<b>What is the biggest misconception about raw food?</b>
That it's food for rabbits and consists of carrot sticks and boring salads. Raw foods open us up to a whole world of crafting vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds into a limitless variety of flavors, beautiful colors, and textures to make delicious, healthy desserts, soups, pastas, pizzas, pancakes, cakes …anything you can imagine.


<b>How would you describe your approach to food?</b>
Nourishment through delicious, fresh, whole foods packed with vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and antioxidants that help us fight free-radical age-accelerating damage, help us build a healthy body, keep us at our ideal weight, and gives us the glow of clear radiant skin that reflects the health of our body from the inside out .

By enjoying more healthy, whole foods, we make less room available for less nutrient rich, empty calorie foods in our diet that cause inflammation, make us unhealthy, fat, and unhappy.


<b>What are your staples in a raw food kitchen?</b>
Antioxidant-rich, fresh, and dried fruits like apples, pears, raisins, goji berries, and dates.

Nuts like walnuts, almonds, pecans, cashews, and coconut (Thai baby fresh, or dried and shredded), all great sources of vitamin E and omegas.

Vegetables like greens, squash, red bell peppers, cabbage, onion, garlic, ginger, fresh herbs, chili peppers, and whatever looks great at the farmer's market today, all full of antioxidants, vitamins and minerals.

Seeds like sesame, flax, and hemp, which are all great sources of omega 3, protein, and vitamins.

Spices and seasonings like cinnamon, vanilla bean, cacao powder, sea salt, black pepper, nama shoyu (raw soy sauce), and bragg's essential amino acids.

Sweeteners like agave syrup (low glycemic) or stevia (zero caloric).

Oils like olive, coconut, and sesame, all wonderful for feeding our skin, hair, and nails.

Sea vegetables like nori, kelp noodles, and dulse, all great sources of sea minerals, vitamins, and chlorophyll.




<b>What are your favorite ingredients to use?</b>

Fresh, organic, local and seasonal vegetables and fruits.
Cacao powder for chocolate sauces, cookies, cakes and shakes.
Stevia to sweeten in a non-caloric way that doesn't trigger an insulin response.


<b>What are your favorite culinary weapons in the kitchen?</b>
A High-speed VitaMix blender.
A smaller 'Personal Blender', from Tribest, for making 1/2 to 1 cup batches of sauces or dressings.
9 cup Food processor to speed up chopping time.
9 tray Excalibur Dehydrator for drying breads, crackers, biscuits, pizza crust, kale chips, and wrappers.
Spiral slicer for cutting veggies into angel hair noodles for gluten and wheat free, low calorie pasta.


<b>What's a great tip for home enthusiasts?<b>
Keep it simple and quick. Using just 3 to 5 ingredients will let the flavor of each ingredient shine through. Enjoy fast recipes whipped up in your food processor or blender for easy clean up.

I don't bother to wash equipment between batches of savory recipes, but will wash when moving between savory and sweet recipes, and vice versa. I quickly rinse in water, sometimes without soap, because there's no fear for cross contamination in a vegan raw food kitchen.

When making recipes, I always double or triple batches and keep leftovers on hand. It's no more work to make a double batch as it is to do a single, plus set up and clean up take the same amount of time.


<b>How does California influence your cooking?</b>
We have many farmers' markets available daily and all year round. Whatever looks good at the market makes it home with me and onto my table. I'm lucky to have access to many interesting heirloom varieties at the farmer's markets, like different melons, tomatoes, greens, and even apples.


<b>What were your favorite foods growing up?</b>
Candy, chocolate, and desserts, even though we didn't have them in the house growing up. I loved birthday parties and places where I could eat sweets. When I got to college and to the food halls, wow, did I go nuts. I gained 15 lbs in 2 months and raised my cholesterol to almost 300! This is why I wrote a raw vegan dessert book. My recipes are made with fruits, nuts, and seeds, and are 100% guilt free and healthy. They can be enjoyed as a meal on their own because my raw desserts are packed with whole food nutrition. And, when you serve my dessert at a potluck, people may never guess it's raw or even vegan. They'll just think it tastes delicious!


<b>How did your Korean parents/upbringing affect your cooking/approach to food?</b>
We had an organic garden my brother Max and I would tend to, so we were connected to the earth and its seasons. All our food was whole and fresh, mostly raw. Much Korean food is already raw, fermented, and vegan. My parents, who were from what was a 3rd world country back then, were frugal, never wasted anything, and reused everything. Our lifestyle was always eco green.


<b>When and where did your culinary career begin?</b>
It grew out of San Francisco in the mid 1990s as dinner parties, then moved to Los Angeles around 2000 where I hosted raw food events and dinners for 50 to 100 people each week. This was before there were any raw restaurants here in LA. This eventually grew into a thriving business, catering, prepared packaged foods, classes and events, retreats, and a line of fruit and nut bars.


<b>If I'm trying to lose weight, are there any cooking tips to keep in mind?</b>
If transitioning from the standard American diet to a raw food or living food diet, you can basically eat as much as you want and still loose weight. This is because there're no empty calories in raw food.

By eating fresh, less dehydrated foods, you'll be filling up on water and fiber. The fiber acts as the broom that sweeps your insides clean, while the water hoses down your insides. We are taught how to clean our clothes and homes, but never our bodies. By eating more water and fiber via raw whole unheated foods, you're naturally detoxing and cleansing, and will loose weight.

I've been on a raw, whole food diet for decades, and today, I'm starting to watch my sweet intake. Fruits and sweets, like agave, contain more calories. One medjool date has about 70 calories, where as 4 cups of greens has less than 20 calories. I've begun enjoying more vegetables, less fruits, and started cutting back on oils and nuts too. I've also been mixing up my work outs, adding in more weight training to build muscle mass.


<b>If I'm feeling sluggish with no energy, how can I change my diet?</b>
Substitute empty calorie foods for nutrient rich foods to provide vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and all good-for-your-body ingredients to boost your immune system and build a strong, lean, healthy, vibrant body. By eating more nutrients, you're fueling up your body for optimal physical performance, increased productivity, and mental clarity. Plus you're boosting your immune system, which means you can take on more stress without getting sick. The healthier we are, the more vibrant we become, the more energy we have, and the better we feel and look.


<b>How would you describe your style of cooking/food?</b>
Fresh, whole foods, fast, and super easy. Accessible and delicious. It helps us tread lightly on our planet while helping us look and feel our best.


<b>What do you prepare at home?</b>
Smoothies, soup, pate, pizza, salad, pasta, quiche, cake, ice cream, chocolate truffles, and cookies.


<b>Do you have any favorite raw food restaurants?</b>
I love Au Lac and Chef Ito in Fountain Valley, Orange County, CA. His food is Asian influenced, and I love the flavors. It's served family style, and fun to enjoy with a large group of friends. Chef Ito is full of love and warmth, which goes into his food.


<b>What chefs, restaurants or places inspire you?</b>
Lately, I'm inspired by Matthew Kenney at 105Degrees in Oaklahoma City. My favorite restaurant for years has been Millennium and Chef Eric Tucker in San Francisco, CA. Places that inspire me lately are South Korea, Baja Mexico, Japan, and Hawaii. My home in California where the canyons and mountains are full of wild edibles are fun to forage too.


<b>What is the most spectacular meal you've ever had?</b>
The most amazing raw food meal, if I had to choose, was probably at Roxanne's. It was a raw restaurant that used to be in Larkspur, CA opened by Chef Charlie Trotter and Roxanne Klein, but sadly is closed now.

<b>What is your worst cooking disaster?</b>
I guess that would be in the early days when I'd make super complex recipes. When they'd break, I'd try to fix them by adding in more and more ingredients. What a mess. Now I'm all about clean simplicity using the fewest ingredients possible.


<b>Do you have any advice for aspiring chefs or cookbook writers?</b>
Follow your heart. Visit your local bookstore to see what books are out there and where your book would sit on the shelves. Look to see which books are done in the style you'd like yours to be. And then see who the publisher is. Research online, some publishers have online submission forms, info and guidelines.

Keep an open mind, have fun, don't be extreme, explore, and grow…always. Sometimes inspiration may come from outside vegan and raw food. The fun is to then figure out how to create textures and flavors to convert a cooked recipe into a vegan raw one.