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 Portland Tribune. TRENDY CHEFS TURNING OFF THE FIRE Evangelists of the raw food movement spread the joy of uncooking By MICHAELA BANCUD September 30, 2003 Cooks love the tick-tick-tick followed by the swoosh of a gas flame turning on under a pot. Most don't mind the occasional steam burn or run-in with a hot oven rack. Cooks wear their kitchen wounds with pride. So what would happen if cooks lost their fire? Ani Phyo and Ede Schweizer are the healthy-looking chefs behind SmartMonkey Foods Organic Living Cuisine, a purveyor of gourmet raw foods and a "no cook" catering company that launched in Southeast Portland one year ago. They're spreading the word that a raw food diet, in which food is not heated over 104 degrees, is more than cold carrot sticks and cauliflower. Picture instead, they say, a range of vibrant, health-giving foods eaten the way nature intended. A typical menu at one of SmartMonkey's monthly dinner events, for example, could include such tempting items as stuffed zucchini blossoms with cucumber sauce, sweet sesame crisps with pomegranate sauce and a glass of biodynamic (100 percent organic) wine. The raw food movement is catching on in Portland, but the Bay Area, where the couple started, is considered its spiritual homeland. That's where the fast-spreading food religion caught Phyo and Schweizer's attention. Then they fell in with the "rock star of raw chefs," Juliano Brotman, author of "Raw: The Uncook Cookbook." Juliano, as he's known, runs a San Francisco restaurant, Raw, and has turned celebrities such as Sting and the Red Hot Chili Peppers' Anthony Kiedis onto the power of raw. Golden Girl Bea Arthur is another well-known raw foodist. Schweizer and Phyo worked with Juliano in San Francisco and then followed him to Los Angeles to work alongside him in his restaurant there, Juliano's Raw. Since their move to Portland, they've been spreading the gospel of raw at the East Bank Farmer's Market and at a widely attended diabetes convention. Naturally, they also attended the International Raw and Living Foods Festival in Lebanon, Ore., last month, where approximately 800 raw foodies converged to swap recipes and attend seminars. Linda Checkal-Fromm, who helps organize the annual festival, heads up Growth and Prosperity International, a Portland-based group that "anchors new ways of being on the planet." Most raw foodists say that protecting the planet is another bonus to this diet. "There are a handful of people in town driving social change," says Checkal-Fromm, who estimates that anywhere from 200 to 300 dedicated raw foodists dwell in the Portland area. Many more experiment by eating raw food as much of the time as possible. "What happens at these food festivals affects things worldwide," she says. "Someone on the bus next to you might be a new Gandhi." Let the enzymes live Raw, simply stated, is any food in which the enzymes are still active. Anything cooked above 105 to 110 degrees, raw food advocates believe, kills off the living enzymes and electrolytes, thereby depleting food of its nutrients and minerals. "By 118 degrees they are definitely dead," Phyo says. Therefore, nothing cooked above these temperatures passes between a strict raw foodist's lips. This leaves a choice of vegetables, fruits, and sprouted nuts and seeds. Some raw foodies do eat raw meat, although most are vegetarian or vegan. Asked what she'd eat if she ever fell off the wagon, Phyo laughs and says, "Probably cooked tofu." For the curious, Schweizer and Phyo hold regular "noncooking events" at Whole Foods grocery store, where they teach the finer points of raw food preparation in classes such as "Thai Uncooking Class" and "Italian Dinner in the Raw." Recently, SmartMonkey products have made their way into the Portland food scene, in part because of aggressive self-promotion and the plastering of public utility poles in the Pearl District with information about events. SmartMonkey's Cosmic Herb dressing, a dip for veggies or salads, can be found in the perishable foods aisle at Whole Foods Market in Portland's Pearl District. An extended line of packaged foods (such as pizza crusts and marinaras), salad dressings, sauces and desserts soon will be available at Food Front Cooperative Grocery in Northwest Portland, where a a red-carpet rollout is planned next month for a new raw food section. Good for brainpower SmartMonkey uses organic produce purchased through local farmers' markets when possible. In the winter, Phyo and Schweizer buy some fruit and produce from California farmers. They insist that a raw diet isn't a food fad or a new kind of kooky masochism. Demand in Portland is high, they say, and they've been invited to give seminars on raw food in such hard-charging corporate environments as Adidas and Mazama, a Portland capital management firm. "The biggest misconception is that this way of eating is just for the fringe," Phyo says. "But really, most of our clientele are young, hip designer types who turn to raw food to keep their brainpower going. They have jobs and the need to keep themselves going. "It's all about health, nutrition and energy," Phyo adds as she puts the finishing touches on a tofu smoothie topped with blackberries and chopped nuts in her Southeast Portland kitchen. She says that neither she nor Schweizer has had so much as a cold since they began eating only raw foods 3 1/2 years ago. Their kitchen is equipped with a standard oven that came with the house, but it's never used except to store light bulbs. The real workhorse is a nine-rack Excalibur food dehydrator, an appliance that "bakes" pizza crust and crackers at low temperatures. Food dehydrators are sold locally at Mirador, a kitchen supply store in Southeast Portland. Phyo stresses that with a raw food diet she doesn't feel deprived -- just energized and healthy -- and that friends love coming over for dinner at her house. "This isn't about what you can't eat," she says. "It's about what you can eat. Remember, there are 32 types of lettuces." For more information on SmartMonkey Foods Gourmet Raw Cuisine: Ani Phyo Phone: 503-236-7878 Email: smartmonkeyfoods@yahoo.com www.smartmonkeyfoods.com