Vegetarian Journal's Foodservice Update
Healthy Tips and Recipes for Institutions
Volume XII, Number 1                Spring 2006

Food Service Hotline

Question: How can I possibly combine raw foods cuisines with high-end cuisine? My imagination doesn't stretch that far!

Answer: Although Roxanne's, a white tablecloth raw foods restaurant in California, has now closed, items from its menu certainly would have piqued your imagination. Remember that "cheeses" and "yogurts" are usually based in nuts, "pasta" in specially cut veggies, and "crusts" in sprouted grains.

• Cucumber wrapped summer rolls with almond and sweet chili sauces
• Marinated olives and tomatoes with arugula and herbed cashew cheese on a savory pizza crust
• Sea vegetable salad with kaisou, wakame, arame, and hijiki vinaigrette
• Citrus fruits with avocados, pomegranate juice, and grapefruit sabayon
• Radish ravioli with miso-sesame broth and shimeji mushrooms
• Hearts of romaine caesar with rawmesan and crunchy croutons
• Red butter lettuces with cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, avocados, crushed mint/oregano vinaigrette, and yogurt dill
• Tiny lettuces with grapes, smoked almonds, celery, and tarragon vinaigrette
• Curried carrot soup with cilantro chutney and spiced oil
• Coconut green curry soup with avocado, cherry tomatoes, red chili, and green curry oils
• Miso soup with scallions, wakame, marinated mushrooms, and carrots

Entrées

• Yellow curried vegetables with biryani rice
• Five spice chow fun with barbeque portobella, coconut noodles, stir-fried vegetables, snow pea tips, and cashews
• Mediterranean platter of falafel, hummus, dolmas, and Greek salad served with lemon yogurt sauce
• Tamale with queso amarillo, corn, chipotle vinaigrette, sour cream, and molé sauce

Obviously, if raw foodism is new to you, you'll need to take some time to learn techniques and possibly add knife skills to the list of experiences you'd like your employees to have. Sources for fresh and interesting nuts, produce, and seeds will help, as will commercial juicers and dehydrators. Many raw foods dishes can look quite elegant. Consider how ingredients are arranged on the plate, and then think about the plate type, the linen, and the table settings (how about an aromatic edible bouquet for a centerpiece?).

Renowned Chicago chef Charlie Trotter, who occasionally incorporates raw-food dishes into his tasting menus, has written an elegant coffee table raw foods book for Ten Speed Press. You might want to browse through his book to get some ideas, from both the recipes and the photographs. Charlie Trotter is producing 10-course raw menus filled with inventive dishes like okra cured in sea salt with Thai squash and pear sauce, and jicama "packages" filled with preserved eggplant, broccoli rape flowers, and tiny kohlrabi. "Every element of every dish is raw, organic, and vegan - no meat, fish, dairy products," says Trotter, "and now, the food is evolving into a cuisine with its own rules (no heat above 118 degrees) and its own equipment (Vita- Mix blender, Green Life juicer, food dehydrator). My goal is to serve this food to someone and not have her realize it's raw until she's four or five courses into the menu," he said.

Trotter admits that's a challenge, just like learning any new cuisine. "To be successful, you obviously need to start with exquisitely fresh, seasonal, organic produce," said Trotter, who uses fine-cutting techniques to break down fiber and enriches dishes with raw nuts (soaked in water overnight), avocado, and olive oil. "There are ways to make this food explode with flavor, using notes from Asian and Indian cooking - ginger, galanga, lemon grass - along with raw garlic and citrus juice." Other exciting ingredients are curry spices and the watery milk from baby Thai coconuts (also called "jelly coconuts" because of their soft meat) sold at Asian markets.
Both Roxanne Klein and Trotter say they find a dehydrator essential to concentrate flavors, and to give the exterior of some foods a crispy "crust." A juicer is essential, too, sometimes in unexpected ways like homogenizing nuts and seeds into dough. A good imagination is also useful: one has to be willing to imagine thin-sliced zucchini as sheets of pasta in a "lasagna" or dehydrated carrot cubes as "croutons" on top of a "soup" of puréed raw tomatoes.

Other raw foods restaurants and caterers around the country are offering:

Almond Vanilla Ice cream
Cashew Ranch Dip served with Sliced Carambola
Apple Cobbler with Old-fashioned Oatmeal Topping
Carrot Walnut Burgers with Tomato Barbecue Sauce
Gazpacho
Almond Pesto Cheese Tart
Zucchini Noodles with Sundried Marinara
Cream of Summer Squash Soup
Banana Nut Brittle
Banana Pudding
Corn Pudding

Experiment with several raw food entrées until you are satisfied with their taste, appearance, and presentation. You'll then have raw foods "classics" to please your diners.

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Excerpts from the Spring 2006 Issue:

Raw Foods

Raw Foods in a Nutshell

Vegan Tidbits

Food Service Hotline

Vegetarian Quantity Recipes

- Cashew Smoothie

- Cashew Milk

- Raw Walnut Pate

- Zucchini "Pasta" With Herbed Tomato Sauce

- Butternut Squash Soup

 

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