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CHAPTER 1
42°Raw
COPENHAGEN, DENMARK
Pilestræde 32 1112 Copenhagen, Denmark 3212-3210
(Second location in Hellerup, Denmark)
www.42raw.com
See HappyCow reviews at www.happycow.net/book/42-raw
42°Raw is a contemporary interpretation of plant-based eating, committed to changing the way people think about food and to serving food in its most natural state.
Is this your first restaurant?
Yes.
When did it open?
November 2009.
You currently have two locations in, and near, Copenhagen. Do you have plans for further expansion?
Yes, I hope to open a new location in London in 2014.
What's your favorite dish on the menu?
The lasagna; it's creamy and filling. It resembles a traditional lasagna, just in a healthier version.
What's your most popular appetizer?
Hummus — one of our recipes in this cookbook. Served with vegetable sticks, it constitutes a great healthy snack for adults and kids alike.
What's the most popular entrée on the menu?
Tapas — a selection of lasagna, Thai noodles, and avocado sandwich.
What's your most popular dessert?
Cupcakes, in all different flavors and colors.
What do you feel is special about your restaurant?
We are a one-hundred-percent plant-based fast-food concept in a contemporary setting — our ambition is to make plant-based eating desirable to a mainstream audience. Actually, only five percent of our guests are vegan or vegetarian; everyone else is just looking for a delicious and healthy meal.
How often do you change your menu items? Do you have daily or weekly specials?
We experiment all the time and continually introduce new dishes, drinks, and desserts.
Do you have gluten-free, soy-free, and sugar-free options on your menu?
Everything is gluten-free and sugar-free — that is, free from cane sugar — we use agave syrup and coconut palm sugar. We are also soy-free except for our coffee, chai latte, and hot chocolate, where the guests have a choice between organic soy milk or homemade organic almond milk.
What do you do to reduce your environmental impact?
We are one-hundred-percent plant-based, which is a very important environmental contribution. We also use sustainable packaging for our takeout and energy-saving lightbulbs in our lamps.
What are the most important lessons you've learned as owner or chef of this restaurant?
That a mainstream audience will eat one-hundred-percent plant-based if presented with delicious food and drinks in an inviting space.
What led you to want to open a vegan restaurant, and/or what led you to the vegan diet yourself?
I started eating more plant-based for health reasons. My journey started six years ago when I quit sugar and experienced immediate relief from blood-sugar rushes and daily headaches. A year later I quit dairy and gluten and my lifelong allergy symptoms such as an often stuffed nose, breathing difficulties, and an itching throat disappeared almost overnight.
Three-and-a-half years ago I heard about raw food for the first time. I opened 42°Raw six months later and since then my diet has continued to become even more plant-based.
I am actually not a vegan myself, but I eat primarily plant-based. I represent a level of plant-based eating that a wide audience of conventional eaters can relate to. They see what I'm doing and say, "I could do that." It is important for people to find the level of plant-based eating they are comfortable with. Otherwise they will become discouraged and feel alienated.
In the time since your restaurant first opened, how has the plant-based food movement changed? Do you find more demand now for vegan food?
Yes, absolutely — raw food was basically unknown in Denmark when we opened. Now the whole nation knows about it, which has helped shine light on plant-based eating and brought in a whole new audience. Women's magazines often have articles on raw food and green juices. It's becoming more mainstream — even fashionable.
A walk across a continent starts with taking the first steps in the right direction. Eventually you'll reach your destination if you keep walking. It's a transition that can take years.
Society at large still makes eating a plant-based diet challenging when you're on the go. We need more mainstream initiatives such as 42°Raw to build large chains and make delicious plant- based foods readily available in our cities, train stations, and airports. For now, there is still often a negative trade-off when trying to eat vegan in many places, because the options you're presented with aren't attractive enough. If delicious plant-based options are readily available, many people will be encouraged and go for it.
Since your restaurant first opened, has your view of what constitutes healthy or delicious food changed? Have you changed the types of foods you offer?
Yes, we are now moving from having only raw food into serving warm dishes with quinoa and wholegrain rice. People need warm food in the winter months in northern Europe.
Where do you see the plant-based food movement going in coming years?
It is going mainstream. I am one-hundred-percent convinced.
Thai Noodles
Serves 4
For the sauce:
1 medium mango
1½ teaspoons garlic
1½ teaspoons fresh ginger
1½ teaspoons red chili pepper
2 tablespoons red onion
4 dates
1½ teaspoons chopped fresh basil
3 tablespoons coconut oil or vegan butter
1½ teaspoons curry powder
2 teaspoons salt, or to taste
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon sesame oil *
2 tablespoons tamari sauce
2 tablespoons lime juice
½ cup cashews
1 cup water
For the noodles:
4 zucchini or yellow squash
8 carrots
For the garnish:
4 tablespoons chopped spring onions
4 teaspoons black sesame seeds Pinch red chili, to taste **
* Quality of sesame oils varies. If using a pure sesame oil, use 3 tablespoons in the recipe. If using a sesame oil blend, use 6 tablespoons in the recipe.
** Ideally fresh sliced chili, but chili powder will do.
Equipment needed: spiralizer
In a blender, add all sauce ingredients except cashews and water. Blend on high until smooth. Add cashews and water and blend on high until smooth. Make noodles from the squash and carrots using a spiralizer, and mix with sauce just before serving. Top with chopped spring onions, black sesame seeds, and a few tiny pieces of red chili.
Zucchini Hummus
Serves 6–8
½ cup sunflower seeds
2½ cups sesame seeds
½ cup olive oil
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon lime juice
1¼ cups red onion
1 teaspoon garlic
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons paprika
1½ teaspoons ground cumin seeds
1½ teaspoons mustard seeds
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1¾ cups chopped zucchini
First, grind the sunflower seeds and set aside. Then grind sesame seeds in blender until fine. Add oil, lime juice, onion, garlic, salt, paprika, cumin seeds, mustard seeds, and black pepper and blend until smooth, about 30 seconds. Add ground sunflower seeds and chopped zucchini. Blend until smooth. Use the blender plunger to help push zucchini pieces downward to the blade.
Serve with vegetable stalks and your favorite crackers.
222 Veggie Vegan
LONDON, ENGLAND
222 North End Rd. West Kensington, London W14 9NU England 020-7381-2322
www.222veggievegan.com
See HappyCow reviews at www.happycow.net/book/222-veggie-vegan
Elegant and relaxed, with a menu as diverse as it is delicious, 222 Veggie Vegan is London's top spot to enjoy hearty food that happens to be very good for you.
Is this your first restaurant?
It's the first restaurant that I also own. Previously, I was head chef at a couple of vegan restaurants in the West End of London.
When did 222 Veggie Vegan open?
2004.
Do you want to have more than one restaurant?
Yes, I'd love to open some accessible take-away cafés in London to bring affordable healthy food to lots more people.
What's your favorite dish on the menu?
When I want something creamy, it's the stroganoff; when I feel like something heartier, it's the raclette.
What's your most popular appetizer?
Heart's Desire, which is sautéed artichoke hearts on rocket (arugula) leaves with a roasted red-pepper sauce.
What's the most popular entrée on the menu?
Probably the baked pumpkin and pine nut risotto.
What's your most popular dessert?
Spice Island Pie, one of our raw dishes, made from cashew and almond cream and sweetened with agave syrup.
What do you feel is special about your restaurant?
I think we have a real warmth — we always try to make everyone who comes here feel cared for. We are committed to helping people live a healthier life. Our regular customers become like family.
How often do you change your menu items? Do you have daily or weekly specials?
We change the menu about once a year and have daily specials every evening.
Do you have gluten-free, soy-free, and sugar-free options on your menu?
Yes, we want everyone to feel that they have lots of options, regardless of their dietary restrictions.
What do you do to reduce your environmental impact?
We try to minimize our environmental impact both in the materials used in the restaurant (the paint, the furniture, etc.) as well as our everyday actions (recycling and using green cleaning products). We would also like to use only organic ingredients and are working toward this.
What are the most important lessons you've learned as owner or chef of this restaurant?
Running a restaurant is hard work and takes a lot of energy. If you don't love the reason behind your restaurant, it will come across. If you can connect to a greater good like this, then you'll have lots of energy!
What led you to want to open a vegan restaurant, and/or what led you to the vegan diet yourself?
When I was fifteen, I went to a health talk organized by my local church, which changed my life. I realized that we don't need to eat animal products, and since that day I never have!
In the time since your restaurant first opened, how has the plant-based food movement changed? Do you find more demand now for vegan food?
The demand is really growing. These days we're busy all the time and not just with strict vegans or vegetarians. More and more people are realizing that healthy food can be delicious and satisfying, so they forget about whether it's labeled vegan or not.
Since your restaurant first opened, has your view of what constitutes healthy or delicious food changed? Have you changed the types of foods you offer?
People have become more open-minded. We don't have to create dishes anymore that look like "normal" nonvegan recipes. Raw vegan food is a completely original culinary art.
Where do you see the plant-based food movement going in coming years?
I think as more people experience vegan food and realize that it has the most wonderful flavors and gives you energy, rather than making you feel tired, they will naturally want to eat it more frequently. In addition, they will realize that by doing so they are making a big, positive difference to the planet. How can you argue with that?
An easy and delicious raw dish to fill you with energy.
Pumpkin Noodle Salad
Serves 4 (as a side dish)
¼ medium-size pumpkin or ½
medium-size butternut squash, peeled
1 zucchini
1 medium cucumber
¼ cup chopped fresh basil
For the dressing:
1 cup mixed bean sprouts
1 clove garlic
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil Juice of ½ lemon
½ teaspoon sea salt
For the garnish:
¼ cup sunflower seeds
¼ cup pumpkin seeds
¼ cup freshly grated coconut *
* As a shortcut, you can use the ready-to-eat freshly grated coconut (not dried) found in some supermarkets.
Grate the pumpkin or squash, zucchini, and cucumber lengthwise into long noodles, using a julienne peeler if possible (or a spiralizer). Mix together in a bowl.
Combine all the dressing ingredients in a blender until the mixture has the texture of hummus.
Stir in the basil, adding more salt if necessary. Carefully mix the dressing with the noodles, divide onto serving plates, and sprinkle with garnish.
An original reinterpretation of the classic hearty and warming Swiss dish.
Oyster Mushroom and Spinach Raclette
Serves 4
2 medium potatoes
4 cups vegan cottage cheese (see below)
2 cups sliced spinach
¼ cup diced onion
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
1 cup vegan béchamel sauce (see below)
2 cups oyster mushrooms
2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
¼ cup roughly chopped fresh basil
For the vegan cottage cheese:
1/3 cup soy milk *
1/3 cup cold-pressed sunflower oil
¼ teaspoon chopped garlic
½ tablespoon sea salt
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
3 cups firm tofu, drained and mashed
2 teaspoons dried parsley
For the vegan béchamel sauce:
¼ cup raw cashews
½ cup water
¼ cup soy milk*
Pinch sea salt Pinch chopped garlic
½ teaspoon brown rice flour
For the garnish (optional):
Salad leaves Cherry tomatoes
* Almond or rice milk may be substituted for soy milk.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Cut the potatoes in half lengthwise and then cut two ?" slices from each half. (For these thin slices, you can use a mandoline, if you have one.) These will serve as the bases for the raclette portions. Cook the slices in a pan of boiling water until soft but still firm — about 6 minutes.
To make the vegan cottage cheese, first blend the soy milk, sunflower oil, garlic, and sea salt in a blender on high for 7 minutes. Pour into a bowl and stir in the remaining cottage cheese ingredients.
Add the spinach, onion, and remaining garlic to the cottage cheese and mix well. Place the cooked potato slices on an oiled baking tray and divide the spinach–cottage cheese mixture in even mounds over the 8 slices. Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, prepare the vegan béchamel sauce. Process the cashews and water in a blender for 5 minutes. Heat the soy milk to a simmer in a pan with the salt and garlic. Mix the rice flour with a little water, enough to form a smooth paste, and stir it into the milk until the sauce thickens. Remove from heat and stir into the blended cashews.
Sauté the oyster mushrooms in the sesame oil over medium-high heat until soft, then stir in the basil. Place 2 potato slices on each serving plate, pour the béchamel sauce around the potatoes, and pile on the sautéed mushrooms. Garnish with salad leaves and cherry tomatoes, if using.
Ain Soph. Ginza
TOKYO, JAPAN
4-12-1 Ginza, Chuo-Ku Tokyo, Japan 3-6228-4241 (Other locations in Tokyo)
www.ain-soph.jp/pg185.html
See HappyCow reviews at www.happycow.net/book/ain-soph-ginza
"Returning to your true self" is the concept behind Ain Soph. Ginza, and to diners that means handmade, innovative Western-style cuisine with a Japanese twist, served in a pleasant atmosphere.
Is this your first restaurant?
Yes.
When did it open?
December 3, 2009.
You currently have two restaurants, Ain Soph. Ginza and Ain Soph. Journey. How many do you hope to have in the future? Will you expand further?
Yes. I'm planning to own more than five restaurants within three years.
What's your favorite dish on the menu?
I love our tomato soup. It always makes me happy and relaxed.
What's your most popular appetizer?
I would say the Today's Fresh Salad with fresh lettuce with cured leaves and potherb mustard as the base and seasonal vegetables. It's served with our original dressing made from rapeseed oil, organic mustard, soy sauce, and other ingredients. The dressing has a rich taste and it draws out the delicious flavors of the fresh vegetables.
What's the most popular entrée on the menu?
The two most popular dishes are the Hayashi Rice (a vegan take on a Westerninfluenced stewed beef dish) and the tortilla roll with fresh green leaves, hummus, avocado, paprika, and mock soy meat.
What's your most popular dessert?
Our customers love our brownie with carob chips.
What do you feel is special about your restaurant?
Although we serve only vegan dishes, most of our customers are not vegetarians and yet they enjoy our dishes.
How often do you change your menu items? Do you have daily or weekly specials?
It depends on the item, but we change our lunch menu every day. We change the desserts every season. One of our newest and most popular offerings is our vegan pancake.
Do you have gluten-free, soy-free, and sugar-free options on your menu?
Some dishes have no gluten, soy, or sugar. We use beet sugar and agave syrup instead of refined sugar.
What do you do to reduce your environmental impact?
We do not waste gas, water, electric power, or paper. We try not to make too much garbage, and we always try to order sustainably grown vegetables and to consider the sustainability of any other product [we use].
What are the most important lessons you've learned as owner or chef of this restaurant?
The concept of Ain Soph. is returning to our true selves through vegan diet.
I think choosing the vegan diet is one of the most effective ways for us to be connected to the universe. I believe vegetarianism helps us to be awakened spiritually and to expand our consciousness.
Essentially, if we are connected to the energy of love, it's easier for us to realize which direction we should take in our lives. And when we are in such a state, we are more powerful and creative. We are our true selves when we're connected to the energy of love.
Running this restaurant encouraged me — in a natural way — to follow my own path in life.
What led you to want to open a vegan restaurant, and/or what led you to the vegan diet yourself?
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "The HappyCow Cookbook"
by .
Copyright © 2014 HappyCow, Inc..
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