Diet Refers To More Than Just What You Eat
Some of you may know that the word diet, from its original Greek origin, refers to more than just what you eat – it actually encompasses a wider meaning, more like your way of life.
Comes from Greek diaita, “a way of life, mode of living.”
So changing your diet involves more than just amending what you eat, it means changing your way of living. For those who are embarking on a change of diet for health reasons, to lose weight or gain weight, I think understanding this broader meaning can help in making your changes more successful.
You may be thinking about becoming a vegetarian, or eating more protein and less carbohydrates, and you may be looking into doing cooking classes to learn more about that culinary dietary approach. I would advise you to remember that it is not just about learning new techniques and recipes - it actually involves a whole new philosophy. A new way of thinking about food, cooking and eating – a new way of being. At this time, if you wish to be successful in your new dietary approach, you need to open your mind and your heart to something beyond what you have been and known before.
Food and what and how we eat are all intrinsically tied up with our earliest beginnings, wound up with psychological spells from our childhood. Many of you would be familiar now with the term “comfort foods,” usually simple dishes or substances that provide emotional succour, by giving us the illusion of returning us to a time when we were little children feeling nourished and safe with mummy. In fact I see many people in the community seemingly permanently locked into these childish diets. The tradesmen still consuming flavoured milk and fast foods, even well into their thirties and forties. The receptionists still eating hot chips and drinking coke for lunch. The many people who are too scared to try anything new and still basically eat what their parents served them, when they were growing up.
You have probably heard the expression, “you are what you eat!” How we eat and what we eat defines who we are, as much if not more than any other factors within our lives. If you are eating mindlessly, processed foods made in factories, then you are not bringing a great deal of consciousness to your diet. My advice is to become aware of who is making your food, as much as what is going into the manufacturing of your food. To really revolutionise the quality of your life, learn how to prepare your own food and learn about good food and real foods. Take control of your life and your body.
The Sacred Chef cooking school on the sunshine coast is a great place to learn about good food and nutrition. We offer more than just new techniques and recipes, we offer an introduction to a new way of living, which is less dependent on processed foods from the supermarket. Making your own food means it tastes a hundred million times better than anything made in some factory for money and you know what is going into it. Awareness changes everything!
Take Control of Your Diet
One of the most empowering things that you can do in your life is to take control of what you are eating. If you are eating a lot of processed foods bought in the supermarket, then you are not in charge of what goes into your body. How much salt and fat is inside that product and what kind of fat is it? How does the chemical balance, which has been put in place by the manufacturer to preserve that product, react with your own metabolism? There are so many variables to consider when you are not eating fresh food, and equally importantly, preparing it yourself.
Learning to cook and discovering the nutritional make-up of foods can really benefit you in so many ways, including losing weight and feeling more alive. Recently there have been huge leaps in the understanding of nutritional science and how foods are processed by our bodies. The importance of certain essential fatty acids, like omega 3, and redressing the imbalance of omega 6 essential fatty acids in our foods, with too much soy, grain fed livestock and vegetable oils – all rich in omega 6 – in our diets, which is often something like 40 times that of omega 3. We are generally not eating enough oily fish, nuts and seeds in our diets today.
What is the result of this? Too much omega 6 causes inflammation within our bodies and what are some of the chronic conditions this causes? Arthritis – inflammation of the joints; cardiovascular diseases – inflammation of the heart’s arteries; strokes – inflammation of the cerebrovascular; and there is speculation that depression may be caused by inflammation of the brain. Diet/ what we eat and how we eat is the most integral factor in our propensity to develop diseases. A lot of foods in the supermarket do not address this and their prime reason for existence is to make money for their manufacturers – food technology is about durability not nutrition.
Food is your best medicine, not some vitamin pill or pharmaceutical – these are again mainly about making money for their manufacturers – otherwise they would be free wouldn’t they? My advice is take charge of what you eat and how that food is prepared. You will find it can also be highly creative and you may derive some pleasure and pride in the act of cooking a great meal – which is healthy and delicious. You can also save money along the way.
Cooking classes are a great way to discover nutritional information whilst having some tasty fun. My Sacred Chef cooking school, here on the sunshine coast, focuses on preparing food that is both healthy and delicious – you will also receive a take home recipe pack with additional nutritional notes and articles, which I wrote for magazines like WellBeing, Conscious Living and Eco Living Health Aware; plus you receive a free health magazine too!
©Sacred Chef
Every class is full of healthy information and great recipes.
www.nofreudnoprozac.org for more information about omega 3
Sunshine Coast Vegetarian Cooking Class with the Sacred Chef
What a great way to spend a day!
Learning new recipes and techniques.
Enjoying good food and company.
Discovering nutritional information that can make you feel healthier, lighter and more alive.
Organic produce and local ingredients.
Cook with the Sacred Chef and take home recipes, articles and nutritional notes.
Plus a goodie bag and a free magazine!
CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE YOUR SACRED CHEF COOKING CLASS GIFT VOUCHER
Coconut Redemption Day – You Are Invited
Coconut Redemption!
The True Story Behind a Real Super Food.
Is coconut good for you or bad for you?
Is coconut fattening or not?
Research has now identified that coconut oil actually raises good cholesterol (HDL) more than it raises LDL.
Many consumers are confused about the health and nutritional status of ingredients, like coconut milk and cream – and would like these questions answered.
Mike Foale, Ex-CSIRO scientist and Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Agriculture & Food Science at the University of Queensland, will answer these questions, at a public talk and demonstration to be held at The Green Kitchen Café & Organic Market, next to the Library in Maleny, on Tues 22 November 2011 at 10am.
Author of “The Coconut Odyssey’” published by the Australian Government, and inventor of the “Cocosplit” device, seen on the ABC’s New Inventors programme, Mike Foale is a leading expert on the coconut. Nutritionally and agriculturally, he has studied the coconut throughout his working life and spent years in the field, in the Solomon Islands and a vast array of countries throughout the tropical world.
Mike has been helping communities in these poorer nations, whose economies are dependent upon the coconut, through AusAID and their coconut improvement projects.
Discover how the US, through their promotion of soya beans,margarine and their negative PR about coconut fats, effectively killed off Australia’s love of cooking with coconut!
SEE MIKE FOALE DEMONSTRATE THE INGENIOUS COCOSPLIT DEVICE LIVE!
The Cocosplit device will be available for sale and is the perfect Christmas gift, for foodies!
When -Tues 22 November 2011 at 10am.
A huge range of products, derived from the coconut, will be demonstrated and onsale at the Green Kitchen Organic Market, located at 11 Coral St Maleny – next to the Maleny Library – plenty of free parking is available!
Local culinary teacher, the Sacred Chef, will be demonstrating some of the many uses coconut oil, cream, milk, sugar and flour can be put to in creating yummy food.
LEARN EAT DRINK DISCOVER BE INSPIRED SHARE IN
The Coconut Redemption!
Bios
Mike Foale was raised on a wheat and sheep farm in the Mallee of South Australia but got his first job as a coconut agronomist on a plantation in the Solomon Islands in 1959.
After nine years working out how to increase the yield of fruit from the coconut palms with fertiliser, how best to replace aging palms, and how to develop hybrids, Mike left the islands with his young family and returned to work for CSIRO in Australia on other crops. But the call of the coconut never went unheard so that Mike got involved through AusAID in coconut improvement projects in the south Pacific at a time when the coconut star appeared to be setting.
From the 1970s fierce competition developed in the marketplace for edible oils and massive processors in the USA sought to oust coconut as a healthy food from the market on the basis of some data linking coconut oil with serum cholesterol in humans. The value of coconut fell sharply and was in the doldrums until more detailed research identified that coconut oil actually raised good cholesterol (HDL) more than it raised LDL. Mike does all that he can to spread the word about this finding and to highlight the many other positive effects of coconut oil on human health. This great food, foundation of the healthy diet of hundreds of millions of people in the tropical world, offers much as well to the diet of all who live outside the coconut heartlands.
The Australian government published Mike’s book “The Coconut Odyssey” in 2003 (still in print), and he presented a coconut splitting device known as Cocosplit to the ABCTV New Inventors in 2007 (see details on www.cocosplit.com). Mike and his wife Pam moved to Maleny in 2009. He is presently an Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Agriculture and Food Science at the University of Queensland.
The Sacred Chef, Sudha Hamilton, has been cooking professionally for 30 years, restauranter, teacher and caterer, he runs The Sacred Chef cooking school in Maleny, www.sacredchef.com , and is the author of several WellBeing Magazine cookbook supplements and was their food editor for five years.
The Green Kitchen Café & Organic Market, is arguably Queensland’s most dedicatedly organic outlet for food, supporting local growers and producers. Located at 11 Coral St, Maleny, it has been operating under its current management for about a year www.greenkitchencafe.com.au
For more information and interviews please contact Sudha Hamilton on 0466 281 806 or email Sudha@midasword.com.au
Healthy Noni Chai Fruit Muffins
These muffins are delectably different and a great way to start the day!
Noni & Chai Fruit Muffins
1 cup wholemeal plain flour or gluten free flour
1 ½ cups wholemeal SR flour or gluten free SR flour
1 cup psyllium husks
1 cup desiccated coconut
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup yoghurt
2 tbspn chai spiced tea syrup
1 cup dried mixed fruit
1 cup finely chopped almonds
1 tsp grated lemon peel
200g unsalted butter
4 whole 60g FR eggs
1 cup soy milk or alternative
1 cup raw sugar or mascobado
½ cup blue berries
2 cups chopped banana
1 tspn cinnamon ground
1 tspn mixed spice
Preheat oven to 180C. Grease muffin trays & or line trays with muffin cases. Sift flours & dry ingredients in to a large mixing bowl. Either rub in softened butter by hand to this dry mix or whizz together in a food processor until you achieve a breadcrumb-like consistency. In a separate bowl whisk eggs, sugar, yoghurt, soy milk, lemon peel & chai, before folding in banana, blue berries & dried fruit. Slowly & gently fold this wet mixture into the dry ingredients. When well mixed spoon cake like mix into individual muffin rings. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Cool on wire rack & serve with butter. Serves 6-8.
©Sacred Chef
Blood Cleansing Morning Heart Starter
Ganesh god of fresh beginnings.
Wicked Juice
1 large beetroot
1 tbspn size piece of ginger
1 pear
1 green apple
1 lime
½ lemon
1 orange peeled
10 carrots.
A stimulating & evocative concoction that will put hairs on your chest, figuratively speaking of course (but I have heard a fashion whisper that hirsute is making a comeback) . The beetroot & carrot are great blood cleansers.
Drink this juice every morning for a month and you will notice the difference in your energy levels and perhaps some weight loss too!
Sacred Chef was WellBeing’s food editor for many years and wrote and read many articles about good health and nutrition.
Sacred Chef WellBeing articles click here
For more Sudha Hamilton articles www.midasword.com.au
Sacred Chef cooking school on the sunshine coast is a healthy and delicious way to spend a day!
Crispy Tempeh with Grilled Tomatoes & Garlic Mushrooms
Crispy Tempeh with Grilled Tomatoes & Garlic Mushrooms
- 1 block tempeh cut into 12 fingers
- 4 ripe roma tomatoes
- 12 small button mushrooms sliced
- 2 cloves garlic finely sliced
- 1 tbsp chopped fresh basil
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
- squeeze of lemon juice
- dash of soy sauce
- dash of extra virgin olive oil
- canola or light olive oil for frying
Start with your grilled tomatoes as they will require the most cooking. Slice tomatoes in halves sprinkle with sea salt & extra virgin olive oil & place under griller for 5-10 minutes. Meanwhile in a saucepan with olive oil & over a moderate heat sauté your mushrooms & garlic for 5 minutes. Before this is complete heat up your fry pan with some canola oil & shallow fry your tempeh fingers until gold & crispy. Return to your mushrooms & finish with dash of soy sauce, lemon juice & black pepper. Arrange your grilled tomatoes on a plate, sprinkle with black pepper & fresh basil. Add to this a spoonful of garlic mushrooms & 3 crispy tempeh fingers. Serves 4.
©Sacred Chef
Vegetarian cooking classes on the sunshine coast, with the Sacred Chef are a tasty way to transform your eating habits and to feel more alive!
Diet a Way of Life
The Greek root of the word diet is diatia, which refers to a way of life toward wellness, and is more than just a regime of eating do’s and don’ts. It understands the link between how you live your life and what and how you eat. Epicurus the Greek philosopher of BC 341-270 stressed the importance of eating with friends, and I personally know that when I eat with good friends that I eat with a greater degree of joy and dont eat as much as when I eat alone. Good conversation and the sharing of gratitude for a well prepared dish is the reason why, I think, that we first started eating out at friends places and restaurants in the first place. The level of noise in most restaurants in Australian cities has taken much of the joy of keen conversation away, above the ‘night club’ yell, “how’s the steak?” Where we eat and how we eat impacts on our digestion and therefore ability to benefit from good food. Dishes in restaurants have to be designed to excite and rise above the clamor of the hustle and bustle of busy eating houses, they are therefore usually rich and high in sugar and fats. How do you get noticed in a crowded room? By being extra spicy or so sensual that I melt in your mouth. The ambience within restaurants is part of a cyclical fashion trend and I am confident that it will shift again, away from the current din.
Cooking school on the sunshine coast with the Sacred Chef, where the ambience is perfect for conviviality and a life affirming pleasure in good food!
Redeeming the Coconut
The Cocosplit team’s Mission Statement: COCONUT REDEMPTION
These two words acknowledge that coconut as food was, from the 1960s, presented to the world by the marketers of competing food oils as a danger to heart health in spite of its role since antiquity as a key component in the diet of tropical coastal communities.
Since the unqualified attacks on the value of coconut in the diet, independent research into the complex world of dietary fats and oils has exonerated coconut..
The Cocosplit team (Mike, Richard and Owen) is dedicated to join the many others who promulgate the many benefits of coconut in the diet, rebutting the wrongful claims that are still being made by competing marketers. Likewise many diet and health professionals in importing countries are not yet fully aware of recent research findings about the particular benefits of diverse dietary fats and oils.
The principal purpose of the Cocosplit team is to provide this simple yet remarkably effective tool, Cocosplit, that gives simple direct access to the juice and kernel of the mature coconut. Tools for extraction of the kernel from the half-nut complete the “do-it-yourself” kit for preparing fresh coconut to eat direct or process further.
Links are provided here to many other web-sites, opening the door to a wide range of reports on coconuts, coconut juice and oil, and their many potential health benefits.
Cooking school on the sunshine coast with the Sacred Chef
The Sacred Chef recommends the Coconut Splitter as a fantastic kitchen tool to facilitate greater use of the true superfood – coconut!
Weekly Cooking Bliss
Being part of a weekly series of cooking classes is a unique pleasure – as you build your relationship with the cuisine, the chef and your fellow attendees, watching your cooking improve, getting to know the ingredients and your new friends in the kitchen. Then sitting down to a truly delicious lunch, of which you have helped create, and enjoying the flavours, textures and the satisfaction of the fulfilled artist. Food tastes better when you have done something to earn the pleasure.
Coming along each Sunday and being surprised by a collection of new recipes, ingredients and local produce, to work our magic upon, is a stimulating experience. There is usually plenty of laughter in the cooking studio too, as everyone attempts unfamiliar techniques for the first time, this is the fun of a hands-on cooking class. Camaraderie soon develops between attendees and harmonious working arrangements begin to flow toward the creation of good food.
The conversation at lunch, after the class, is often thought provoking and what better way to spend a Sunday afternoon than to eat really good food, drink some fine wine, and share the stories of kitchen triumphs and tragedies. Like all seekers of glorious adventure, and passionate artisans, we risk ignominious failure and this is sometimes the bitter-sweet fate of the chef. Better to live one crowded hour, after all.
Cooking school on the sunshine coast with the Sacred Chef
5499 9280
Cooking the great cuisines from Around the World begins Sunday 25 Sept 2011 for 4 weeks.
Spring Food Recipes
Spring Food
By The Sacred Chef.
Published in Eco Living Magazine
Celebrating spring is very much about the birds and the bees, sowing seeds and enjoying the fecundity of nature. So what foods stimulate the arousal of life inside us by their essential chemical make-up and perhaps by their shape and form? Eating well – beautiful organic food presented naturally and eaten after some blood pumping exercise is the first step. Food tastes so much better when you have a healthy appetite for it. Don’t eat out of habit. Don’t eat the same boring thing every day. Don’t eat if you are not hungry. Food like love making is better when it is special. Food is an essentially visual art medium, like painting it is an arrangement of form and colour on the plate. Glistening green spears of asparagus with a dollop of basil, macadamia nut and honey mayonnaise; freshly shucked oysters alive in their sea salty liquor; ripe red strawberries perfect in their natural state; a salad of warm artichoke hearts, goats cheese, fresh figs and baby spinach leaves; or a tangle of fettuccine slippery with extra virgin olive oil, cherry tomatoes, chillie and chunks of ocean trout. Each dish can be a moment of poetry involving all the senses – what other art form do we literally consume. Let the smears on your serviette be a testament to the abundance of your life.
Zinc is one of the most important minerals to be aware of in relation to our libido and fertility levels. It helps maintain sperm count and levels of testosterone in men and in women it is involved in a healthy menstrual cycle; it is vital for cell division during pregnancy. Zinc is also needed for the parts of our brains that activate our sense of appetite, taste and smell. Oysters are packed full of zinc as are fish, green leafy vegetables, lean meats, nuts and pulses. Organic veggies have higher levels of mineral content than those grown with chemical assistance. Why not grow your own organic veggies? Spend a weekend digging in a patch and readying the soil for sowing – you will be amazed when green things start sprouting and you will feel a quiet pride when you first serve the progeny of your garden. The taste, oh the taste will blow your mind. You get the complete package – exercise by honest toil to build appetite, pheromones from perspiration to attract the opposite sex, superior nutritional value from organic produce and the best flesh for taste and colour.
Avocadoes were known as testicle fruit by the ancient folk in Central and South America. They are rich in phytochemicals and are linked to lowering cholesterol. Their creamy texture, gorgeous colour and reputation as an aphrodisiacal food make them an ideal ingredient in dips, salads and wraps. Three quarters of the avocadoes’ which we consume in Australia are of the Hass variety – with distinctive purple black skin and oval shape. Other varieties are the Shepard – green skin with golden buttery flesh and the only avocado not to turn brown once cut open – it is available from Feb to April; Reed – green skin when ripe, round shape and peaks in November; Sharwil – smaller pear shaped avocado with a rich nutty flavor, winter/spring variety; and the Wurtz – a smaller winter avocado grown in Queensland. Try spreading avocado, a good local honey and cracked black pepper on some lightly toasted sour dough rye bread for a delicious and nutritious start to the day.
Tropical fruits are pretty much sexy per se – things that like to grow and ripen under the sweaty equatorial sun. Biting into beautifully coloured fruits that explode in your mouth and send streams of juice running down your chin are experiences to surrender to. Fresh pineapple slices are particularly like eating sunshine and of course mango is the queen of the slippery fruit affair. These fruits are full of antioxidants, vitamin C and a diet rich in them can make you feel vital and youthful.
©Sacred Chef
Appeared in Eco Living Magazine
Excerpt from Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
Penguin Books ISBN 9780143038412
Holy of Holies – Perfect Pizza in Italy
“Pizzeria da Michele is a small place with only two rooms and one non-stop oven. It’s about a fifteen minute walk from the train station in the rain, don’t even worry about it , just go. You need to get there fairly early in the day because sometimes they run out of dough, which will break your heart. By 1pm, the streets outside the pizzeria have become jammed with Neapolitans trying to get into the place, shoving for access like they’re trying to get space on a lifeboat. There’s not a menu. They have only two varieties of pizza here – regular and extra cheese. None of this new age southern Californian olives-and sun-dried tomato wannabe pizza twaddle. The dough, it takes me half my meal to figure out, tastes more like Indian nan than like any pizza dough I ever tried. It’s soft and chewy and yielding, but incredibly thin. I always thought we only had two choices in our lives when it came to pizza crusts- thin and crispy, or thick and doughy. How was I to have known there could be a crust in this world that was thin and doughy? Holy of holies! Thin, doughy, strong, gummy, yummy, chewy, salty pizza paradise. On top, there is a sweet tomato sauce that foams up all bubbly and creamy when it melts the fresh buffalo mozzarella, and the one sprig of basil in the middle of the whole deal somehow infuses the entire pizza with herbal radiance………”
Recipes
A different kind of sexy is the feeling you get sliding a warmed spicy olive into your mouth.
Warmed Kalamata Olives in Infused Oil
Into a fry pan over a low heat pour 2 tbspns of extra virgin olive, then chop up a lime & 6 cloves of garlic and a piece of ginger, a sprig of rosemary, a cinnamon quill and add this to the warming oil, before adding in 3 cups of Kalamata olives. Stir through for 5 minutes and add salt & pepper to taste. Serve on a platter.
Salted fresh pineapple is a great way to serve the tangy flavor sensation of fresh ripe pineapple. Choose a ripe pineapple by its aroma, if you can find one that has not been too dulled by refrigeration, and cut it up into bite sized pieces and lightly salt with a special sea salt freshly ground down in your mortar and pestle. Accompanied by a fresh lime soda or a cold beer — and heaven is right there on that tropical island inside your taste buds.
Fresh Asparagus Spears dipped in Basil, Macadamia Nut & Honey Mayonnaise
Whole free range egg or egg yolk mayonnaise with a teaspoon ofDijonmustard ;
3 Tsp honey
1 Tbsp white wine vinegar
1 Tbsp fresh lime juice
1 cup fresh basil leaves torn
½ cup roasted macadamia nuts
1 ½ cups extra virgin olive oil drizzzled in slowly.
Freshly ground black pepper & sea salt to taste.
Whizz it by hand or in the blender adding in your oil slowly as you go.
Lightly steam or blanch your asparagus spears and serve accompanied by your tangy mayonnaise.
Warm Salad of Artichoke Hearts, Chorizo, Goats Cheese and Spinach Leaf Salad
4 Globe Artichokes Steamed Peeled and halved
1 Chorizo sausage grilled and sliced
120g fresh goat’s cheese served at room temperature
1 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 bunch asparagus steamed
3 cups baby spinach leaves
3 Romano tomatoes sliced lengthwise into quarters
Dressing – ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp lemon juice
sea salt & black pepper to taste.
Begin with the warm artichoke hearts and asparagus, cover them with dressing before gently arrange dobs of the goats cheese amid the slices of Chorizo, tomatoes, parsley and spinach leaves on a platter and lightly toss before serving.
©Sacred Chef
Cooking school on the sunshine coast with the Sacred Chef
The Pleasures of Food
Pleasures of Food
By Sudha Hamilton
Published in WellBeing Magazine
I have always been passionate about food. It has, in fact, been a cornerstone of my existence. I recognised the signs early on, when I did not come off the bottle (alas breast feeding was out of vogue at this time) until I was about four years old, and I made quite a commotion about it then. That warm white milk spurting forth from that rubber teat was obviously a sensual and nourishing feed. Following that I remember a wonderful meal that mother used to make me, consisting of warm runny soft boiled eggs mashed up with torn crustless fresh white bread, the merest splash of milk and salt and pepper, mmmmm.
Ah food…it is a heady mix of psychological spells wound up in tasty matter. Foods that comfort us, foods that excite us and foods that calm us down. Our palate and our attachments to certain foods are I think all born of a time when we inhabited a yeasty humid world of milk sops and wet nappies. Textural considerations are of utmost importance when discovering dishes that provide us with inner sensual happiness: viscous soups and sauces, gooey eggs and soft steaming scoops of mashed potato, or balls of sweetened sticky rice and slippery steamed dim sum.
Eating food is pleasure and filling the empty tummy with something very scrummy is best. Pleasure. Is it a universal primary motivation? Or is it simply the avoidance of pain? Is hunger, once satisfied, the end of the matter? Or do we seek to enter that satiation by choosing just what we put in our mouths? The pursuit of pleasure: to achieve sensual gratification. Is it inextricably linked with our need for nourishment? Babies must have succour and must be touched to survive, and thrive to adulthood. Food in my opinion is not just fuel and not simply the sum of its parts. It is more than a list of kilojoules, fats, carbs and proteins. Like love it must be made pleasurable to do its work well.
Greek philosopher Epicurus (341-270 B.C.) states: “The magnitude of pleasure reaches its limit in the removal of all pain. When such pleasure is present, so long as it is uninterrupted, there is no pain either of body or of mind or of both together. The flesh receives as unlimited the limits of pleasure; and to provide it requires unlimited time. But the mind, intellectually grasping what the end and limit of the flesh is, and banishing the terrors of the future, procures a complete and perfect life, and we have no longer any need of unlimited time. Nevertheless the mind does not shun pleasure, and even when circumstances make death imminent, the mind does not lack enjoyment of the best life.” However, perhaps Oscar Wilde put it more succinctly when he said, “Pleasure is the only thing to live for.”
Has my passionate relationship with food ever got out of hand? Yes. I was a fat child for a couple of years, and I paid the price with my slim, bordering on acetic father, ridiculing me whenever possible about my new found weight. Lolly addiction was a real problem for me at this time, as my mother, who did not enjoy making cut lunches, would endow me with forty cents tuckshop money and I would invest it at the corner shop in a large white paper bag stuffed with mixed lollies. I would share these with my best friend at the time, and he would entertain me with half his lunch, which consisted of sliced white bread sprinkled with hundreds and thousands. So as you can see my flirtation with food as pleasure flourished a long time ago. Trips to the dentist, despite all that fluoride in the water, were far too common.
Appetite and control
Appetite – the desire to eat until one is full, or to eat a certain kind of food; to experience a particular feeling as that substance slides down your gullet. Control or denial – the decision not to satisfy that desire and to go without, or to distract oneself by exercising; having sex or working. Or to appease or tease, by allowing only one mouthful, or two or three mouthfuls, or just a homoeopathic dose of your bodies desired dish. The sins involving food and the bible’s condemnation of gluttony inhabit us culturally and permeate all realms of our western civilisation. The way fat people are ostracised in our communities and portrayed in popular media as sad laughing stocks, and perhaps we all secretly feel that our derision will inspire them to lose weight and return to the company of the slim.
Can you remember the power of the lolly? Or do you have children who have reignited your experience with this over whelming obsession with these sugared jewels? The startling variety of colours, shapes and flavours. Surely these are the building blocks of taste experience for us all, as we sit quietly on the footpath outside the local deli sucking upon that first lozenge of truth. Milk bottles; musk sticks; bananas and sherbets, cobbers, raspberries, snakes and jelly babies, just to name a few of these highly desirables. Of course these addictions were managed in a cloak of normality, whilst competing at sport and doing homework, but always at the core of the pleasure principle was the lolly… and for me pleasure was life. I remember going to visit my maternal grandfather who was a doctor and lived in another geographical state, and he had a huge jar of jelly babies on top of the fridge. I thought this was great as we didn’t have anything like this at home and he was a doctor after all. Such was the alluring power of the lolly that it permeated even the highest levels of society.
Later, working in a liquor store I came upon that same phenomenon again; but this time for adults. Shiny bottles of spirits and wines were their lolly equivalents. I could feel their hardly suppressed excitement as they fingered the bottles and read those colourful labels with gleaming tiny gold and silver medals stuck to them. Alcoholics; drug addicts and sugar fiends we are all dependent on the balance between our appetites and controls, and the psychology of our passions. What did the Buddha say, “that all life is suffering and suffering is caused by desire.”
What about the neurological pleasure systems in the brain? Michael A. Bozarth from theUniversity ofNew York’s Dept of Psychology says “Neurological research has identified a biological mechanism mediating behavior motivated by events commonly associated with pleasure in humans. These events are termed “rewards” and are viewed as primary factors governing normal behavior. The subjective impact of rewards (e.g., pleasure) can be considered essential (e.g., Young, 1959) or irrelevant (e.g., Skinner, 1953) to their effect on behavior, but the motivational effect of rewards on behavior is universally acknowledged by experimental psychologists.
Motivation can be considered under two general rubrics—appetitive and aversive motivation. Appetitive motivation concerns behavior directed toward goals that are usually associated with positive hedonic processes; food, sex, and wine are three such goal objects. Aversive motivation involves escaping from some hedonically unpleasant condition; the pain from a headache, the chill from a cold winter’s night are among the list of conditions that give rise to aversive motivation.”
Hedonism then appears to be something that we should understand. The Australian Concise Oxford Dictionary defines hedonism as “belief in pleasure as the highest good and mankind’s proper aim”. Personally I have been a big fan of hedonism and have lived my life as hedonistically as possible. However, having been brought up in a Christian /Presbyterian household, where hedonism was given a pretty bad name, it was necessary to throw off the shackles of the church’s wowserism and to embark single mindedly upon the pursuit of pleasure. I imagine that many people reading this have felt similarly about their lives in terms of giving to themselves and grasping the true meaning of ‘charity begins at home’ – and in my case the kitchen.
One of the most fulfilling aspects of cooking that I have found is making up new dishes. When you are cooking everyday for hundreds of people, and although often making batches of the same dishes, it is in my nature to want to break out and try something completely different. I was at this stage in my own little restaurant cum takeaway and like many young people I found pleasure in novelty and variety. I had one particular customer, who by tacit arrangement, would receive whatever I could challenge myself to come up with. A dish or plate created right then and there with no prior thought, and as luck would have it, he would often arrive at the busiest possible time during service. I would be swearing sweating and smiling, and making haste with the pans. Usually the result would be rather good, and although frazzled by the experience it was ultimately rewarding. Creativity can be a hard task master, especially when you operate out of chaos. Cooking is however one of the few great arts that you physically put inside yourself, try eating a painting for instance.
So food has always been important to me and although when I first began cooking professionally I had not really recognised that, as I always thought that it would be something I would do until I found my true vocation. Cooking was not the supposedly glamorous job, that it is perceived to be today. Then, no, it was just another trade but I found it to be a very satisfying one. It was essentially creative once you had mastered technique, each day I would be challenged to come up with new and diverse dishes. Regular trips to the produce markets would have me coming across vegetables that I had never seen nor heard of. What does one do with a box of Kasava? Well here’s one fromAfricato get you started:
Kasava Cake
Ingredients:
3 cups (or 2lbs.) grated kasava or manioc root
1 cup shredded frozen fresh young coconut
1 12 oz. jar of Macapuno Balls
1/3cup evaporated milk
1 14 oz. can unsweetened coconut milk
1/3cup. whole milk
1/4tsp salt
1/2cup white sugar
3 eggs
1cup light brown sugar
1tbsp melted butter
Mix everything together, and bake in a buttered 9 X 13 inch pan for 2 hours at 325 degrees.
Other pleasurable delights…
Sudha’s Baked Spinach Pie
2 bunch field spinach washed and bottom stalks removed
2 med brown onions diced
½ cup strong white wine
4 large cloves garlic minced
1 Tsp ground cumin
1 Tsp ground coriander
2 Tbsp olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 cups fresh ricotta
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
2 free range eggs lightly beaten
1 cup chopped fresh basil
½ cup chopped fresh oregano
1 cup chopped walnuts
12 sheets filo pastry
½ cup melted butter
Sauté your onion, garlic spices in olive oil until translucent, cook in wile lastly before setting aside. Steam or blanche your spinach until just done immerse in cold water to stop the cooking process and then gently wring out excess water and chop into smaller segments and add a squeeze of lemon juice or a teaspoon preserved lemon rind finely sliced. In a large bowl mix together spinach, cheeses, egg, herbs, walnuts and your onion sauté and salt pepper to taste. I often add a little splash of a good quality soy sauce here and to most dishes really. In an appropriate baking dish spoon out your filling before laying sheets of filo pastry and brushing every second one with melted butter. Bake until golden brown in a moderate to hot oven. Serves 6-8.
Pumpkin and Pistachio Nut Soup
1 ripe butternut pumpkin peeled and chopped
2 large brown onions
1 Tsp minced fresh ginger
1 cup dry white wine (optional)
4 large cloves garlic minced
2 Tbsp olive oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
½ Tsp ground cumin
1 cinnamon quill
1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
½ Tsp ground coriander
1 cup peeled pistachio nuts
2 cups chicken or strong veggie stock
2-3 cups purified water
1 cup watercress
1 cup pouring cream (optional)
In a large heavy based saucepan sauté your onions, garlic, ginger and spices in olive oil until translucent adding your wine in a few minutes before they are ready. Add in your pumpkin, stock and cover with water and continue to simmer for at least 40 minutes. In a blender blend your remaining ingredients with the cooked pumpkin and onion mix, leaving your cream if desired to whisk in by hand at the end. Serve with a sprig of watercress, a few sprinkled sliced pistachios and a dob of sour cream and fresh black pepper.
Oven Dried Tomatoes
Doing these at home will fill your house with an irresistible aroma that will have you salivating against your will. Hedonistic terrorists could use this process in their battle against the forces of parsimony. This operation will take a considerable amount of time and consumes quite a bit of energy/electricity or gas, so you get maximum slow food brownie points and I recommend that you do a big batch at one time to conserve energy and because they are so delicious you will kick yourself if you only do a few.
Lots of tomatoes (Cherry Tomatoes or small Romas)
Corn of garlic
Bunch of fresh rosemary
Bunch of fresh oregano
Bunch of fresh marjoram
Salt and pepper to sprinkle
Set your oven really low to around 80 degrees Celsius. Slice your tomatoes in half or quarters depending on size but smaller is quicker, place on baking trays sprinkle with finely sliced garlic, chopped herbs and salt and pepper and bake or dry for around eight hours. Serve on fresh crusty Italian bread with the finest extra virgin olive oil and your favourite cheese.
Savoury Mediterranean Vegetable Muffins
I made these muffins recently to take along to a night of chanting for Guru Purnima day, an Indian religious festival celebrated by those in the Hindu faith. I took along a journalist friend, Chris, and he enjoyed them so much that he has been haranguing me ever since to include the recipe in one of my columns.
11/2 cups plain flour
2 cups SR flour
1 tsp baking powder
200g unsalted butter
Salt and pepper to taste
5 whole 60g eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup sauted chopped onion
1 cup roasted chopped red capsicum
1 cup grilled chopped eggplant
½ cup black olives pitted and chopped
1 cup pecorino grated cheese
1 cup crumbled fetta
1 cup chopped fresh basil
1 cup chopped fresh parsley
Preheat your oven to 180 degrees C. Grease muffin trays at least 12 muffin spaces. Sift flours, spices, baking powder into large mixing bowl and rub in butter to form a bread crumb like consistency – can do this in your mix master if you like. In a separate bowl beat your eggs, milk and add in cheeses, gently pour this into your big bowl of dry ingredients and fold remaining ingredients in to form raw cakey base glug with visible chunks of vegetable. You may like to stir in a further splash of extra virgin olive oil for consistency. Spoon into muffin trays and bake until golden brown and cooked through for about 40 minutes check with skewer.
Cooking school on the sunshine coast with the Sacred Chef
For more recipes and food articles www.sudhahamilton.com
Fig & Dark Chocolate, Macadamia Nut Muffins
Fig & Dark Chocolate Macadamia Nut Muffins
Delicious melt in the mouth muffins that are energy giving and healthy too.
- Flour plain 1 cup
- SR wholemeal flour 2 cups
- Baking powder 1 tspn
- Cinnamon ground 1 tbspn
- Butter 200g melted
- Linseed sunflower almond LSA ground 1 cup
- Coconut shredded 1 cup
- Macadamia nuts 1 cup chopped
- Eggs FR 6 beaten
- Honey 1 cup
- Vanilla Essence 1 tsp
- Raw sugar ½ cup
- Yoghurt 1 cup
- Milk ½ cup
- Lemon peel 1 tsp grated
- Figs dried 1 cup chopped
Preheat oven to 170C. Grease muffin trays and drop in muffin cases. Sift flours and add in to large mixing bowl, with spices, baking powder and melted butter, mix well. Fold in LSA, macadamia nuts, coconut, lemon and figs. In a separate bowl mix beaten eggs, vanilla, sugar, honey, yoghurt and milk, before folding into the bowl with the remaining ingredients. Mix evenly before spooning into muffin cases and baking for 30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Makes 18 to 24 muffins.
©Sacred Chef
Quick and Easy – Transformation Guaranteed!
Quick and Easy – Transformation Guaranteed!
We have all seen these words splashed across advertisements, books, and websites; and heard them coming out of the mouths of sales people everywhere. There are doctors, naturopaths, therapists, and other ‘so called’ health professionals, extracting dollars through the promotion of pills, courses and products – all claiming to do the hard work for you. Well here is the bad news, it’s not true and they do not work! There are no quick fixes in health, weight loss, and just about anywhere else in life. Ask yourself honestly, have you ever really taken a pill and instantly achieved whatever it claimed to do for you? Of course not, occasionally they have been an accessory and encouragement on the road to your goals – a bit like gym clothes really.
If you want a few guidelines in life that really stack up, this is point one – there are no quick fixes. Now immediately you have one structure in your life to guide you away from delusional situations, involving those who claim to be able to facilitate change in your life, instantly and without some sacrifice. This is not a case of mere exploitation with you and me as the victims; no we are actively involved in the whole fraud, because we want a quick fix too- as we do not want to do the necessary hard work to achieve change. We want to have our cake and eat it too – and we want to be thin and attractive at the same time, as we want to stuff our faces with cake. This is the modern dilemma of humankind in the consumerist age.
Quick and easy meals! Just 4 ingredients! Dinner in 5 minutes! Cookbooks around the globe are emblazoned with these headlines. What is the mass appeal of this message saying about us? Well maybe that we don’t enjoy cooking and that we would rather be doing something else. There are a number of issues here of course – mothers who are traditionally coerced into cooking meals for an often unappreciative family audience; singles who would rather work or play elsewhere and do not enjoy cooking for one; and those who do not know their tastebuds from their haemorrhoids, to name a few. However health is derived from a good nutritional diet and if we continue to take the easy option, popping a few multi-vitamin pills to prop up our neglected nutritional selves, we are heading for a state of disease. Quick and easy cancer in just a few years!
Become a Reiki master in 3 days! Learn to heal your emotional self in one weekend! Re-birthing in a single session! Wow when I flick through the pages of the monthly, throwaway, holistic journals I can see how easy it all really is. World hunger, victims of the devastation of war and suffering watch out – there is a Reiki master waving his hands right now. Refugees from the war zones in Afghanistan and Iraq, where our Australian soldiers are fighting now, are however not benefitting from these ads for instant transformation – in fact they cannot even get into our country.
Horny goat weed; fat blaster; tiger penis; snake oil – products packaged and sold in pharmacies, multi-level marketing pyramids, and TCM shops around the globe – all promising transformation in exchange for money. The health industry! We have doctors and pharmaceutical companies (who now own all the vitamin producers) on one side, ready to chop you up and medicate you with anti-depressants, and on the other side we have a mish-mash, containing a few good hearted healers interspersed with the providores of the all natural, quick fix, in various forms. The former bunch do not respect you at all and see you as meat, muscle and bone and the latter are predominantly ineffectual and unrealistic in their claims for you and for themselves – because in many cases their training has been as inadequate as the one they are now selling to you.
All however is not lost. Put down the newspaper, magazine, and mouse. Close your eyes and ask yourself – really ask yourself, where do I go next? What is the next step for me? How can I heal myself? Keep asking the questions – this is no quick and easy solution. Meditate upon the question and follow your fears into the unknown. It may take a lifetime but the journey is worth taking, and really you don’t have a choice anyway. It’s your life after all!
©Sacred Chef
Kitchen gods and sacrifice
Excerpt from – House Therapy – Discovering who you really are at home!
By Sudha Hamilton
House Therapy is Sudha’s soon to be published new book.
The Kitchen
The Ancient Greeks, who gave us many of the founding principles upon which we base our modern societies – democracy; logic; philosophy; literature and poetry to name but a few salient examples, had a rich collection of gods and goddesses. Hestia was the goddess of hearth and home, older sister to Zeus and first born of the titans Kronos and Rhea – perhaps not as well known today as her siblings Demeter, Hera, Haides and Poseidon. This may have been due to the fact that she was swallowed first by her titan father Kronos, who in a bid to avoid being overthrown by one of his children, as prophesied, ate all his children, she was thus the last to be regurgitated, once Zeus had forced his father to do so.
The Romans also worshipped her in their homes and knew her as Vesta. The areas of responsibility for which Hestia was worshipped and sacrificed to, were most aspects of domestic life and in particular what we now call the kitchen. For it is around the cooking hearth or kitchen that a home or house builds up or out. Hestia was always toasted at the beginning of a meal in thanks for the hospitality proffered. She was probably where the early Christians appropriated their ‘saying of grace’ before dinner from.
Homeric Hymn 24 to Hestia (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C7th – 4th B.C.) :
“Hestia, in the high dwellings of all, both deathless gods and men who walk on earth, you have gained an everlasting abode and highest honour: glorious is your portion and your right. For without you mortals hold no banquet,–where one does not duly pour sweet wine in offering to Hestia both first and last. And you, Argeiphontes [Hermes], son of Zeus and Maia, . . . be favourable and help us, you and Hestia, the worshipful and dear. Come and dwell in this glorious house in friendship together; for you two, well knowing the noble actions of men, aid on their wisdom and their strength. Hail, Daughter of Kronos, and you also, Hermes.”
Interestingly Hestia was a virginal goddess and refused the suits of both Apollo and Poseidon. Perhaps this is where we get the separation of the sexual roles of the wife and mother in the home and the focus on providing nurture and hospitality instead. Hestia was seen as the giver of all domestic happiness and good fortune in the home and she was believed to dwell in the inner parts of every home. She was also the first god mentioned at every sacrifice, as she represented the hearth where sacrifices took place – this is the direct link to our kitchens today and the genesis of the sacred chef. There are very few temples of Hestia extant and this is thought to be because every home was her temple in the Hellenistic world. I think we can draw some intuition from this in our view of our homes being places of divine inspiration.
The kitchen has of late become a popular focus of interest, with TV chefs and groovy restaurants grabbing the public’s imagination. For House Therapy the kitchen represents our centre, our practical and instinctual selves. This is where we prepare food for family and ourselves. It is also often where food is stored in the refrigerator and pantry cupboards. Food is about survival and security. There is no bullshit about these things and the kitchen is a place where the elements of nature still regularly intervene. Fire on the stove and in your oven; water at the sink, earth in the bench tops and structure; and air in the extractor, fan forced oven and all around. You can be hurt in the kitchen if you do not pay attention to what you are about. Unlike the faux furies vented in the kitchens on TV, you can experience some real passions in these hot and pressurised places at home. You might be burning fingers and dishes, dropping scoldingly hot plates and crying bitter tears over chopped onions. The kitchen is where we show our real reactions to strong emotions, pressure in our lives and our appetites and jealousies.
Have a look around now at your kitchen, the colour of the walls and general lay-out of things. What is your first impression? What does it say to you about your instinctive self? Are you clinical or passionate? Are the walls white/neutral or vivid/strong colours? Is it large or small? Is the instinctual, raw and pragmatic you an important part of your life? Or is it hidden away or missing? The trend in studio apartment architecture now, to build them without kitchens and have neutered mini servery’s instead, is a reflection of a missing essential in sections of our culture. Stripping away the practical ability to fend for yourself by cooking your own food and becoming dependent on pre-prepared meals is symptomatic of us having lost our way along the journey. Is your kitchen well equipped? Can you cook? Do you enjoy cooking for friends, family and yourself?
Returning to the rich historical connection our modern day kitchen has with Hestia’s hearth, as mentioned earlier it was the place where the highly necessary ritualised sacrifices took place. These sacrifices usually involved a calf or some other domesticated animal and those involved with the sacrifice would share in eating the meat of the roasted animal. So the power of the sacrifice would be in the ritualised slaughtering of the animal in dedication to the goddess for a particular purpose – to bring good fortune upon whatever was so desired for example. Today the cook or cooks go into the kitchen, risking cuts, perspiration and burns, to prepare a celebratory meal for our friends and or family – Christmas, birthdays and other days of ritualised festivities. We may not consciously invoke Hestia or any other gods but the overall intention is the same, we wish to share good cheer with those we love and bring good fortune upon us all.
It is interesting to ask oneself what is true sacrifice and what does it mean in our lives today? When we think of sacrificing something, we tend to see it as foregoing or missing out on something so as to have something else. “You cannot have your cake and eat it too.” Which I have always thought was an incredibly stupid saying, because what is the point of possessing uneaten cake? A sacrifice I hear you say, perhaps a slice for the gods. Interestingly the Greeks and Romans would eat the cooked flesh of their sacrifice, offering the bones and fat to the gods and goddesses, but it was the life itself, that was the real sacrifice in my view. The word sacrifice means to make sacred, so whatever we offer up in dedication to the gods becomes sacred. Actually the word anathema, was the Greek word for laying-up or suspending something in wait for the gods, and it is has now taken on the meaning of something that is accursed, through its contact, down through the ages, with the jealous Hebrew god, Yahweh; the Christian god. Our language, and lexicon of words, have taken an interesting journey over the last four millennia, and it is no wonder we are all a little confused at times. So we could make a correlation between sacrificing something in our life and that thing, which has been sacrificed becomes anathema to us or accursed. How do you feel about the things you have sacrificed in your life? A person’s love; a relationship; a career; types of food; alcohol; drugs; sex; lifestyle; freedom? We do not live in a particularly sacrificial age, more of a ‘you can have it all’ age, but can you really enjoy it all and be present for entirely disparate things in your life? Do we appreciate things more when we make room for them in our lives? Perhaps sacrifice still has a part to play in our lives today, better sharpen those knives.
The kitchen is also a place of transformation, where base elements are turned into the gold of love and nourishment. Is your kitchen a space where magic like this happens, regularly or just on special occasions? Domestic kitchens have a great tradition throughout the West of being incredibly impractical, lacking preparation space and adequate and functional cupboards. This is now being addressed in more modern homes, as the passion is returning to the kitchen. I think that we suffered for a few decades from the ‘American wonder of white goods’ syndrome, where no home was complete without these wonderful space and time saving machines and that a mentality of faster was better grew up around them. Fast foods, sliced white bread, whipped cream in a can, all these travesties were accorded the haloed status of modernity and progress. When in actual fact they were soulless short cuts that ripped the heart out of good cooking. Yes we still do have a lot of gadgets in the kitchen but we also now understand that good food still needs dedication and application. Bread makers are great, but bread cooked in a wood fired oven tastes better and if it is naturally fermented sour dough even better. Espresso coffee from your home machine tastes a lot better than instant coffee.
Your kitchen is a place where you can practically respond to the basic needs of living. Is your kitchen letting you do this? Is your kitchen supporting you in feeling centred and secure in dealing with the vicissitudes that life often throws up? Are your knives sharp and well balanced? Do you have enough bench space when preparing meals? Does your stove cook the way you want it to cook? If not then you are letting yourself down and going around with a bloody great hole where your centre should be. As a member of the human tribe you need to be able to fend for yourself, and the kitchen can empower you to be grounded in the here and now. Not wafting around on the ceiling hoping for the crumbs of human kindness to drop your way.
Things we can do to transform our kitchen
As a chef, who has owned and managed a number of restaurants and cafes, I know all about kitchens and their design downfalls. First and foremost it is about space and in particular bench top space where most kitchens, especially older kitchens, are lacking. Storage space comes a close second and it is in these areas that a solid beginning can be made in transforming your kitchen from a frustration trap into a pragmatic pleasure dome. Cooking is never completely easy, if it is, it isn’t real cooking, in my opinion, there must be some blood, sweat and tears in every great dish but not too much. Unnecessary suffering is not on anyone’s menu by choice.
Buy an island bench if you lack bench top space and cannot easily create more, they are great and I have several of them, and you can take them with you when you move.
Sharp knives, that are also well weighted in the overall heft of the knife, can bring a smile to any good cook and I always say, “happiness is a sharp knife.”
Obviously kitchens need to be clean and cleaned regularly for all sorts of reasons, hygiene, health and happiness. Clutter in the kitchen causes chaos and calamity, food takes longer to prepare and the energy around it is bad.
Trapped dead energy, in the form of rotting and old produce in fridges and cupboards, does not augur well for happy kitchen gods and thus producing yummy healthy and nutritious food; so clean out and clean up.
©Sudha Hamilton
For more articles www.sudhahamilton.com or www.sacredchef.com
vegetarian cooking class series sunshine coast maleny
Vegetarian Cooking Classes in Maleny
Would you like to extend your vegetarian, culinary repertoire and feel more confident in tackling a vast array of vegetarian ingredients? In most of the great cuisines of the world 90% of the ingredients are from the vegetable kingdom, so it makes sense to know how to treat the numerous, delicious, members of this most healthy family.
Each vegetarian cooking class includes a delicious lunch at the conclusion of each 2 hour session in the cooking studio.
Let me know what you would like to learn more about or explore and we will cater for your requirements during the course!
You will receive a take home pack of recipes, notes, articles and nutritional information each week!
What a great way to spend a day on the sunshine coast, in the green and beautiful hinterland, overlooking the Glass House Mountains!
My vegetarian background is that I had my own vegetarian restaurant in Kings St, Newtown for nearly 10 years. Prior to this I was the chef at Zorba the Buddha vegetarian restaurant in Taylor Square, Sydney; and before this Commune Chef for Satprakash Rajneesh Centre. More recently I was WellBeing Magazine’s food editor for five years.
NEXT SERIES BEGINS 8 OCTOBER 2011.
AMAZING VALUE – Includes a lunch to really live for!
$69 per person per class.
$399 per person for the series.
Class numbers are limited to 6 participants
Give a gift that changes lives for the better!
Bookings 5499 9280 orsacredchef@midasword.com.au
Information & Bookings 5499 9280
cooking classes sunshine coast maleny
Cooking School on the Sunshine Coast
The Sacred Chef cooking school on the sunshine coast, is the perfect place for hands-on cooking experience in our well equipped cooking studio, here in Maleny. Fun learning in beautiful surrounds, overlooking the Glass House Mountains, and even better you get to eat what we make in relaxed comfort after the class.
For a great day of sensuous experience and stimulating learning in South-East Queensland, the Sacred Chef cooking school is the ideal outlet for those that love their food and cooking. You will be introduced to local produce, made here on the sunshine coast, like silky smooth buffalo milk cheeses and other great organic ingredients. Coffees, wines and exotic fruits are all to be sampled at the Sacred Chef cooking school in Maleny.
Classes are:
- 2 hours in the cooking studio hands-on
- apron & knives provided
- leisurely lunch follows each class
- fine wines by the glass
- take home pack of recipes & notes
- articles & food philosophy
- complimentary magazine
- goodie bag
Purchase a Sacred Chef Gift Voucher for your cooking class and arrange a suitable time & date when you are ready!
The perfect foodie gift!
5499 9280
Maleny’s premier cooking school
Cooking school only one hour’s drive from Brisbane
Sunshine coast hinterland cooking school for budding masterchefs
Cooking school for him and her on the sunshine coast, south east Queensland
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Ganoderma – Miracle Healing Mushroom
Heading: Miracle Healing Mushroom
Subheading: Ganoderma.
Mushrooms or rather Fungi are intrigueing organisms, with certain species being the largest known on this planet (covering hundreds of kilometres) & with more species of fungi (1-2 million) than any other.
Even more bizarrely, the mushroom has been seriously suggested as one of our true visitors from outer space, with the spores having travelled here aboard meteorites millennia ago. Perhaps those mushrooms with psychotropic properties really do have something to say to us. Certain species of mushrooms are also known to have great healing qualities & the Lingshi(Chinese) or Reishi(Japanese) mushroom, which is known botanically as Ganoderma lucidum is perhaps the greatest of these. Widely revered & utilised in Traditional Chinese Medicine for over 4000 years, it is probably the oldest species of mushroom to have been utilised medicinally. Lingzhi in Chinese has been translated to mean’ “herb of spiritual potency.” In Shen Nong’s Herbal Classic, dating back 2000 years & considered to be the oldest book on oriental herbal medicine, the Linghzi mushroom is ranked number one superior medicine of all 365 listed healing herbs.
Ganoderma is a bracket fungus, which in nature grows at the base of deciduous trees like the maple. It is however quite rare in the wild & is now cultivated commercially both indoor under sterile conditions & outside in controlled environments. It is the polysaccharides & triterpenes contained within Ganoderma’s fruiting body & mycelia that have shown to have efficacy in improving immune system functioning. Ganoderma lucidum is the only known source of a group of triterpenes, called ganoderic acids, which have a remarkably similar molecular structure to steroid hormones. Also contained within the mushroom are ergostol, coumarin, mannitol, lactones, alkaloids, unsaturated fatty acids & vitamins B1, B2 & B6 & a variety of minerals.
Numerous studies in medical institutions around the world have been conducted into the healing abilities of Ganoderma lucidum & it has shown a remarkable effectiveness in treating an amazing array of diseases & conditions. Western medicines desire to isolate compounds from nature so that they can be synthetically reproduced by pharmaceutical corporations have been frustrated by inconsistent results in the studies of the isolated ingredients within Ganoderma that were thought to be the active constituents. This leads many experts to speculate that it is the combination of these active ingredients that may be the answer to its magical healing qualities. Research has shown Ganoderma’s effectiveness in strengthening the respiratory system, with healing of the lungs & benefits to those with asthma & bronchial complaints. It is generally considered to be an excellent restorative, improving immune system functioning. It has also shown to be anti-inflammatory, antiviral, anti-parasitic, anti-fungal & anti-allergenic. Altogether a healing superfood of the highest order. Recent studies in Australia have included a clinical trial at the University of Western Sydney into the healthy maintenance of blood pressure, blood sugar & cholesterol levels for optimum heart function with the aid of Ganoderma supplementation. Also studies at the University of Sydney in its Herbal Medicines & Research Unit confirmed the presence of high levels of anti-oxidants.
In the preparation of Ganoderma extracts it has been found that the oil within the spores contains a greater presence of the active compounds that are thought to be responsible for its amazing healing properties than the body of the fruit itself & that there is a husk or spore wall around the oil within. When this husk is removed it allows greater absorption by the body of the active constitutes, recent break throughs in the extraction have now made this possible.
High quality extracts of Ganoderma are now available in supplement form & are beginning to be included as ingredients in teas & other beverage formats.
©Sacred Chef.
Appeared in Conscious Living Magazine.
Eco Living Health Aware Magazine
Cordyceps Stamina Mushroom
Heading: The Stamina Mushroom
Subheading: Cordyceps.
In the 1990′s a group of female, Chinese, distance runners broke world records in their events by considerable margins. The apparent ease of their wins attracted a great deal of suspicion in regard to possible illegal drug use, but what emerged was not a steroid or erythropoietin (EPO) tainted athletic performance rather a rediscovery of an ancient Chinese remedy centred around Cordyceps Sinensis. Cordyceps are very rare and unique fungi, also known in China as Dong Chong Xia Cao (“Summer Grass, Winter Worm”), it has been highly regarded and effectively utilised in Traditional Chinese Medicine for well over 2000 years. It grows in the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau, at an altitude of about 3,500 metres and can only be harvested in relatively small quantities. Its positive effect on increasing stamina was first observed by Tibetan shepherds, when their flock of yaks had consumed the fungi whilst eating the summer grasses and then proceeded to mate more vigorously than previously observed. In the wild it has a symbiotic relationship with a particular variety of caterpillars, which consume it and then become one with it on a cellular level.
What actually are fungi?
Fungi are a division of eukaryotic organisms, which grow in irregular masses, and are without roots, stems, or leaves; they are also devoid of chlorophyll or other pigments capable of producing photosynthesis. Fungi contain ergo sterol instead of cholesterol in their plasma membranes. They reproduce sexually or asexually (spore formation), and may obtain nutrition from other living organisms as parasites or from dead organic matter as saprobes. Fungi have a well-defined cell wall composed of polysaccharides and chitin; they can be moulds, yeasts, or dimorphic.
Cordyceps Sinensis is now being safely grown and processed to be available in capsule form, this process does not involve caterpillars. Its use in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) centres on its properties as a liver tonic and it stimulates the system encouraging greater stamina. Cordyceps has powerful active ingredients, which can help restore the normal functioning of the body, stimulate immune response, increases energy, vitality, and longevity. Recent research has shown that Cordyceps can improve peak performances during sports, and also has muscle-building capability. In TCM, Cordyceps has been used to help regulate blood pressure, strengthen the cardiovascular system, and improve sexual energy. Clinical tests performed at the Hunan Medical University have shown that Cordyceps significantly contributed to increased levels of libido in the test subjects. Further clinical studies, primarily with elderly patients with fatigue, showed that Cordyceps-treated patients reported improvements in their wellbeing, ability to tolerate cold temperatures, memory retention and cognitive capacity. According to the biochemical analysis of Cordyceps species it is noted that they contain interesting properties like Cordycepin, which has been used to create the pharmacological drug Ciclosporin – which is helpful in suppressing the body’s immune system during organ transplants. In 1950′s the chemical constituent of Cordyceps were determined by and a crystalline substance was isolated and named Cordyceps acid. This acid was later identified to be D-mannitol and further studies were performed to identify the constituents of the fungus. The chemical substances isolated were; ‘amino acids, steric acid, D-mannitol, mycose, ergo sterol, uracil, adrenine, adenosince, palmitic acid, cholesterol palmitate and 5α-8α-epidioxy-5α-ergosta-6, 22-dien-3β-ol’.
My own personal experience in taking a Cordyceps supplement was that it immediately acted on my liver and stimulated similar sensations to when I was on a liver cleansing program. I did then begin to feel greater levels of stamina in my day to day life and it encouraged me to be more aware of parts of my diet which were not in tune with a liver cleansing program. I would recommend a juice fast and/or a raw vegetable diet for a few days before beginning taking Cordyceps, to maximise its efficacy. It is also recommend, by TCM consultants engaged by the manufacturers, taking the supplement first thing upon awakening and last thing before retiring to sleep – two capsules a day drunk with plenty of warm water for the kidneys. Whether you are feeling run down and needing a potent natural lift or perhaps you actually are preparing for a marathon, Cordyceps could be the answer for you.
©Sacred Chef.
Appeared in Conscious Living Magazine.
Marine Phytoplankton Superfood of the Sea.
Heading: Marine Phytoplankton
Subheading: Superfood from the Sea!
What is it? Phytoplankton are single cell plants that inhabit the oceans of the world & are thought to be responsible for producing up to 90% of the Earth’s oxygen. Whales of course consume both plant & animal plankton in their diets. Recent nutritional studies are discovering that phytoplankton may indeed be a super-food for humans as well. Made up of many different micro-algae that are incredibly nutrient rich, phytoplankton forms the basis for all living life on our planet, through its vital role in photosynthesis. Their indispensable part in the carbon cycle is an indelible illustration of our holistic universe, with ancient dead algae over million of years forming fossil fuels like oil and coal, which when burnt produce carbon dioxide that is then transformed into oxygen by today’s marine phytoplankton. An ever repeating cycle of life.
If all life did indeed evolve from the sea as is theorised by science, there are signs within our physiology that provide a link to that origin, with the composition of human plasma (blood) and the fluid surrounding cell walls being remarkably similar to sea water. Diluted sea water contains almost the same concentration of minerals and trace elements as blood plasma and its sodium content matches that of blood also. Diluted sea water has been used in blood transfusions involving animals without any perceived adverse effects and there are calls for research into its use in humans. The micronutrients and electrolytes contained in phytoplankton are perfectly suitable for what our human cell membranes require when metabolising. What are our cell membranes made up of? Sugars, proteins and fats. Thus what we eat provides both the fuel that our cells need to function but also the very building blocks for their structure. A diet lacking in the necessary micronutrients will over time reduce effective metabolism and thus lead to disease.
What is the nutritional make-up of marine phytoplankton? The phytoplankton that we can now purchase is produced in sea farms or aqua-culturally and is pure micro-algae rather than cyanobacteria, which can be toxic. Within these micro-algae are a veritable cornucopia of nutritional riches – omega 3 fatty acids, vitamin B12, thiamine (B1), selenium, potassium, superoxide dismutase (SOD), zinc, vitamin E, vitamin C, iron, electrolytes, folic acid, magnesium, niacin (B3), calcium, arginine, beta carotene, chlorophyll, manganese, phenylalanine, pantohenic acid (B5), bioflavanoids, biotin, aspartic acid, alanine, boron, methionine, molybdenum, nucleic acids, phosphorous, gamma linolenic acid, glutamine, lecithin, tyrosine, pyridoxine (B6) to name most of them. The extraction processes used in these farms create a phytoplankton food product that is full of phyto-nutrients and sea minerals.
Good nutrition contributes directly to the function and structure of all the organs that make-up our bodies. As Hippocrates, the ancient Greek physician who founded his practice on the principle of observation, said “let food be your medicine, and your medicine be your food.” Every system within our body benefits from a balanced nutritionally rich diet, our immune system in fighting off colds and flu’s, our digestive system in providing optimal energy, weight management and letting go of wastes via healthy kidneys, liver and bowels, our nervous system effecting mental functioning, and our endocrine system for our skin’s health. Shiny hair, healthy nails, clear eyes, and restful sleep are all indicators of good health and are all influenced by what we eat and drink. Phytoplankton is the perfect food for healthy cell functioning and provides high levels of anti-oxidants for the maintenance of our bodies on this cellular level.
You know I was once very sceptical about all the positive health claims that many health supplements purport to induce but once I understood that true wellbeing is about our cellular health then it was obvious that all conditions are linked to this. Having grown up in a time when the prevalent view of allopathic medicine had reduced diseases into distinct specialised fields I could not then see the interconnectedness of these conditions. The recent expansion in our knowledge of nutritional science has dispelled that all too often cynical standpoint taken by some in the medical fraternity in regard to things like so called super-foods. In fact, many supplements, like marine phytoplankton, are now being championed by doctors around the world.
If our capitalistic economy has failed to deliver the necessary nutritional building blocks in the food that it produces and sells to us, and instead leaves us with supermarket shelves groaning with over packaged items made of refined sugars, fats and carbohydrates then we may need to source our own nutritionally rich foods like marine phytoplankton in concert with other organic foods. Otherwise we are likely to end up over weight, functioning poorly and eventually succumbing to disease. At a time of weak governments and overly powerful unfettered corporate giants, the need to take your own health into your own hands has never been more acute.
©Sacred Chef
Appeared in Conscious Living Magazine.
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