By Renée Loux Underkoffler

Paperback: 512 pages

Eating raw isn't just for naturalists anymore. Today, health-conscious eaters are filling their plates with the foods nature has already prepared. And these foods go well beyond the sprouts, carrots, and celery typically associated with this type of diet.

In Living Cuisine, celebrated raw chef Renée Underkoffler shows how varied, exciting, and healthy raw-foods cuisine can be. She introduces the many benefits of eating raw and offers guidelines for incorporating this healthier regimen into one's lifestyle. She provides clear, step-by-step instructions for raw-foods processing techniques-juicing, sprouting, culturing and fermenting, dehydrating, and even blanching. This unique resource includes thorough information necessary for a foray into raw-foods living

This extensive volume provides a compendium of information on the chic raw foods movement. Underkoffler, a Maui-based restaurateur and workshop facilitator, devotes several hundred pages to descriptions of fruits, vegetables and the other essentials of a raw foods diet; the economic and social effects of eating raw foods; and the health benefits of adhering to such a diet.

There are more than 300 tantalizing recipes inspired by a wide range of ethnic and regional foods. These beverages, soups, salads, appetizers, side dishes, sushi, entrees, and desserts are all delicious and simple to prepare. Indonesian vegetable Pad Thai in Coconut Sauce, Golden Butternut Soup with Provençal Pesto, Pesto Stuffed Mushrooms and Crumble Apple Strudel Bundt Cake are all dishes that even non-raw converts might savour. Renée offers little tips to help soften the strict rules of eating raw. For example, she explains, "A wonderful secret of raw foods preparation is to serve soup in a warmed bowl. It allows the flavors to bloom a little bit more and keeps the soup warm without having to heat the soup to unhealthful temperatures upon serving." For readers who don't mind lukewarm bisque, or the significant effort that goes into preparing it, this book offers nice variety and valuable information.