Food In The Raw
A lamington made with organic apples, oranges, cacao powder, vanilla, celtic salt and coconut – can you imagine it?
Liz GilbertGrant, a raw food cook who lives just up the highway at Palm Beach.
“The lamington came about by mistake,” she says. “I was stewing some apples for my partner’s sons, and they burnt on the bottom. I scooped off the top layer and mixed it with coconut, vanilla and cacao powder and they loved it, so I decided to try it raw apple.”
A softly-spoken, kindly woman, Liz has been a raw food convert for 30 years and now runs cooking classes from her home at Palm Beach, and at The Oneness Cafe in Coogee, Sydney.
“My passion is to encourage people to increase the amount of raw food in their diet to improve their health,” she told me.
“That doesn’t mean everything you eat has to be raw,” she says. “But I do believe that the closer we can be to nature supports our nature.”
Liz doesn’t use recipes when teaching.
“I teach people to use their intuition,” she says. “We’ve been so programmed in what we eat. I believe that if people listen to their bodies, their bodies will tell them what they need.”
Liz opened her first business, a vegetarian restaurant, in Whangarei, New Zealand, 20 years ago. She then ran a youth hostel and personal and business seminars.
“My love is people. Teaching people to create delicious meals with raw food is an opportunity to help them at ground level.”
At The Oneness Cafe last week, she created a veritable banquet of raw food dishes including a green smoothie (kale, parsley, banana, orange and water); a cashew dip; a vegie dip (zucchini, carrot, tandoori spices); a raw Asian stir-fry (broccoli, mushrooms, cabbage, red capsicum massaged with a delicious marinade) with cauliflower and walnut rice; zucchini pasta with tomato sauce; rice paper rolls; curried vegetables; chocolate mousse and apple crumble.
For most of the dishes, she used a Thermomix (a blender is fine), and a Spiraliser to make the zucchini pasta.
“When we eat a lot of de-natured food, our wires get crossed,” she says. “If you want to get healthy, don’t walk into a supermarket for a month.”
Well, that’s what I stumbled across one day recently at IRA, a funky little cafe on the Gold Coast Highway at Tugun, south-east Queensland. And it was truly delish.
It was called “Angel’s Raw Lamington Slice” and had been made by
Hi,
I am interested in doing one of your cooking classes. Are you running any late Aug or Sept?
Thanks for your time.
Hi Penny – Yes, I have classes on in August and September. I have posted dates and menus here:
https://www.sheridanrogers.com.au/kids-cooking-classes/cooking-class-timetable/
cheers,
Sheridan
There are a lot of raw food workshops and events at Liz’s site inloveskitchen.com.au/events if you are interested. She does free talks as well
Yes, I have been to one at Oneness Cafe in Coogee, Sydney
Are you running any courses @ tugan in the near future. Wendy
Hi Wendy – I don’t run the classes – you need to get in touch with Liz from In Love’s Kitchen: https://inloveskitchen.com.au/
cheers,
Sheridan