Leaf Cuisine

New Book Explains Simple Instructions for Making Luscious Vegan Food



		Smoothies, veggie burgers, falafel wraps, Caesar salad, raw pizza, lasagna, carrot cake, and brownies. These and other tasty delights await food and health enthusiasts in Raw Food for Real People: Living Vegan Food Made Simple by chef and raw food restaurateur Rod Rotondi.

As a world traveler, culinary eclectic, and founder of Leaf Organics, which was one of Los Angeles’ first certified organic restaurants, Rotondi melds social activism and award-winning cuisine to “change the world one bite at a time.” In Raw Food for Real People, he presents an intriguing look at how far we have strayed from a natural diet, as he offers practical and delicious steps for getting back to a healthier, more vibrant balance.

Rod understands that most Americans perceive choosing healthy foods as difficult, expensive, and inconvenient, so he delivers on his promise to keep it simple and easy. He demonstrates the incremental steps to develop a healthier relationship with food. His mission is to help people make a seamless transition to a healthier diet that can work in today’s lifestyle.

Rotondi begins by revealing his own road to raw and then explores the history and multiple benefits of a raw food regime. He offers clear, practical advice towards adopting a raw food diet, including how to set up a raw kitchen, simple instructions for sprouting, making smoothies, and dehydration techniques. He starts the recipes off with amazingly simple, satisfying breakfasts and proceeds through every other meal and course. Topics include “How to Make a Salad into a Meal” and a special section for parents called, “Raw Food for Real Kids.” His signature cuisine wows celebrities, like Woody Harrelson, Mariel Hemingway and Jenny McCarthy, who frequent his Los Angeles Leaf Organics restaurants.

Rotondi’s raw food philosophy is friendly, encouraging, and accessible without any “holier than thou” attitude. “Adopting a raw-food diet is not about judging others or ourselves,” he writes. “It’s not about good or bad. It’s about things that work for us and things that don’t.”

Raw Food for Real People
October 15, 2009
Health & Wellness
Paperback
218 pages
Price: $24.95
ISBN 978-1-57731-673-2