red onion slices and a big handful of mixed wild herbs. Now, to make sure to make this salad substantial enough to power me through the afternoon, it's important to choose your add-ons wisely. I've become a huge fan of fermentation recently, due to the high power of probiotics for your digestive and therefore your immune system. So, I came up with this super delicious dressing, which has double probiotics (from the Sauerkraut and the yoghurt), plus healthy omega 3's and great amino acids from the hemp seeds (amino acids are the protein building blocks, for those of you who still think we need to take complex proteins to build our own ;-) . Note that there is no extra fat in this dressing from extracted oils. However, I am a big fan of olive oil and do use it extensively in my cuisine and for myself. For a little sweetener, I use local honey in my salad dressing. I am totally staying away from agave, since it reacts like high fructose corn sirup and can not be considered a healthy sweetener anymore. Honey on the other hand is a complete whole food, laden with good nutrients and microorganisms and if you buy it locally can help you cure allergies! Here is the recipe for this new dressing, that I am happy to share with you today:

Cucumber and leafy greens, wild herbs,
dressed in pink probiotic power

Pink Probiotic Power (PPP) Dressing

1 Tablespoon fermented Coconut Yoghurt
1 Tablespoon Hemp Seeds
2 Tablespoons red cabbage Sauerkraut
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon honey
1/2 teaspoon terragon (or other herb)
1/8 teaspoon ground pepper
1 little piece of red onion (1/8 of a whole one)
1/3 cup of water

To finally get some more substance onto the salad, I sprinkled it with some sprouted sunflower seeds and black sesame for extra calcium and added a few strips of dulse, since seaweeds are extremely high in minerals as well as good amino acids.

Sometimes, salads can look boring, but if you do it, like I do with this recipe, you can make your salad really exciting. Not only is this healthy to the max, but lining out the cucumbers like this, placing the dressed greens that shine pink from this beautiful color dressing in the middle and having the black sesame dots and the pink peppercorn, is just a fiest for the eyes!! It's important to plate your food nicely, also for yourself, you'll eat with so much more pleasure and therefore he happier and will digest it better!
Yummy, this salad was so delicous, I wish I had another one right now, while writing it :-)

And another few hours of work seem like nothing with all those nutrients in my system that don't put high stress on my digestion and therefore would make me lethargic or tired, which would be the case with a plate of wheat pasta for lunch.

After a full day of work and having eaten lightly during the day, in the evening I usually like something a bit more filling and substantial, some comfort food. Very often , I also stay raw in the evening, but I also do enjoy a healthy cooked meal and if I cook, I usually create healthy hybrids of cooked and raw, as I do with my preferred seasonal Spring vegetable: White Asparagus.

White Asparagus, local heirloom potatoes,
fresh picked wild herbs in salted raw milk butter

 This is a German delicacy and only available for about 2-3 months of the year, so I try to have it about twice a week if I can. It's so cleansing (you can smell it in your urine after eating it ;-) and tastes just divine. I do like asparagus raw as well, but cooked, they develop this very distinct taste that I love so much. Traditionally, Germans often have the asparagus cooked with young potatoes and a creamy buttery sauce hollandaise. Now here comes my healthy raw/cooked hybrid version of it: 500g steamed white asparagus, 3 local heirloom organic boiled potatoes, 1 Tablespoon of melted raw milk butter, a pinch of sea salt AND 2 BIG hands full of freshly picked wild herbs, chopped small and mixed with the butter and a little of the asparagus steam water. Put all on a plate and cover generously with the salted wild herb butter mixture. It's SO tasty and comforting!

For me, it's not always about being 100% raw, but about getting the maximum nutrition and feeling good and balanced! Take this day for example, it's not 100% raw, but the wild herbs, the greens, the fruit, the coconut water, the seeds and all that provided a lot of fantastic nutrients!!
Now if for me, to stay 100% raw on such a day would mean, instead of the cooked meal I had for dinner, to supplement with a bunch of dried fruit and nuts, and/or have other unbalanced raw foods, that might just be a worse choice. Or compare this: a green smoothie with 2/3 fruit, amongst which sugary bananas, and 1/3 just any greens from any health food store vs. my asparagus, the organic potatoes and heaps of nutrient dense wild herbs. I don't have an answer for which one is healthier and actually, there IS no answer to this! Psychology, body constitution, life situation, and so much more factors play a role in this, it's too complex to judge! The bottom line for me is a wholesome whole food diet, full of nutrients and using nothing processed or pre made and packaged or at least don't buy more than 10% of your ingredients that come covered in plastic foil and have more than 1 ingredient listed on it ;-) Psychology is a big factor in nutrition and you need to feel comfortable. Now for me, that's my morning cappuccino, the occasional ice cream, some cooked meals from time to time, and even fish or meat if it's offered to me and made with love. I am a foodie, curious, and love to eat and try new things, discover new flavors and textures. Important is, to always know your base and come back to it. If I eat an unhealthy dinner, which does occasionally happen, the next morning, I am craving a green drink or just a grapefruit and I am back to a massive salad for lunch :-)

b.balanced - b.creative - b.alive!

Vegan and Raw hit the press

The vegan movement has reached a critical mass and with it also the raw food movement is catching up in light speed and is getting massive press coverage. It is amazing to see how many press articles are being written about the subject and how the press is just literally jumping on the subject. I recently had the Deutsche Welle camera team over at my dinner club and they shot a piece on my raw dinner club and interviewed my guests. The piece was out there already a couple of months ago and now, only by coincidence I find it embedded already into another piece on veganism and the raw food movement, circulating in the web:



Still waiting for the Tagesschau coverage, but it is soon to come. Watch out :-)

Blissed in Bali: Gaia Oasis

After a summer full of raw food events over Europe, including a successful participation at the Rohvolution, German's biggest raw food event last weekend in Speyer, I just got back to Bali a few days ago.
Thanks to my friend Marianne, who I met during my last stay here at the Radiantly Alive Yoga Teacher training, I was asked to come to Gaia Oasis as a raw food consultant. Gaia Oasis is a jewel tuck away in the North of Bali in Tejakula. Only having seen the South and center of Bali during my last visits, I finally felt that I just discovered the real Bali. The resort is split into two locations, a mountain resort, with 9 hectars of ground where they grow all the amazing organic fruits and vegetables, like mango, papaya, jackfruit,
even Durian :-) and spinach, arugula, all the herbs, ginger, lemongrass and so much more and of course endless supplies of coconuts.
The second resort is down by the beach with a private beach access, beautiful gardens , a great spa and a picturesque restaurant patio right by the sea.
During the last 5 days, I had the joy to teach the staff at Gaia some raw food dishes that they can easily implement with their simple tools they have at hand.

From now on, Gaias menu has been extended with some new fun raw dishes like my b.alive! zucchini spaghetti "bolognese", Asialive noodles, zucchini hummus,
Love Sprout salad with pink ginger lime dressing, cashew kaffir lime cheese on cucumber bites, avocado chocolate pudding, passion love smoothie, coconut yoghurt for breakfast and even mocaccinos and lattes based on cashew milk :-)











Working with the kitchen team was an beautiful and rewarding experience. Sirsan, the head chef, was extremely excited to learn the new ways of preparing the food and very happy and willing to learn.
And on top, the working conditions couldn't be better, when I asked Sirsan that we need a fresh young coconut that has some thick meat inside for making a nice creamy coconut sauce, he simply walked out of the kitchen , going to the coconut tree by the beach and getting a coconut fresh from the tree ! We live in Paradise :-)

We also visited another resort and spa closeby, where they make their own organic fresh cold pressed extra virgin coconut oil. If you were ever wondering , what a coconut oil press looks like, here you go:


Gaia Oasis is a wonderful place full of good energy. Being a non-profit organization, with a board of 15 members that communally built the place and invested their money without the aim of making money, but giving back to the community, this is the real way of how to build holiday homes. The staff gets properly treated, well paid and they donate big parts of the profits of the operation to the community to support the schools and many other things.

It is a perfect place for holding retreats of all kinds and now with the inclusion of raw food definitely a good address to just spend a lush day and indulge in their amazing healthy drinks list and fresh food prepared by the most lovely chef and his kitchen staff.
Thanks Gaia for a wonderful experience. It's been a bliss to work for a place like this!

Oriental Raw Food Diner with Piano Improvisation

When my good friend Lonneke from Holland called me beginning of this summer, I was so happy to hear that she wanted to come to Berlin to visit me with her new boyfriend Freek Zwanenberg. Unbound excitement kicked in, when she mentioned that this same boy was an amazing piano player and she suggested to have a raw food dinner, during which he can play his improvisations, inspired by my food. I called Melanie from Aphrohdisia and over some vegan ice cream on a lush summer evening , we designed an exceptional oriental style 5 course menu. Reinhold "Bubi" Rath sponsored his magical location, former restaurant and raw food café Rawmeister, at the lake in the midst of the Grunewald, an inspiring place full of energy. See for yourself , what the about 20 select guests were able to experience on this fantastic evening:



Thank you Lonneke and Freek for initializing this beautiful event.
If you want to see more of what Freek is doing, check out his website:
http://www.freekzwanenberg.nl

b.alive! dinner in Rome: Beautiful notes from a guest

Yesterday evening was a true highlight in my life as a raw food chef. My dearest friends Sienna and Yves opened their Roman Palace , which they call their humble home, in the center of Monti in Rome, to host the Roman episode of my latest dinner series: Tropical Inspirations from Bali.

Watching over the roofs of Monti under new moon, 22 excited guests were served a fusion repertoire of Asian inspired raw food dishes on the beautiful roof top terrace of the apartment, surrounded by Sienna's amazing herb garden. The excitement was met and all of them left with smiling faces. I received so much nice feedback and comments from everyone and Elizabeth even wrote an entire blog post about the dinner. And so did Sarah May on her Compassionate Hedonist Blog. So, at this point, I won't go on and talk more about it, but read for yourself from the perspective of two really happy guests :-)

Here are the articles:
Raw Food in Rome, by Elizabeth Minchilli

b.alive! in Rome, by Sarah May

Radiantly Alive

One month has already passed, since I arrived on Bali beginning of May, and with it an exciting and inspiring time, creating indulgent gourmet raw food meals for about 35 eager students of the Radiantly Alive Yoga Teacher Training. This month long program is probably one of the world's most comprehensive yoga teacher trainings available at the moment. Each day seems like a day in paradise. Starting with Meditation and Pranayama at 5:45, followed by 2 hours of invigorating yoga practice, instructed either by Daniel Aaron himself or one of the many guest teachers, the students get their first raw food highlight of the day: a bright, tropical breakfast. For me personally, the highlight of every breakfast were the 5-6 varieties of tropical fruit we offered each day. Local staples like enzyme rich papaya, dark yellow mangoes and the juicy super-food/fruit mangosteen were only topped by occasional treats such as jackfruit, which became one of my new favorite tropical fruit. The mere size of an outgrown, ripe jackfruit literally threw me for a loop ;-) The meat is gooey and sticky and when you have it on your hands it has sort of the same effect as the rinds of a pine tree, leaving some stickiness on your fingers. The taste and texture of the fruit when its ripe is outstanding, just like juicy candy gum, but all natural. Yumm. Of course, fresh tropical fruit was only one part of breakfast. The chef's challenge was to come up with chia coconut porridge with daily changing flavors (chocolate banana, chai spice, papaya, vanilla, etc.) and superfood smoothies with flavor profiles such as a passion fruit spirulina maca blend or mulberry chocolate.


Now this was only the humble start of the day. Together with chef Matt Samuelson, who has taught for many years at Living Light Culinary Insitute in Fort Bragg, California, our motivated international kitchen crew (from left to right) Japanese chef Sayuri, who also caters other retreats, myself (b.alive!), German apprentice Anna and becoming raw chef Lucie from the Czeck Republic created some outstandingly rawluscious lunches and divine dinners. Some of my personal favorites were:

• the Mediterranean themes with Hummus and Dolmas, in which the rice had been replaced with a delicous mix of rice shape cut zucchini, pine nuts, raisins, orange juice and olive oil wrapped in flat rolled marinated romaine lettuce leafs.
  
  
• an Indian Dinner theme with fermented chapati bread, palak paneer, delicious vegetable curry and mango and coconut mint chutney
  
• our Asian Style lunches with ad-hoc creations like my Thai Style cucumber kaffir lime "noodles" with wilted spinach.
  

During one month of such amazing energizing food and invigorating yoga practice with world class teachers in a truly magical environment of religious rituals and Balinese traditions, surrounded by lush jungle, endless rice fields with tremendous views and dramatic sunsets an amazing group of people including organizers, teachers, kitchen staff and students alike are truly undergoing a life-changing transformation and I can say for myself that I have made quantum steps towards b.ing radiantly alive. Go and see for yourself :-)
http://www.radiantlyalive.com

b.alive! on Mediaplanet

It's not TV yet, but web tv for now :-) Watch my first online performance in which me and my raw food partner Melanie from Aphrohdisia tell you the benefits about raw food and show you how simple it is to make a green smoothie, zucchini spaghetti bolognese and a rawlicious chocolate pudding.

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 :-)

Rohvolution 2010

Mesquite Chocolate GraWnola, Golden Cranberry Pecan Toast, Incan Cayenne Chocolat with Shilajit Mineral Pitch, GoChocoNuts Spread , Caramelized Yacon Flan, Raw Phad Thai with Ginger almonds and much more at the Rohvolution in Berlin this weekend (www.rohvolution.de).

Rohvolution is Europe's biggest event on raw food, taking place in 3 different locations in Germany every year.

This weekend, 27th and 28th of March, I will be at the Rohvolution in Berlin with my latest products and also giving talks on coconut oil and fighting diabetes with raw food rainbow green life-food diet after Gabriel Cousins. Visit me at booth 164-166.

Will it blend? Blender Show Down at the First Rawsome Sunday in Berlin

This past Sunday, my friend Alex from Wamos Zentrum organized the first Rawsome Sunday in Berlin, an entire day of workshops, talks, showcases, samplings and information around raw food. It was a great event with almost 30 attendees, "wheatgrass messiah" Piter Caizer from L.A. was giving lessons on juicing and making Essene bread and raw burgers and I was teaching how to make delicious smoothies and raw nutella. A full synopsis of the workshop can also be found on rohspirit.com (in German).

One central part of the workshop was the ultimate blender test. See also this article on wasabimon.com on this issue. This Sunday 4 blenders were tested:

• my commercial Vitamix "Vitaprep 3" (about 800€ in Germany)
• the famous K-Tec (about 600€)
• Omni Mix (Taiwanese Vitamix imitation) (about 250€)
• Saro Omni Blend V (K-Tex imitation) (about 250€)

The test was a simple orange, carrot ginger smoothie, blending oranges, carrots, ginger, cashew nuts, vanilla, dates and coconut oil.

The blends were rated based on smootheness and the results were rather obvious.
The winner was the Vitaprep 3, followed by the K-Tec. The cheaper Taiwanese imitations are not getting close to the consistencies these commercial high speed blenders can achieve.

One test, I would not have even dared to do in any of the other blenders was making the most healthy and delicious raw nutella. For this I blended hazelnuts to a flour first in the dry Vitamix, then added dates, raw cacao and coconut oil and blended the whole on highest speed using the tamper to push things down constantly. This creates a very thick and sticky cream, impossible for any household blender. AND the challenge was even higher, since I assumed that the dates, Alex handed me were already pitted... well... they weren't, I figured when I heard the sound of the blades meeting the hard date pits... :-o
BUT the Vitamix even coped with this and broke them all down!!

So, my resume: I think the Omniblend is an ok alternative for people who want to start on a raw food diet and want to experiment with smoothies, raw soups, patés and alike and don't want to spend the extra dollars for the professional brands.
However, as soon as you want to do more with it and use it very frequently, especially in commercial environments, I would not try to save any money here and go for the well established brands that have been tested for years and used in raw food restaurants all over the world. There is a reason, why all raw foodists swear on their Vitamixes.

Oh, and I do NOT take any responsibiliy for any damages due to householdblender testing with date pits inspired by this artice ;-)

Young Coconuts - the food of the gods

There has been extended silence on this blog but it has all been for a good reason: traveling, training, self-development and back I am, full to the rim with new inspirations from recent travels to Thailand, Singapore and Bali. All of these places are little heavens for raw foodies and not at last because of one particular exotic fruit: Fresh Young Coconut. Young Coconuts are an amazing superfood. Not only do they contain up to half a liter of thirst quenching, tasty water, which at the same time is full of electrolytes and therefore a natural isotonic; it's actually the closest naturally existing liquid to the human blood, for which reason it is often used for blood transformations in developing countries if there is no blood from the correct type available. Even the Food and Agriculture Organization fought for a patent in 2000 to market coconut water as a new isotonic sports drink. Check this article on 7 benefits of coconut water.

But let's take a look at it's use in the culinary arts. The thin and soft flesh that you can scoop out from the coconut once you emptied out all the water and openend it up, can be used in a variety of dishes due to it's wonderful consistency and delicate subtle flavour, like in this coconut ceviche that I prepared a few days ago. In this dish, the texture of the coconut reminds of the texture of a squid (ceviche traditionally is a Mexican seafood dish).

The other day I also used the flesh in a Raw Version of Phad Thai, the traditional Thai noodle dish. Thinly sliced, the meat of the coconut gives the impression of the rice noodles the dish is usually made of.
There is plenty of other wonderful ways to work with young coconuts. A very simple thing is to just blend the meat and the coconut water and you have the best coconut milk ever! Then you can turn it into a sweet smoothie / milk adding the sweeteners of choice or into a savoury soup adding some lime, chilli, curry,... get creative. You can also make a nice coconut yoghurt by just blending the meat with a little coconut water, salt and lemon or lime juice. The water is sweet and tangy and little bit sour at the same time and therefore lends it this yogurty taste.
One of my favourite things I prepared these days are crèpes. Vegan, raw crèpes!! All the French out there, please forgive me now for misusing and abusing this reserved word...
The combination of cashew nuts and the flesh of the young coconut together with some other ingredients gives a perfect crèpes dough that you can fill with anything you would fill a normal crèpe. Here, I made a blueberry jello and a white creamy almond yoghurt using some of the coconut water, and drizzled the whole thing with a dark raw chocolate sauce. Blueberries and chocolate... delicious!!
However, my favourite, I actually invented two nights ago after coming home, hungry for something sweet. I pulled out a crèpes from the fridge, spread some tahini on it, then slivered pieces of frozen bananas on top, squeezed a few drops of lime over the whole thing, sprinkled it with raw chocolate nibs, rolled it all up and it was simply perfect! sweet crèpes, bitter nutty tahini, sweet pure banana "ice cream", a tang of lime, and the chocolate crunch turned out to be a fantastic combination. Try it out for yourself!

And in my next blog post, you will also find out, where I got all the coconuts in Berlin from to experiment with :-)

b.alive Berlin Brunch , 1st edition

Last Sunday, I opened doors to the first brunch at the inofficial "b.alive raw café" at my little studio loft in Berlin Mitte. It was a great success. 11 hungry people showed up with sceptic faces wondering whether THIS raw food would actually fill them or if they need to go to have a Döner or Currywurst after. I think, noone had to :-)

The brunch menu featured:

• Banana Blueberry Chocolate Smoothies
• Raw Homemade Superfoods Granola (including Goji Berries, Maca, Raw Chocolate, etc.) served with a freshly made Goji Berry Coconut Milk and fresh fruit
• Raw Buckwheat Pizza with fermented cheese and marinated vegetables
• Nori Rolls with Fermented Wasabi Sunflower Cheeze
• Chocolate Nachos with a Sweet Spicy Walnut Saffron Paté
• Sicilian Fennel Orange Radicchio Salad with Walnuts
• Apple Pie with Caramel Cashew Sauce

The raw pizza was definitely the brunch star. Everybody was surprised on how pizza can be raw until they figured out that the misterious black box in the corner was the magical tool: a dehydrator. This pizza was delicious, with a crust made from buckwheat and sun-dried tomatoes, a layer of fermented sunflower seed cheeze, another layer of marinara sauce and topped with a vegetable medeley of eggplants, zucchini, spinach and bell pepper that have been marinated in olive oil and Italian herbs for 24 hours. Everything together created a perfect combination of textures and flavours.

My personal favourite were the chocolate nachos with a walnut saffron paté. The chocolate in the nachos (made from a base of sunflower seeds and corn) gave them a bitterness which is well complemented by the sweetness and spicyness of the paté, made from walnuts, saffron, dried apricots, chilli and some other little secrets.

For the Nori Rolls, I used the fermented sunflower seed cheeze and flovoured it with Wasabi and Soy Sauce, used it as a filling together with raw veggies like cucuber, carrots, peppers, avocavdos and sprouts, et voilà, a beautiful vegan interpretation of a maki roll.

The celebrities of the first brunch were: Writer Travis Jeppesen, art photographer Luigi, Art Gallerist Michael Rade, Roisin Cronin, Mark Malossek, Sven Bretschneider, Fashion Youngster Reto Cameri, Fair Trade Coffee Roaster David MacGregor, DJ and Musician Snax and Berlinale volunteer Na'ama with her friend William.

Everybody, including me, was happy and shining by the end of the brunch and left with an obvious abundance of radiating energy from their first living food experience. At least the grateful smiles told me so. I am already looking forward to the next event.