Join the raw-volution!

MANILA, Philippines - There’s a revolution Demi Moore, Alicia Silverstone, David Bowie, and Sting have long been rallying for. It has been changing the lifestyles of Americans for years now but has not really been making headlines here in Manila or gained a major following yet. Soon though, things may change, especially since RawVolution, a restaurant that mainly offers raw food, has just opened.

The Chef Who Doesn’t Cook

For years, Cheloy Ignacio struggled with her health. Her blood pressure and sugar levels peaked from time to time. At a tender age of 19, she was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia (pregnancy-induced hypertension) and unfortunately, she lost her baby two days before the due date. Then at 23, she had a mild stroke. Her life has been marked with serious health ailments and constant hospital visits. Consequently, she became a walking drugstore and was always armed with medication to counter allergies, arthritis, and migraine attacks, to name a few of her illnesses. Not long, it wasn’t only her health that got complicated, but her eating habits as well.

After her kidney stones were removed, she was advised to avoid leafy greens. Also upon doctor’s orders, she wasn’t allowed to eat white bread so that her blood sugar wouldn’t shoot up. It is all these sicknesses and dietary restrictions that eventually led Ignacio to look for alternatives. She believed that there had got to be a way out of all these inconveniences. And that’s exactly what she found in raw food. After talking to doctors here and abroad and seeing the fast and dramatic results of abiding by a raw food diet, she was convinced that this type of “natural healing” would give her the comfortable life she almost never had.

“I was just curious. I didn’t expect to make a career out of it,” she confessed. “But when I attended a class in Los Angeles and nung natikman ko yung shake pa lang, sabi ko ito na yung hinahanap ko. Wala na akong naramdaman na masama from that time on. I attended the teachers’ two-week training from the Raw Foods Association in Boston. I studied all three levels. Then I stayed in LA for two years, went back home, and set up RawVolution.”

The Culinary Crusade

Barely a month old, RawVolution has yet to see customers queuing up for its red beet ravioli and mock salmon pate on romaine lettuce. The small restaurant might not pack people this early on, but with more and more health buffs succumbing to a healthier lifestyle, it won’t take long before they join this culinary crusade and heed Cheloy’s tasty creations.

Contrary to many assumptions, raw food doesn’t make for a dull diet consisting of carrot sticks. In fact, it’s the exact opposite since it is not cooked and thus, retains all the ingredients’ natural flavors and energies.

You see, cooked food is food that has been heated beyond 105 degrees. Under this circumstance, the dish has already lost close to 85 percent of its nutritional value, making it harder for your body to digest.

While many follow this diet to lose weight (“I religiously followed my doctor’s instructions and in 10 days, I lost 20 pounds,” says Ignacio with pride.), it has been proven to do much more than just that — from providing more energy and giving you healthier skin to battling health issues such as high cholesterol and a weak immune system.

“The other day, the headline in the newspaper read that 10 million Filipinos are hypertensive. Anong gamot doon? You can rely on medicine for the rest of your life, or let me be a living testimony [to the fact] that raw food and the people surrounding you can help you. It’s your choice.”

In The Raw

The raw food diet is already big in the US. So big that a number of restaurants, like Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago or 105degrees in Oklahoma, have crafted and included delectable dishes featuring “living cuisine” in their menus.

“Doctors have long recommended their patients to eat it, but people don’t really know how to prepare good raw food,” claims Ignacio. “Sushi with salmon or tuna is not the healthy kind of raw food.” What constitutes raw foods are fruits, vegetables, seeds, sprouts, seaweed, nuts, and mushrooms that didn’t pass through heat. And ideally, they should have been grown organically.

Preparing flavorful dishes out of these natural ingredients requires one to be creative and playful. In RawVolution’s kitchen, there isn’t a stove in sight. Instead, it has equipment such as a dehydrator, spiralizer, and mandolin, which allow the chef to make the food not only look appealing but also make it easier to eat. The Asian rolls, for instance, bursts with bold colors that come from julienned beets, carrots, and mangoes. In place of the sushi rice, minced singkamas were used to stuff each maki. She used the same juicy fruit (pounded until smooth and sprinkled with black sesame seeds) to be the “mashed potato” that accompanies the hours-long-dehydrated Portobello mushroom “steak.” This bestselling dish also comes with two kinds of salsa — one made with avocado, and the other with a mixture of chopped herbs and green mango. Then for her tomato and macadamia linguni, the certified raw food chef has made noodle strands out of carrot and zucchini, similar to how she serves pancit canton made with squash and bihon with kamote. These “noodles” might not be al dente, but they sure lend an interesting crunch to every healthy bite.

It may take time and much campaigning for this revolutionary diet to really take off. Until then, you can count on Demi, Alicia, and, now, chef Cheloy to continue rallying for raw foods.

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RawVolution is located at the ground floor of the Doña Juanita Building, 112 Kamuning Road, Quezon City. Call 687-1121, (0917) 38-8277, (0927 9505590.