The year: 248,000 BC. Ug returns to his village aglow with pride, eager to share his discovery of strange new magic which could warm his family during the winter. He calls it ‘fire’. No longer will his people be forced to survive on nuts and berries; ‘fire’ gives them the option of eating a nut, berry and woolly mammoth soufflé. Thus, more or less, the practice of cooking was born.
In archaeological terms, it wasn’t all that long ago that homo sapiens switched from being omnivores to what Heribert Watzke, the chemist who set up the food material science department at Nestlé in Switzerland, calls ‘coctivores’ – taken from the Latin coquere (‘to cook’). As we humans have gradually altered, augmented and processed our food, taking it further and further away from its natural form, our diets have changed us. Folk in Australia and the States are now taking the initiative to go back to their roots. Rather than trading in their shirts and phones for loincloths and clubs, however, they’re eating food as nature intended: raw.
Raw foodism – the practice of eating foods cooked no higher than 104°F (40°C) – was started in the late 19th century by Swiss doctor Maximilian Bircher-Benner, better known for inventing muesli. It wasn’t until the 1980s that it became popularised by the book Raw Energy – Eat Your Way to Radiant Health, which advocates a 75% raw diet rich in seeds, sprouts and fresh vegetable juices as a means to fight disease, slow the ageing process, and improve emotional health.
In the past ten years, raw foodism has become increasingly popular in Australia and America, particularly in California where actor Woody Harrelson has opened his own raw restaurant. But if you think raw foodists are nothing but carrot nibblers, think again: menus comprise far more than simple salads. And as James Stewart, owner of RAWsome raw food supermarket in California, says: “When you start eating raw protein and whatnot, you actually can feel it within minutes or hours. It’s that quick. Energetically, your body feels clean. You don’t feel challenged or bogged down, you don’t get tired.”
Central to raw food theory is the fact that cooking food destroys natural enzymes – the life force within food which triggers digestion – exhausting the poor old pancreas. We might feel fine eating cooked food, but that’s largely because most of us have never experienced the alternative. The first place to offer that alternative here in Phnom Penh is ARTillery, where the menu – already more vegan-friendly than most – has been expanded to include several raw dishes.
“Eating raw food gives me more energy and it was that that started it,” says co-owner Emma, who trained under a raw food chef in Australia. “I was feeling quite sluggish here, drinking beers and eating a lot of rice. I was still vegetarian but I wasn’t feeling that great and I’m really into putting things in your food that can make you feel better.” Try it and brace yourself for what she describes as “a mental energy that you can’t get from any other diet”.
Take, for example, ARTillery’s raw pizza: to make the base, flax seeds, almonds and cashews are first ground finely then put into a dehydrator, which uses heat and air to reduce water content. They then add a salsa-esque topping and cashew ‘cream’ – essentially, cashews soaked in water then blended to make a fatty cream. Other choices include raw falafel; raw crackers with raw hummus; raw coconut and cashew pie; raw cheesecake, and a raw apple pie which could outdo any of its cooked counterparts in a county fair.
For the hardcore element, the arts cafe also offers a five-day ‘raw food cleanse’: three raw meals delivered to your door containing zero animal products, zero sugars, no processed fats and no preservatives, all washed down with booster shots, such as chlorophyll and spirulina, to reap the maximum health benefits.
After November’s initial test run, 17 out of 20 of ARTillery’s raw food experimentalists came back for more – despite one or two reporting the occasional craving for something hot. “It’s really for resetting your body,” says Emma. “It makes you analyse what you’re putting in your body and why, making sure you’re getting the most amount of nutrients from what you actually put inside.” To sign up for the next cleanse, starting December 3, call Emma on 078 985530.
ARTillery, Street 240½ (near Mosaic Gallery); 078 985530.