Chong Ming, China- The Zhang Residence & Farm

I was so delighted and more honored that I was invited to Kent’s (Pastry Chef from the US Pavilion) family home in Chong Ming about an hour outside of Shanghai.  Kent invited Will Fleichman and I to come and experience the real way of Chinese life outside the hustle and bustle of the big city.

(more…)

World Expo, 2010 World Expo, Shanghai, China Growing Organic

The US Pavilion is 3 stories; the VIP area/kitchen is located on the top floor and separated by the two buildings is the organic chef garden. After a few quick translation sessions with the garden keepers they are now growing everything for our specifications. It has become my own personal organic supermarket! (Something that is so far from reality in China)

This garden is located about 50 steps from my kitchen door, so much like an organic farmer, we pop out to pick what is ready to harvest for the day. The US Pavilion is the only building with its own sustainable garden. additions to this garden have been planted in deep roasting pans and other kitchen wares to showcase that it is truly now a “chef’s garden”.

I dedicate to this post to all chefs that are as passionate as myself to enjoying the “back door” garden and to close friend, organic farmer, and entrepreneur, Marie Tedei, owner of the thriving Edens Garden in Balch Springs, Texas.

Come visit us in China, we would love to see you!

Raw Foods. Food Raw. Raw Food Diet. The Secret to Raw Food Recipes is Time.

One would think “cooking” Raw would be as simple as slicing and dicing.  Previously mentioned  it takes hours in preparation for each experiment!  I was not sure if  setting up my telephone line in the St. Thomas took a longer amount of time?  Regardless, it was a test of patients in comparison to actually heating up a sauté pan and whipping up dinner!  In order to do some of the experiments we had to sprout dry seeds –which took between 30 min-6 hours…

It was all worth the time and effort that we endured (along with my patients to get the other half fed!)  The  natural energy levels that I had after just 2 days of eating raw was one that I had never experienced.  I felt like I was in a formula 1 car 16 hours a day!

Below is the making of walnut “whipped cream” and fresh fruit dessert.

*The walnut whip cream had a denser texture that had an incredible aroma of vanilla, creamy texture, and full of great nutrients.  How could you go wrong!

Raw Food for “RAW”-na-vores

The natural energy was in flowing after day 4… everyday was a new adventure in food!   Away from the granola hippie style of RAW.. I had to push the cuisine into new realms. Kicking off with the veggie spring roll found in most Vietnamese restaurants (typically with shrimp or pork), which would have made at least one of us happier.. but you know doing my best to stick with the integrity of the challenge into RAW.

I must say some days felt like we were in search for the holy grail… because raw nuts and fruits were quickly becoming extinct much like my desire to wait 36 hours to dehydrate papaya and other various goodies just to have a snack.  Yet, will power prevailed and here we are… a few more of the veggie/RAW inspired creations.

Raw Food. Rules & Guidelines of Raw Foods Experiment

After years of pondering what would it be like to only eat RAW food I decided to take the challenge… I did not do this for the trendy diet/cleansing aspect but for the culinary challenge. After a little convincing and flattery I somehow managed to get a co-pilot for this experiment! (ahh, the art of flattery…)

We decided that for one week we would taste, “un”-cook, and design new ideas that could potentially turn the thought of RAW food into something palatable.

When l used to live in Santa Monica, CA I ate at Juliano’s RAW, the food was creative, tasty in its own right, and no question vibrant. I was blown away when I ate at Bliss Café and Elixir Bar in Dallas- we couldn’t figure out how we were so full after eating hardly anything… it was a topic of conversation for weeks, so finally I made the call that we were going to go RAW!

Most Raw diets and RAW chefs stick to the vegan realm but not these omnivores!

Some of the general guidelines we had to follow were-

No food item could be heated above 120 degrees

No dairy (as commonly pasteurized)

Organic produce and grains

That said I quickly realized that my two new best friends became the blender and food dehydrator.

***Two books that are a great guideline for inspiration, reference are Charlie Trotter’s RAW and Juliano’s RAW

« Previous Entries