FORT BRAGG LETTER:One of the world's most unusual cookery schools takes the cooking out of classes
THERE ARE two Fort Braggs in the United States. One, in North Carolina, is home to the US special forces, a 250sq mile area bristling with military hardware. The other, less well known, is a more laid-back place on California’s rugged northern coast where one of the main activities contributing to the local economy is the cultivation of marijuana.
The California Fort Bragg doesn’t conform to the outsider’s usual idea of life on the coast of the golden state. There are no white sand beaches full of bronzed bodies, few palm trees and no fashionable boulevards.
The town has a rather dated, left-behind feel about it: most motorists don’t bother to stop but carry on towards Seattle further north, or south to San Francisco.
Yet the town does have its surprises: an ordinary looking building on the main street is home to one of the world’s most unusual cookery schools – an establishment that teaches how not to cook. The Living Light Culinary Arts Institute specialises in what it calls “beyond vegan raw food”. Students come from elsewhere in the US and all over the world to learn the art of making dishes from raw food.
“The appetite for raw food is growing,” says Karen, a manager at the school. “Most restaurants now offer vegetarian dishes on their menus. We feel that in future they’ll be offering raw food options as well.”
I have been invited to a five- course raw food gourmet lunch and I am welcomed with a large glass of pink liquid: a hibiscus cooler.
“We invite people in so chefs can practise their skills,” says Karen. “Prepare to be amazed.”
The first course is a fairly conventional salad. The others are very different: Mediterranean- style food such as tabbouleh and dolmades made, not with bulgar wheat, rice or couscous, but with hemp seeds and almonds. There’s spaghetti fashioned out of strips of courgette and lots of herbs. The taste is fine, although after a while the dishes do seem a little similar.
“Look at the obesity and disease that comes from what we call Sad – the Standard American Diet,” Karen adds. “Raw food, once you’re used to it, promotes wellbeing and is much better for the system.”
Staff and students – who pay thousands of dollars to learn how not to cook – certainly seem healthy, with many exhibiting that bright-eyed, perfect white teeth California look. Maybe though raw food is not suitable for everyone and can be a bit of a shock to the system. After a while my stomach feels like an out-of- control washing machine.
There’s no doubt the Living Light Institute and its students have brought some much-needed economic activity to Fort Bragg. A century ago the town was booming: the nearby redwood forests made it a centre of the lumber industry with loggers from Italy, Portugal and Finland settling in the town. The local telephone book is full of names from those countries.
Ironically, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, which caused much devastation in central and northern California and left Fort Bragg in ruins, also marked the peak of the town’s prosperity. After the quake, a large amount of the housing stock in San Francisco was rebuilt from logs shipped from Fort Bragg.
In later years, strict controls were imposed on logging the giant redwoods and the lumber industry died. Now, not a lot goes on: there is tourism (Fort Bragg is famous for its botanic gardens) and the illegal but widely tolerated growing of marijuana in fields and valleys surrounding the town. And the raw food cookery school.
Szymon Kozlowski, a trainee raw food chef, was born in Poland and now lives in Australia. He has spent many thousands of dollars coming to California to learn the art of not cooking. He says he enjoys raw food but admits that every so often he feels the need to have some hot soup and cooked brown rice.
“My aim is to make a career out of raw food,” says Szymon. “I want to open my own restaurant back in Australia. Raw food can be exciting – you just need to be inventive. Being a raw food chef requires lots of imagination.”
The rules of raw cuisine allow for the rehydration of food up to a certain temperature, as long as it’s not cooked. I’m taken on a tour of the kitchens: there is a marked absence of ovens and sizzling pans. Staff reject the idea that they are involved in promoting some sort of cult.
“We get folks coming here thinking a switch to raw food is going to solve all life’s problems, but that’s not our role,” says Karen. “We’re about making people healthier.”
I leave, and I have an immediate fall from raw food grace with a coffee and croissant up the street.