ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thank you, Jae Phyo, my mother, and Max Phyo, my brother, for your endless supply of unconditional love and support. Thank you for this life I am blessed to live. Thank you, Ruben Cartegena, for taking great care of Mom, for continued medical discussions, and for photography advice.
Tyler Golden, thank you for the delicious food photographs and your meticulous attention to detail. Andre Schnyder, thank you for your creativity, patience, and for the beautiful lifestyle photos. Antonio Sanchez, my dear friend and family, thank you for continuing to grace my books with your beautiful illustrations. You are the worlds best illustrator.
Carol Conforti, thank you for being gorgeous in every way, and for your excitement to help with everything from location scouting, to production assisting, to styling, to testing and prep. So Young Lee, my friend and family, Korean recipe consultant, and beautiful supermodel, thank you and Jennifer Kang and Sean Kang for your support and for jumping in to join my production.
Chris Elwell and Kory Odell, thank you for hosting me at the Odellwell Manor and Retreat Center, for being my eager testers, for believing in me all these years, and for being my good friends. Christopher Autry, my cosmic twin, thank you and Grant Nvision for loving my food. I miss having you both here in L.A. Joe Arancio, thank you for being my biggest fan. Kato Banks, thank you for your bright energy and love.
Shadi Azarpour, dear friend and fellow doggie mommy, you are a gift. Thank you and Eric Weissler for believing in me, for your valuable legal advice, and guidance. Tina Wexler, thank you for taking great care of me and my books. George Ruiz, thank you for being my champion, and for introducing me to Tina. Bill Ahmann, thank you for continuing to protect my SmartMonkey IP, youre an angel.
Thank you to Shauna Verkade and Excalibur Dehydrators for your love and support. VegNews Magazine and publisher Joseph Connelly and Colleen Holland, thank you for standing up for the truth, and for believing in me. Bryant Terry, thank you for being an inspiration and good friend.
Phillip Schenkler, Leandra Yahola, Martin Libich, and Stephanie Person, thank you for being my models and testers, and for showing up for me the way you do. Thank you, Barry Jan, for taking photos of my demo at the SF Ferry Building Farmers Market, and for letting me use them in this book. David Daugherty, my old friend, thank you for connecting me back to organics so many years ago. I couldnt have guessed Id end up here.
A special thank you to my team at Da Capo. Renee Sedliar and Wendie Carr, its been a joy and honor to work together with you both over the past four years. Kevin Hanover and Lindsey Triebel, thank you for believing in me and my books.
And, of course, Kanga, thank you for endless hours of snuggles, licks, and tail wags.
Eat Well and Live Long
Im grateful to live a life I love, doing what I enjoy, for people I care about. Every day, I make sure to spend time with my family and friends, play with my dog, sweat, stretch, study, eat good food, live eco-green, practice patience and kindness, and work and play hard. I meditate, contemplate, and remember to focus on what I want and try not to think about the things I dont want,
Eat up, be blissful, and live long. Happiness is a reflection of your health. Yum!
TOOLS AND INGREDIENTS
KITCHEN TOOLS
Its easy to set up a raw food kitchen. Most tools are the same as in a conventional cooked kitchen, minus the pots and pans. A few must-have items will make it easy to start making my recipes, and a few other nice-to-have items that arent necessary will make kitchen play even more enjoyable and fun.
MUST-HAVES
Two raw food tools to start with in your kitchen are a food processor and a blender. To make some of the recipes in this book, youll also need a dehydrator, which is used to make crackers, biscuits, cookies, and pancakes. (In chapter 2, youll learn how to use a conventional oven to experiment with dehydrating.) And, youll at least need a knife, bowl, and measuring spoons and cups.
FOOD PROCESSOR
A food processor chops dry and low-moisture ingredients, such as nuts and vegetables. You could instead chop by hand with a knife, but a food processor will save you heaps of time.
HIGH-SPEED BLENDER
I recommend saving money to buy just one high-speed blender. I have the Vitamix, which will last me a lifetime. Its powerful and pulverizes nuts, seeds, and vanilla beans whole. A blender is used with liquid to make mylks, smoothies, soups, and sauces.
TRIBEST PERSONAL BLENDER
A smaller blender is great for traveling, and the Tribest Personal Blender is priced lower and makes a great first blender. It comes with a grinding blade, so you can grind your nuts and seeds before blending to create a smoother texture while decreasing strain on your blenders motor.
EXCALIBUR DEHYDRATOR
A dehydrator is used to dry at low temperatures and simulates sun drying. My dehydrator brand of choice is the Excalibur Dehydrator. It comes with four to nine 14-inch-square shelves plus heatproof Paraflexx liners, and I recommend getting a model with a built-in timer.
KNIFE
Obtain several knifes of various sizes. I prefer ceramic knives because they never need sharpening and the oxidation of cut vegetables and fruits is slower than when cut with a metal knife. You can find these on my Web site, www.AniPhyo.com/store.
MIXING BOWLS
Larger mixing bowls make it easier to toss ingredients without making a mess outside your bowl. I have an assortment of different-size mixing bowls in my kitchen and have found that its useful to have at least three bowls of varying sizes handy.
MEASURING CUPS AND SPOONS
Youll need measuring cups and spoons to get the right proportions of ingredients into your recipes. Theres a slight difference between wet and dry measuring cups that matter more when working with wheat flours. I use both wet and dry interchangeably. I have a 4-cup wet measuring cup with a handle and spout, plus the standard -, 1/3 -, -, and 1-cup dry measuring cups.
NICE-TO-HAVE
I love kitchen toys, and the following items are definitely fun to have, if not absolutely necessary to begin making and enjoying the recipes in this book. These tools will make it easier to create new textures and will speed up your prep time.
