Combining a passion for raw food with a love of traditional Italian cuisine, Sligo-based chefs Erika and Fabio Rosati (Fior di Zucca) are strong advocates of the healing power of raw food. In particular they attribute Erika’s successful recovery from rheumatoid arthritis to a raw food diet, and now run plant-based workshops to encourage others to incorporate raw food into their own day-to-day routine. We caught up with Erika to hear more.
Over the past few years we’ve seen an increased interest in eating less processed, more natural food. Why do you think that is?
There’s no mystery behind the power of incorporating more fruit and vegetables in your life. I think people realise that we needed to live healthier and go back to a more natural life. Over time, our digestive system becomes weakened by processed, fatty foods so the more we eat simply, the easier it is to digest the food we eat. If you switch to a raw diet you see the energy coming back, because that kind of food is easier for your body to assimilate. That’s the secret really, eating things that are simpler to digest. Also, I think that the connection between mind and body is very important, so raw food is not just about health for us; it’s also about creativity. It’s not about a restrictive diet or about sacrifices it’s about an abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables to enjoy and have fun with whilst eating more natural food. Raw food can bring out the creative side, so it’s a beautiful thing.
How did your interest in raw food come about?
There’s always been a strong passion for food in my family. My grandfather had a restaurant and my father and uncle are both professional chefs, so the whole family has always been into good, healthy food. My Dad saw the benefits of the change in diet shortly after he decided to go vegan and he suggested that I could improve my health if I went vegan too. I decided to give it a go, but I found that going vegan wasn’t really enough to get rid of my arthritis. So I looked into it a bit more and, following some further research, I did a big detox and adopted a completely raw diet. Within six months of eating 100% raw I got rid of my arthritis.
Can you say a bit more about the science behind it?
The mind and diet both play a big role in all the diseases that affect the immune system. The more you alkalize your body and get rid of the acidity, the more it forces the immune system to react, which basically kick-starts your whole lymphatic system. Because melons and berries are very alkaline you can do that with the power of fruits, and when you focus on eating fruit for a while the detox process can be very powerful. So I focused on juicing, taking specific natural herbs and resting for a few weeks and when I did that the arthritis completely disappeared. After a few months I was able to quit all my medications. But a positive attitude, working together with the diet, will certainly make the difference. In fact, I notice that if I allow myself to get very stressed, I tend to also feel physically very tired. But there’s absolutely no comparison to the arthritis I had before and now I know how to find my balance again.
Tell us about the plant-based workshops you run.
We teach people that basically our health is in our own hands. It’s very easy, simple and affordable to eat more fruit and vegetables, it just takes a bit more preparation. So at the workshops we show how to organise yourself to prepare meals in terms of calorie needs for the day so that you don’t go back to eating stuff you know is not good for you. Our Italian identity is central too, so at our workshops people can learn how to make a raw pizza, raw lasagna and delicious deserts like tiramisu. We also cover how to eat raw in a climate like Ireland. Many people think that eating raw is just eating cold salads all the time, but it’s not that at all. While heat destroys most of the nutrients and brings an amount of acidity to it, you can warm up your food while still keeping it raw provided you keep it to a maximum temperature of 42 degrees.
You also run a market stall in Sligo, tell us about that.
Yes. We moved to Sligo after six years living in Dublin because we wanted to experience more of Ireland and we needed a change from the city. We’ve a good friend who supplies us with organic fruit and vegetables and we sell all our products at the market there. Bologna, where I come from is famous for ragù sauce, and I always loved it so we sell the raw version, ‘rawgù’ which our customers really like. We also do Kale crisps, available in two different sauces, spicy tomato and dairy free cheese and onion, and we sell spaghetti made out of lots of different vegetables. Our courgette spaghetti is especially popular.
What do you have planned for the future?
We’re planning to do more workshops around Ireland and we’re going to make YouTube videos showing how to make our raw food recipes. We’re also travelling to Costa Rica soon where we’ll stay on an organic farm and learn more about cultivating organic vegetables and tropical fruit, so that’s something we’re really looking forward to.
For more details visit www.rawitaliancuisine.com
Words: Martina Murray
Photographs: Fior de Zucci
