After hearing much talk about Lifefood Gourmet in Coral Gables, Ecozine made a lunch stop to try the restaurant’s raw vegan cuisine at its new location on Coral Way.
Followed for its cellular enrichment and rejuvenation attributes, the raw food diet is based on the idea that if you cook foods at more than 116 degrees, the enzimes and other nutrients will begin to degrade, losing its nutritional value. Raw foodists use instead dehydration, sprouting and other techniques to cook their meals (living foodists use the same concept, but use more sprouting to bring nutrients from a dormant to an active state).
Lifefood Gourmet owner and raw food chef John Schott, who studied with raw food guru Dr. David Jubb in New York, has a passion for living food and its qualities, which shows in the restaurant’s extensive menu: lasagna, burgers, burritos, nori rolls, four types of pizzas, wraps, pesto Alfredo, tomato and Mexican soups, and a variety of salads.
I ordered one of the most popular dishes, the All Veggie Pizza ($14), and loved every bite of it.
The pizza comes on a dehydrated sprouted quinoa and flaxseed bread topped with spinach, creamy homemade vegan cheese, tomatoes, raw tomato herb sauce, onions, nutmeg sauce and oregano (you can see the delicate layering in the picture).
The pie is preheated in a dehydrator before served to make it a little warm while conserving the freshness of its ingredients, a key to the raw diet.
To drink, I had a spicy and sweet ginger juice.
I was too full after the pizza but couldn’t leave without trying a dessert. I originally went for the cupcakes but there weren’t any left, so I ended up getting a blissful chocolate fudge crepe with fresh strawberries and redberries to go ($9). The wafer was made of apricot flax, and had a crispy yet soft texture, which surprised me considering it was dehydrated. I have to say the chocolate fudge was the best I had in a long time. I later found out they make if from pure cacao beans, which gives the fudge a rich grainy texture and a spicy and bitter flavor.
The menu and flavors is so extensive that I plan to come back and try more things. I specially regret not getting some of their prepackaged apple fries ($6) or Life Chips ($6) to go.
Following what seems to be the norm in the raw food world, prices are in the medium price range, which I attribute to how time consuming preparing raw foods is. I ended up paying a little over $30 (I then realized my pizza was among the priciest menu items). Appetizers, which includes nachos and zucchini rolls sell, for $9-11, entrees for $10-15, soups for $6, desserts for $8-$9 and natural drinks for $4-$10.
Chef Schott, who began his raw food endeavors at the Coconut Grove Farmers Market, is expanding the restaurant into an education center with kitchen apprentice programs, video teachings and other instructive tools, and he’s putting together a lifefood nutrition manual. His menu actually features a human body showing what body part is nourished by each dish. He’s definitely up to something, so stay tuned!
Have you been there? What did you order?
If you go:
Lifefood Gourmet
Opens Mon-Sat, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
1248 SW 22 Street
Miami, Fl 33145
305-856-6767
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