September 2004 NW Palate Magazine - Raw Dinners August 2004 Willamette Week - Naked Lunch Portland Mercury - Baby, I Like it Raw May 2004 Herbivore Magazine - The Art of Raw Healing Lifestyles and Spas - Vibrant Living Foods February 2004 Portland Mercury - The Best Vegan Desert Ever December 2003 OPB - SmartMonkey Foods Radio Interview November 2003 SMF Press - Carnival Cruise Lines Features SMF SMF Press - SuperSet Tennis Nervy Girl - Green Cuisine SMF Press - Food Front's Living Foods Section October 2003 SMF Press - SMF Caters STOMP Event September 2003 Willamette Week - Raw Power Portland Tribune - Trendy Chefs Turning Off Fire March 2003 Daily PDX - Raw Foods Are Making a Revival . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . SmartMonkey Foods Press Contact: Ani Phyo Phone: 503-236-7878 Email: smartmonkeyfoods@yahoo.com URL: www.smartmonkeyfoods.com Article appeared in Herbivore Magazine. THE ART OF RAW Portland Chefs Prepare Living Foods With Style 01 May, 2004 PORTLAND, Ore. - The first things you notice about SmartMonkey Foods' commercial kitchen are the tools that go unused. The oven for one. The trash bins for another. You get the feeling this isn't your typical catering and packaged food operation. Meet chef/owners Ani Phyo and Ede Schweizer and the picture becomes clearer - SmartMonkey Foods is taking healthy, eco-friendly cuisine to a higher level. SmartMonkey Foods has been creating gourmet, vegan living foods for almost four years. Since moving the company from California to Portland, Oregon, in early 2003, Ani and Ede have developed a devoted local following. In addition to catering, weekly dinners-to-go, and "uncooking" classes, they produce packaged items including pizza crust, marinara, herb dressing, seed "cheeze," carob brownies, lemon coconut bars, and pecan pie. Everything SmartMonkey Foods creates is organic, vegan, living, and locally grown. Living food is fresh, organic, and uncooked (Ani and Ede draw the line at 104°F). Rather than cook, live food enthusiasts blend, sprout, dehydrate, and juice. They believe that in order to digest cooked food, in which the natural digestive enzymes have been destroyed by heat, we sacrifice metabolic enzymes that would otherwise maintain proper physical functioning. It's the depletion of these metabolic enzymes, they say, that causes illness and accelerates the aging process. That explains the unused oven, but what about the trash bins? For Ani and Ede, the living food lifestyle goes beyond personal health. "We're about treading lightly on the planet," Ani says, "turning everything we use back into the earth to create the best quality organic soil which then produces life again." Because they prepare only organic, whole foods, they create no garbage. In both their commercial kitchen and their home, Ani and Ede recycle glass, plastic, and cardboard. Everything else is composted. While working in the multimedia industry in San Francisco, Ani discovered living foods at Juliano's Raw Restaurant. "I often stayed up all night working. When I went to Juliano's for dinner, I had so much energy. I always wondered, 'What did he put in that food?'" She found herself frequenting Juliano's for the stress relief, energy, and clarity of mind necessary in the fast-paced digital world. Ani and Ede later apprenticed under Juliano and are often invited to guest chef at his Santa Monica restaurant. While a living food diet can seem extreme, Ani and Ede have found a healthy rhythm. "We're not about being extreme," says Ani. "We teach people that you don't have to be 100% raw. The purists give us a hard time for serving alcohol at our dinners, but our reply is we're providing a venue for people who haven't experienced gourmet raw food to try it, and if that's going to keep them from having a steak or hamburger and fries that one meal and instead have a raw meal with a glass of wine, who cares? That's still way better for their bodies and for the planet." Besides, technically wine is raw. Ede adds, "I think it's crazy that people put out books saying this is the only diet and you should live by this book. Each individual is built completely different and has unique needs. Part of eating living foods is getting more in touch with your personal health and a sustainable lifestyle." He notes the importance of listening to your body's reaction to foods and designing your diet around that. In addition to their culinary training, Ani's background in design and Ede's in multimedia and photography add an element of artistic detail to their work. Their dishes appeal to all the senses, inviting enthusiasts and skeptics alike into the gourmet living foods experience. They hope to enlighten those who might think of raw cuisine as a plate of carrots and celery with delicious, aromatic, vibrant meals that defy stereotypes. The response has been overwhelmingly positive. "After eating our food," Ani beams, "people have said to us 'We're high off your food' because they feel energized. That's what food should be about - feeling good!" With raw in the media spotlight, SmartMonkey Foods is developing a national market. When tennis stars Andre Agassi and Anna Kournakova came to Portland in November 2003 as part of SuperSet Tennis, promoters included SmartMonkey Extreme Energy Bars in gift baskets presented to the athletes. In October, Ani and Ede catered a birthday party for the cast of Stomp, shipping festive treats across the country for the event. When Carnival Cruises decided to test raw cuisine on a Caribbean cruise, Ani and Ede developed a living foods menu worthy of Carnival's opulent reputation. Ani and Ede have turned their passion for living foods into a successful business they feel good about. Maximizing their skills as chefs and designers, they provide healthy, sustainable food to people who truly appreciate their talents. Treading lightly on the planet, they give back to the earth what it requires to continue creating living foods for us all. Article written by Emily Puro. For more information on SmartMonkey Foods Gourmet Raw Cuisine: Ani Phyo Phone: 503-236-7878 Email: smartmonkeyfoods@yahoo.com www.smartmonkeyfoods.com