'Table of Life' serves it up raw
By Christine Morente, STAFF WRITER
Inside Bay Area


SAN MATEO - WITH pursed lips, James Hall carefully places two dolmas stuffed with parsnip and currant onto a dill cream sauce.
He stands back and admires his raw food creation sitting pretty inside a bento box, a Japanese-style lunchbox.

"I'm impressed with myself — not really," said the 47-year-old San Mateo resident with a touch of self-deprecation.

But he is proud.

Hall had just spent the last 24 hours not cooking over a hot stove, but pureeing, blending and dehydrating food.

Nearby, his partner Clarina Bradshaw taste-tested a heaping spoonful of salad made of corn, Asian pears, jicama and cucumbers.

"Do you like it?" Hall asked.

"Winner," Bradshaw said with a thumbs up. "It's nice and savory."

Once a month, for the last three months, Hall and Bradshaw have opened up their San Mateo home to raw foodists — many of them strangers who've seen his post on meetup.com — to share in a potluck he's named the Table of Life.

None of the food he served Sunday was cooked above 118 degrees Fahrenheit, nor did it contain processed sugar, processed starch, dairy or meat. Raw food advocates say uncooked food carries live enzymes that help digest themselves and leaves the body's own enzymes to rest. Hall is taking the trend to the next level in San Mateo County and proving people can do a lot with raw food. He wants to strip away the belief that raw food is hippy food.

"They all seem to be Birkenstock or very vanilla when you go into (raw food restaurants)," he said. "I'm kind of looking at blowing people's minds a little bit. But in a good way."

Hence Sunday's international bento box theme, which also featured flaxseed tacos stuffed with guacamole, mango and jicama with a Mexican chili vinaigrette sour cream sauce. All the items were displayed on a

14-foot-long dining table with a checkerboard-style top.

Dinesh Hebbar of Santa Clara brought mango smoothie to the shindig. The 27-year-old has maintained a raw foods diet for a year and a half.

"You eat guilt-free basically," said Hebbar, who used to eat rice, roti and curry. "The body becomes so natural. It instinctively knows if the food is right for the body or not. A lot of the senses get heightened and it increases sexual energy."

Lisa McCortney said she experiences a natural high when she eats raw food.

"I feel more positive and happier," the Los Altos resident said. "With cooked food, I'd feel weighed down."

A raw foodie for two years, McCortney said Hollywood has helped propel the movement.

"People say they become more beautiful and younger looking," McCortney said. "But mostly people want to heal themselves."

That was the attitude in the 1990s, when more people were looking to raw foods to find a therapeutic way of getting well.

As all diets go, nutritionist Nori Hudson of Radiant Vitality in Berkeley said there are pros and cons.

"The raw food diet is legitimate," she said. "We have a certain pool of enzymes in our pancreas and as we age, it doesn't seem to be as populated. When we eat raw foods, we give our pancreas a break."

But the lifestyle may not be right for those who have a weak digestive system and need cooked food. Much-needed nutrients such as zinc, vitamin B-12 and iron also are missing from the raw food diet.

"I'm of the school that people need to listen to their bodies," Hudson said. "No one diet is good for you all the time."

Hall was quick to enjoy eating raw foods, but found that Bradshaw's need to eat raw is limited. He first started preparing raw food in August, after she complained of sluggishness.

"She was getting tired of digesting food, basically," he said.

Hall decided to share his meals with others when it gave Bradshaw more energy. Last year, he sold his computer systems integration company. Before owning his business, he worked as a sous-chef at Le Papillon and La Foret, both in San Jose.

After six months of being in the raw foods world, he's found plenty of preparation is required.

"Most raw foodists are very simple in the way they eat," Hall said. "But if you eat the way I like to do it, which is a little bit more gourmand, you're always preparing for tomorrow. You have to use the dehydrator and think about the next day."

Today, Hall is figuring out if opening a raw foods restaurant or a to-go eatery would make sense in the county. So far, there is Que seRaw seRaw in Burlingame and Cafe Soulstice at the Equinox Fitness Club in San Mateo.

"What I'm finding out is that (opening a restaurant) would be costly because of the organic produce and nuts," said Hall, who spent $300 on the Sunday potluck.

"With the quality of food I like putting out, I'd have a difficult time making money out of it. I'm not saying 'no' to opening a restaurant," he said. "I'm still in the process of doing my research."

But for now, Hall will continue doing his potlucks and perhaps cater once a week. Basically, he said he just loves to cook.

"There's a spiritualness to it," Hall said. "That's what I love about being in the kitchen. I can pray over the food while I make it and give it a good vibration."


Staff writer Christine Morente can be reached at (650) 348-4333 or at cmorente@sanmateocountytimes.com.

Blissed be, Annie

wow sounds nice I spend 100 dollars on potlucks sometimes, on my own organic dish!

pretty article