Omid Jaffari is one of the raising stars of the raw food culinary world. I had the good fortune to connect with him I and am very pleased to have him as one of Raw Epicurean’s contributing chefs.
At the age of 17, Omid began his culinary training studying under the direction of talented chef’s and restaurant owner’s in New Zealand, who helped guide and influence his style. Extensive travel coupled with a desire to learn and experience the various tastes and flavors of world cuisine has also helped him evolve as a culinary artist.
He is truly an interesting person, has a fun sense of humor, and is totally passionate about the endless possibilities and delicious raw food meal he can create. He currently lives in Japan with his lovely wife and partner Gabrielle.
Let’s meet Omid!
RE: At what point in your culinary career did you discover raw food?
OJ: This is a very good question to start off with Ingrid. I discovered raw food at a point in my cheffing career when I was thinking of changing directions completely, I was tired of grotty kitchens, and thus I was doing my BA in Philosophy. At that time, I just came back from a 10 day meditation course, which I went to for an assignment that I had to complete on the subject of neuroscience philosophy. When I came back, I met a friend who was into raw food and his arguments for changing his lifestyle to raw and living foods just made sense. I came back with such clarity and some realizations about the area of how neural mechanisms work and the way foods contributes to our nervous system all the way to the sociology of emotions and effects on our cells. I realized that not only Raw Food Makes Sense but it contributes to our evolutionary growth which is very much a spiritual realization.
RE: You have traveled extensively and lived in many different countries – the Middle East, New Zealand, Asia, Africa, South America, and Europe. Looking back, which country’s cuisine most influences and inspires you as a chef?
OJ: To me, food is culture, it tells you all about that society, their complexities and simplicities, about their way of thinking and living. This is why I enjoy Asia so much, especially Japan. Being in Japan has made me realize that in western food culture, one gets bombarded with flavours, and thus it always makes us seek for more flavour and intensities, whereas in Japanese food culture, flavours are so mild and gentle on your palate that they allow you to understand and enjoy all the subtle layers of flavours and simplicity. This methodological concept of eating allows one to appreciate and be grounded in enjoying the food culture without it being such an emotional matter.
RE: Currently, you live Asia. Do you see a high level of interest and is raw food popular in Japan?
OJ: Well, it all really depends on how you want me to answer this question Ingrid, but to say that Japanese people are very interested in Raw Food Culture, I would have to say no. But, this does not mean that they won’t be interested in raw food in the future. In Japan, when it comes down to the majority, everything is done as a group or as a mass, if the time comes to a point when raw food is slightly a mainstream thing in other countries, then you could say, that it might start taking off here. First, it might have to become a fashion statement to gain popularity for raw food to take off in Japan. I have noticed that Japanese people also like soft food; they even cook carrots before putting them in salads.
RE: How is it being raw and living in Japan for you?
OJ: Besides being very expensive, it is not easy to be raw in Japan. Restaurants generally do not serve nice big salads as they do in western countries and finding organic food is not as easy as it is in the US or NZ. In fact, Japanese organic produce simply means you don’t add pesticides, unlike say in New Zealand, it takes about 7 years of cultivation for a land to become eligible to grow organic products, whereas in Japan, if it is necessary it is only 5 years. But, it has taught me one thing that I take to heart, which might have been hard to realize if I was, say, living in Canada. Being raw in Japan has taught me that going on a raw food diet does not mean extravagant food choices. Your diet can be simple and successful; you don’t need extra super foods, vitamins, etc. One can easily eat simple fresh raw food and apply some easy techniques and live the wholesome raw food lifestyle without the extra expense and the commercialized side of raw foodism.
RE: How has being raw contributed to your physical, mental, and spiritual well-being?
OJ: Well, you got me here Ingrid. I think that raw food has and is helping me with my gummy bear addictions. You see whenever I open a gummy bear packet, the smell and taste takes me back to my childhood, memories come back to me about how pure, energetic and care free I was, how I used to eat gummy bears without the thought of questioning love, guilt and working out all the concerns we grownups have! Therefore, raw food is helping me in synchronizing my emotional nervous system and grounding me physically in order to have a better concentration in understanding the science of my mind (memories, imaginations, thoughts, emotions; basically gummy bears) to leave me enough room and clarity of consciousness so that I could have a glimpse of the science of spirituality and the methodology of how detachment works. Thus, I see raw food consciousness as a multi level tool in this life journey.
RE: What do you enjoy most about being a chef?
OJ: What I enjoy the most about being a chef are the challenges that it sets me out to face such as always coming up with something new. I love creating recipes and tasting them. I love serving family and friends and surprising guests with a new style and new tastes and how raw food can’t only be sexy but also how raw food can make you feel sexy.
RE: What fun projects can we look forward to that you are involved in?
OJ: Well, on a personal level, I am working on recipes and articles for a book that a lovely friend Mila has been working on and also for Purely Delicious Magazine for this summer. But as a team member of the TTS website, we are working and building our Raw Food Resource Center (Raw Food Nutritional Information) area. It is going to be about 1500 pages. Our aim is to make it almost an online Raw Food Dictionary. Each food will have: an Introduction, Are they raw? Health Benefits and Complete Nutritional Information per Serving: and it is to be finished sometime this year. We are also working very hard in making our exquisite 100% Organic Nama Shoyu available in the US and Canada.
RE: What are some of your favorite books and magazines on the topic of raw food, green living, and spirituality?
OJ: Come to think of it, I can’t say that I have read any books on raw food. Most of the information I have acquired comes from experiences, internet, newsletters and listening to people talk about raw food. Living in Japan, English books on such a specialized topic are really hard to come by. I really enjoy reading books that have to do with my studies, which are: Human Energy System by Jack Schwarz. Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness by Satprem. And Matter and Consciousness by Paul M. Churchland.
RE: What hobbies do you enjoy?
OJ: Basically everything that makes me more involved in my work -education, exercising, and creativity.
RE: What is the most amusing response you’ve experienced or reaction you’ve received when you told someone about the raw food diet?
OJ: Are you a Horse, or a Rabbit? What do you mean Raw Food, carrots and cucumbers? Oh that’s great! When you come for dinner, you can just snack from the weeds in the yard, you’ll be a cheap guest that’s for sure (So cheeky).
RE: Which fruits or vegetables are your favorites, least favorite and why?
OJ: I love tomatoes, cucumbers, red onions, garlic and of course lemons. I very much enjoy their freshness. When I eat these vegetables I particularly feel alive and awake, fresh and vibrant. When it comes to fruit, I love everything in the berry family. I find berries to be smooth and sweet as well as comforting. I also find the color red appealing, a total sense experience! I don’t want to use the word “dislike” but I am not a big fan of apples, kiwi fruits and persimmons.
RE: Where and what was your most memorable raw meal?
OJ: When Gabrielle and I went to visit my dad in Sydney, Australia before his heart surgery, Gabrielle and I made some of our raw recipes for my dad to try out for the first time. I guess I really enjoyed our meals because of the sensitivity of the situation. But I have to say that he, my dad, was almost convinced on changing his diet on condition that we became his personal chefs.
RE: What is the one thing about you that very few people know?
OJ: To be honest with you Ingrid, I was very healthy before trying out raw food and making it my lifestyle. But one thing that not many know about me is the fact that I committed myself to raw food while I was working on my first Raw food “Cook” book called: Chop to Impress. Creating raw food recipes that were delicious, fun and made me feel great and convinced me that this was the way to live my life. Using vegetables and fruits in a whole different way opened up a new world for me in the kitchen and this had a huge impact on my life.
RE: If you could be or do anything else, what would that be?
OJ: To be honest, I am and would be doing exactly the same thing I am doing right now.
RE: What one word would you use to describe yourself?
OJ: Versatile, but if you ask Gabrielle, she would say a bulldog. When I am determined, I don’t let go! So a versatilebulldog (I even made it one word for you).
RE: Last, but not least, is there any advice you’d like to share with aspiring raw chefs and those of us who love to prepare raw food at home?
OJ: I find this question to be a very personal one, because everyone is so different in their style and to what inspires them. But I would say that keeping an indoor French Intensive, with lots of herbs growing in it, and then implementing it spontaneously in your raw food creations will bring magic to your kitchen, dishes and your palate.
Un million thanks to Omid for his participation, contribution and for everything he does to bring raw food to the light.
========Gifts for the GivingOmid has so kindly offered 3 ebooks for this giveaway:
How to Set Up Your Kitchen
Impressive Raw Food Recipes
Shake Formula
Also, Omid informed me that the company that makes their Organic Nama Shoyu is currently out-of-stock. However, they have offered to provide 2 bottles exclusively for Raw Epicurean readers! Thank you so much! Learn more about Organic Nama Shoyu.
Please note: It may take 10 days or more from the date of the giveaway for the winning recipients to receive the bottle Organic Nama Shoyu.
To participate in the drawing for one [1] of these generous gifts, simply answer this question:
Which junk food addition has raw food helped you overcome?
On Tuesday, April 14th, I’ll announcement the names of the winners and which gift they won.
========More about Omid Jaffari
Visit Omid’s blog Shiitakeblog and collaborative website Tried Tasted Served
See Omid’s contributions here on Raw Epicurean:
Recipe - Stickly Date Lover with Upside Down Sugar Can Whipped Cream
Article - Effects of Cooking on Vitamins and Minerals
Back to Top ⇑
Related posts:
- Excalibur Food Dehydrator
- Matcha Latte
- Spinach Breakfast Drink
Omid Jaffari is one of the raising stars of the raw food culinary world. I had the good fortune to connect with him I and am very pleased to have him as one of Raw Epicurean’s contributing chefs.
At the age of 17, Omid began his culinary training studying under the direction of talented chef’s and restaurant owner’s in New Zealand, who helped guide and influence his style. Extensive travel coupled with a desire to learn and experience the various tastes and flavors of world cuisine has also helped him evolve as a culinary artist.
He is truly an interesting person, has a fun sense of humor, and is totally passionate about the endless possibilities and delicious raw food meal he can create. He currently lives in Japan with his lovely wife and partner Gabrielle.
Let’s meet Omid!
RE: At what point in your culinary career did you discover raw food?
OJ: This is a very good question to start off with Ingrid. I discovered raw food at a point in my cheffing career when I was thinking of changing directions completely, I was tired of grotty kitchens, and thus I was doing my BA in Philosophy. At that time, I just came back from a 10 day meditation course, which I went to for an assignment that I had to complete on the subject of neuroscience philosophy. When I came back, I met a friend who was into raw food and his arguments for changing his lifestyle to raw and living foods just made sense. I came back with such clarity and some realizations about the area of how neural mechanisms work and the way foods contributes to our nervous system all the way to the sociology of emotions and effects on our cells. I realized that not only Raw Food Makes Sense but it contributes to our evolutionary growth which is very much a spiritual realization.
RE: You have traveled extensively and lived in many different countries – the Middle East, New Zealand, Asia, Africa, South America, and Europe. Looking back, which country’s cuisine most influences and inspires you as a chef?
OJ: To me, food is culture, it tells you all about that society, their complexities and simplicities, about their way of thinking and living. This is why I enjoy Asia so much, especially Japan. Being in Japan has made me realize that in western food culture, one gets bombarded with flavours, and thus it always makes us seek for more flavour and intensities, whereas in Japanese food culture, flavours are so mild and gentle on your palate that they allow you to understand and enjoy all the subtle layers of flavours and simplicity. This methodological concept of eating allows one to appreciate and be grounded in enjoying the food culture without it being such an emotional matter.
RE: Currently, you live Asia. Do you see a high level of interest and is raw food popular in Japan?
OJ: Well, it all really depends on how you want me to answer this question Ingrid, but to say that Japanese people are very interested in Raw Food Culture, I would have to say no. But, this does not mean that they won’t be interested in raw food in the future. In Japan, when it comes down to the majority, everything is done as a group or as a mass, if the time comes to a point when raw food is slightly a mainstream thing in other countries, then you could say, that it might start taking off here. First, it might have to become a fashion statement to gain popularity for raw food to take off in Japan. I have noticed that Japanese people also like soft food; they even cook carrots before putting them in salads.
RE: How is it being raw and living in Japan for you?
OJ: Besides being very expensive, it is not easy to be raw in Japan. Restaurants generally do not serve nice big salads as they do in western countries and finding organic food is not as easy as it is in the US or NZ. In fact, Japanese organic produce simply means you don’t add pesticides, unlike say in New Zealand, it takes about 7 years of cultivation for a land to become eligible to grow organic products, whereas in Japan, if it is necessary it is only 5 years. But, it has taught me one thing that I take to heart, which might have been hard to realize if I was, say, living in Canada. Being raw in Japan has taught me that going on a raw food diet does not mean extravagant food choices. Your diet can be simple and successful; you don’t need extra super foods, vitamins, etc. One can easily eat simple fresh raw food and apply some easy techniques and live the wholesome raw food lifestyle without the extra expense and the commercialized side of raw foodism.
RE: How has being raw contributed to your physical, mental, and spiritual well-being?
OJ: Well, you got me here Ingrid. I think that raw food has and is helping me with my gummy bear addictions. You see whenever I open a gummy bear packet, the smell and taste takes me back to my childhood, memories come back to me about how pure, energetic and care free I was, how I used to eat gummy bears without the thought of questioning love, guilt and working out all the concerns we grownups have! Therefore, raw food is helping me in synchronizing my emotional nervous system and grounding me physically in order to have a better concentration in understanding the science of my mind (memories, imaginations, thoughts, emotions; basically gummy bears) to leave me enough room and clarity of consciousness so that I could have a glimpse of the science of spirituality and the methodology of how detachment works. Thus, I see raw food consciousness as a multi level tool in this life journey.
RE: What do you enjoy most about being a chef?
OJ: What I enjoy the most about being a chef are the challenges that it sets me out to face such as always coming up with something new. I love creating recipes and tasting them. I love serving family and friends and surprising guests with a new style and new tastes and how raw food can’t only be sexy but also how raw food can make you feel sexy.
RE: What fun projects can we look forward to that you are involved in?
OJ: Well, on a personal level, I am working on recipes and articles for a book that a lovely friend Mila has been working on and also for Purely Delicious Magazine for this summer. But as a team member of the TTS website, we are working and building our Raw Food Resource Center (Raw Food Nutritional Information) area. It is going to be about 1500 pages. Our aim is to make it almost an online Raw Food Dictionary. Each food will have: an Introduction, Are they raw? Health Benefits and Complete Nutritional Information per Serving: and it is to be finished sometime this year. We are also working very hard in making our exquisite 100% Organic Nama Shoyu available in the US and Canada.
RE: What are some of your favorite books and magazines on the topic of raw food, green living, and spirituality?
OJ: Come to think of it, I can’t say that I have read any books on raw food. Most of the information I have acquired comes from experiences, internet, newsletters and listening to people talk about raw food. Living in Japan, English books on such a specialized topic are really hard to come by. I really enjoy reading books that have to do with my studies, which are: Human Energy System by Jack Schwarz. Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness by Satprem. And Matter and Consciousness by Paul M. Churchland.
RE: What hobbies do you enjoy?
OJ: Basically everything that makes me more involved in my work -education, exercising, and creativity.
RE: What is the most amusing response you’ve experienced or reaction you’ve received when you told someone about the raw food diet?
OJ: Are you a Horse, or a Rabbit? What do you mean Raw Food, carrots and cucumbers? Oh that’s great! When you come for dinner, you can just snack from the weeds in the yard, you’ll be a cheap guest that’s for sure (So cheeky).
RE: Which fruits or vegetables are your favorites, least favorite and why?
OJ: I love tomatoes, cucumbers, red onions, garlic and of course lemons. I very much enjoy their freshness. When I eat these vegetables I particularly feel alive and awake, fresh and vibrant. When it comes to fruit, I love everything in the berry family. I find berries to be smooth and sweet as well as comforting. I also find the color red appealing, a total sense experience! I don’t want to use the word “dislike” but I am not a big fan of apples, kiwi fruits and persimmons.
RE: Where and what was your most memorable raw meal?
OJ: When Gabrielle and I went to visit my dad in Sydney, Australia before his heart surgery, Gabrielle and I made some of our raw recipes for my dad to try out for the first time. I guess I really enjoyed our meals because of the sensitivity of the situation. But I have to say that he, my dad, was almost convinced on changing his diet on condition that we became his personal chefs.
RE: What is the one thing about you that very few people know?
OJ: To be honest with you Ingrid, I was very healthy before trying out raw food and making it my lifestyle. But one thing that not many know about me is the fact that I committed myself to raw food while I was working on my first Raw food “Cook” book called: Chop to Impress. Creating raw food recipes that were delicious, fun and made me feel great and convinced me that this was the way to live my life. Using vegetables and fruits in a whole different way opened up a new world for me in the kitchen and this had a huge impact on my life.
RE: If you could be or do anything else, what would that be?
OJ: To be honest, I am and would be doing exactly the same thing I am doing right now.
RE: What one word would you use to describe yourself?
OJ: Versatile, but if you ask Gabrielle, she would say a bulldog. When I am determined, I don’t let go! So a versatilebulldog (I even made it one word for you).
RE: Last, but not least, is there any advice you’d like to share with aspiring raw chefs and those of us who love to prepare raw food at home?
OJ: I find this question to be a very personal one, because everyone is so different in their style and to what inspires them. But I would say that keeping an indoor French Intensive, with lots of herbs growing in it, and then implementing it spontaneously in your raw food creations will bring magic to your kitchen, dishes and your palate.
Un million thanks to Omid for his participation, contribution and for everything he does to bring raw food to the light.
Omid has so kindly offered 3 ebooks for this giveaway:
How to Set Up Your Kitchen
Impressive Raw Food Recipes
Shake Formula
Also, Omid informed me that the company that makes their Organic Nama Shoyu is currently out-of-stock. However, they have offered to provide 2 bottles exclusively for Raw Epicurean readers! Thank you so much! Learn more about Organic Nama Shoyu.
Please note: It may take 10 days or more from the date of the giveaway for the winning recipients to receive the bottle Organic Nama Shoyu.
To participate in the drawing for one [1] of these generous gifts, simply answer this question:
Which junk food addition has raw food helped you overcome?
On Tuesday, April 14th, I’ll announcement the names of the winners and which gift they won.
More about Omid Jaffari
Visit Omid’s blog Shiitakeblog and collaborative website Tried Tasted Served
See Omid’s contributions here on Raw Epicurean:
Recipe - Stickly Date Lover with Upside Down Sugar Can Whipped Cream
Article - Effects of Cooking on Vitamins and Minerals
Back to Top ⇑
Related posts: