F O OD & DRINK
Raw-inspiring dining THE RAW FOOD SUPPER CLUB
BOULANGERIE JADE, 145 LORDSHIP LANE, SE22 8HX WWW.FACEBOOK.COM /RAWDININGCLUB
Chances are you’ve been to more restaurants than Simon Beswetherick has had hot dinners, but the tables are turning with the uncookedcook’s new Raw Food Supper Clubs, writes Laura Burgoine... The Raw Food diet is rapidly gaining momentum, so much so that on a recent Friday night in East Dulwich, 30 people happily paid good money to be served three courses of meat-free, dairy-free, gluten-free, sugar-free, raw food. If you thought Jesus’ loaves and fishes stunt was impressive, prepare to be amazed as Simon makes caviar from Japanese seaweed and ‘spaghetti and meatballs’ with neither meat nor wheat. As we all sat around a long table at Lordship Lane’s Boulangerie Jade, sipping non-alcoholic watermelon and rose ‘refreshers’, it was immediately apparent all the guests had one thing in common: an obsession with nutrition and healthy eating. I could talk to people about health food until the organic grass-fed cows come home, so if you’re the same you need to join the (supper) club. Of course not every guest adhered to a strictly raw-only diet, but I did
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quickly discover that turning up to a Raw Food Supper Club and not owning a dehydrator is like working on Wall St and not wearing a Rolex. Nonetheless we debate the merits of certain seeds and nuts, I’m introduced to nutritional yeast and kelp noodles, and a guest from west London tells us about his Intermittent Fasting diet – not the 5:2 but rather the 16:8 (made famous by Hugh Jackman, who used it to get into shape for Wolverine), where he fasts for sixteen hours every day, then eats for eight hours. He’s lost nine kilograms, has boundless energy,
one particular follower, who invited Simon to Milan to help design the menu for Italy’s first fully raw vegan restaurant. After an intensive month inventing raw, vegan pizza and pasta recipes, Simon returned to London determined to carry on his raw food project. It’s a highly impressive feat, as his creations are beautifully presented and this style of ‘cooking’ is highly laborious and meticulous. The aperitif; blinis with crème fraiche and caviar (made from dehydrated sliced sweet potato and regular potato and served with a cream made from
mental note to buy a dehydrator. For the main course the pesto-filled marinated mushrooms are superb and definitely worth trying to create at home. Our palates are cleansed with a simple, refreshing persimmon and pistachio salad; by this stage I’m feeling quite satisfied, almost full, despite having really only ingested nuts, seeds and leaves all evening. The spaghetti and meatballs is probably the most highly anticipated dish of the evening; we all speculate how Simon’s going to pull this one off sans wheat and meat. The spaghetti is made from thinly sliced courgette, the sauce is a delicious sundried tomato concoction and the meatballs are made from crushed up sunflower seeds and hemp seeds. “Isn’t hemp cannabis?” one
Our Paleo 16:8 guest had spent the night informing his girlfriend he’d probably need to go for a burger afterwards, but by the end of the meal he admitted he was completely satisfied; a sentiment we all shared. Clearly, from small seeds big things grow. The Raw Food Supper Club will continue on the last Friday of every month; the next one is on Friday 28 November from 7:30pm at Boulangerie Jade, 145 Lordship Lane, SE22 8HX. Cost: £35 for a four-course meal. Advanced booking essential. www.facebook.com/RawDiningClub
DAMAGE Aperitif: Watermelon and rose refresher Provencal kale chips Blinis with crème fraiche and caviar
30 people happily paid good money to be served three courses of meat-free, dairy-free, gluten-free, sugar-free, raw food. Prepare to be amazed as Simon makes caviar from Japanese seaweed and ‘spaghetti and meatballs’ with neither meat nor wheat. works out harder and has never felt better. All eyes widen as we bite into our kale chips. “It’s not a diet…” he begins. “It’s a lifestyle,” we chime. Leader of the pack, Simon has been a raw food devotee since 2012. After suffering from bloating, poor digestion and poor quality sleep, the 41-year-old cut out fried food, refined sugar, alcohol, dairy, and animal products and boosted his vegetable and fruit intake. The idea behind raw eating is to eliminate junk food and opt for eating whole foods in their purest form. This summer gone, the cook’s raw-food creations, documented on Instagram, attracted the attention of
cashew nuts and caviar made from algae) take 48 hours to dehydrate. They’re extremely tasty; after being dehydrated, the potatoes’ natural density is replaced with an impossible lightness, which contrasts perfectly with the rich flavour of the nut cream and the salty sting of the seaweed. If you were unaware of the ingredients you’d never know this was a raw creation, and this is the beauty of Simon’s recipes. The Provençal kale chips take kale to a new and infinitely superior level; a tomato, herb and cheese flavour combats kale’s natural wallpaper taste. I’m told it’s probably nutritional yeast that does this; I make a
guest enquires eyeing the ‘meatball’ suspiciously. She’s quickly corrected as another guest comments “I think we’d be in trouble if it was; this is the wrong place to come down with the munchies!” The Pièce de résistance is the dessert: the cacao-chilli cheesecake. It looks like cheesecake. It tastes like cheesecake. But it contains neither cheese nor cake. It’s guilt free and you’re full after eating a third because it’s so nutrient dense. The creation is deceptively simple too, containing only raw cacao power, coconut oil, chillies that pack a punch, and cashew nuts.
Dinner: Pesto-filled marinated mushrooms Persimmon and pistachio salad Spaghetti with meatballs Dessert: Cacao-chilli cheesecake TOTAL: £35 for a four-course meal
FOOD (1-5) AMBIENCE (1-5) VALUE (1-5) PRE-BOOKING
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