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Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Vegan MoFo: Healthy Taste of LA

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!!! I needed a huge word that brought fun to the table and helps express how wonderful this event was. I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the first Healthy Taste of LA.  This event showcased fine plant-based cuisine from restaurant chefs in the LA area.  We watched culinary demos, sampled every recipe that was made and listened to some lectures from experts in nutritional science.   It was a packed day but boy was it fantastic.


Some of the cooking demos we saw were:


  • Chef Rachel Carr of CRU
  • Chef Eric Lechasseur of SEED
  • Chef Tanya Petrovna of NATIVE FOODS
  • Culinary Artist Rawsheed, founder of SUNPOWER NATURAL CAFE

The food from this day was so amazing.  I'm feeling a bit speechless so I will let the photos so you the wonderful food we tasted that day.


First up was Chef AJ. She used no oil,salt or sugar. Her cranberry relish was delicious and the perfect item for a holiday meal.  

Cranberry Relish
I wasn't sure if I would like this or not.  She used dates as her sweetener.  It was out of this world.  Wonderful tastes I could barely contain myself it was so good.  My friend and I were looking for seconds on this one.


Hockey puck 
Perfectly Crafted Remarkable Muffins.  This muffin has bananas in it but you could barely taste them.  My friend , who doesn't care for bananas much, enjoyed the muffin as well.

PCRM Muffins
Creamy gooeyness inside.

Hockey pucks (peanut butter, cacao powder, dates) mmmm
Rawsheed was next.  His food was raw and filled with love.  All of his recipes have one of the ingredients listed as love.
Avacado Curry Soup, Chocolate pudding

This taco was superb.  A wonderful balance of flavors and the cabbage crunch was perfect.

The Living Taco (sooo good)



Next on the hit parade was Chef Tanya of Native Foods.  I must say I love Native Foods so I was really excited for this demo.  Chef Tanya did not disappoint.  The flavors and textures were amazing.  I loved both dishes.

Moroccan Roasted Cauliflower Salad
mmmm apple cake.  Why's the piece so small?

Fresh Apple Cake
Chef Eric of Seed was our next demo.  His food was fantastic.  I wasn't sure about this salad but the combination of textures and flavors were amazing.  I ate it all.



Hijiki salad with Edamame & Roasted Pumpkin seeds
This patty was delicious.  Hit the spot.

Brown Rice & Lotus Patties
Who doesn't love a little chocolate decadence for dessert.

Chocolate Truffle


Such gorgeous colors I had to show this photo.  Eat your rainbow  :).



Chef Ramses was next.  He also used no oil, salt, or sugar for his dressings.

Chef Ramses 
Look at these three beautiful dressing.

Delicious dressings with no oil
I was amazing at the complex flavors in the dressing and how the flavors changed. When I tried the mango-ginger dressing with a carrot the predominate flavor I tasted was the mango however if I had it with the cucumber the flavor was ginger.  Wonderful demo!
Apple Mustard, Mango-Ginger, Avocado-Corn
To close out the event we had Chef Rachel from Cru.  Her food was raw as well.  A wonderful way to end an amazing event.  It was delicious.

Chef Rachels food
Asian Noodle Bowl with Kelp noodles & Almond Chili sauce

Asian Noodle bowl
mmmm more chocolate.  Oh yeah.
Cru Chocolate Brownie
I was licking my lips and drooling all day.  The food was fantastic.  The event was well planned and had helpful staff.  All of the chefs were around after their demos to answer questions.  We also had a few lectures about health and were very informative.  On top of all of this we got all of the recipes from every chef.  Really I'm speechless.  A great day!  Can't wait for next year!  I already got my ticket.  The keynote speaker will be T. Colin Campbell.  Much thanks again to everyone who helped pull this together.





2 comments:

  1. Wow, wild looking food! That cranberry relish is making me drool.

    ReplyDelete