RAWvolution: Gourmet Living Cuisine
by Matt Amsden
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Book Reviews of RAWvolution: Gourmet Living Cuisine
Book Review: Save your money
Summary: 1 Stars
This cookbook was a huge disappointment. First of all, the directions were severely lacking - for example, recipes may call for nuts, but do not indicate whether they should be soaked or unsoaked, which can really change the ultimate outcome of the recipe, as well as greatly alter the volume of the ingredient that is needed. Second of all, I found all recipes to be completely uninspired and lacking in culinary creativity. Sure, any dessert will taste good if you slather it in agave nectar, but that is about as tasty as this one gets. Mr. Amsden is not a chef. Proof of this shows through in his recipes for all entrees and sides, as he relys mostly on nama shoyu soy sauce and garlic to try to make his foods palatable. As a result, foods are salty and pungent, yet lacking real flavor. At the end of the book is Mr. Amsden's real reason for publishing this book - to promote his cafe and food delivery service. Again, save your money - I thought maybe I had screwed up the recipes and decided to check out how they are supposed to be prepared. I hadn't screwed up. They are just really bad. It seems like the true purpose of this book was just to make a quick buck for the author, since the recipes reflect a lack of understanding in raw food preparation. Save your money and instead spend it on "Raw Food Made Easy" by Jennifer Cornbleet - a much better choice for the raw food cook.Book Review: The best raw foodbook for the novice
Summary: 5 Stars
I have been eating raw food for only about 1.5 months. I came across this book after the first month, and even though I already had quite a number of raw "cook"books to work with, this one has emerged as my clear favorite, at least for this transitional period. Many of the other books seem geared only toward people who have fully adapted to a raw lifestyle -- even if they explain the principles for the newcomer, the food is often not exciting to the "raw palate in training" -- it's usually palatable, but just not exciting. This book has convinced me that I can stay with the raw diet for the long haul, because the food is really delicious. And the procedures are simple and generally quite quick to execute. For my first foray into the book, I made the mock tuna salad which I served on the famous onion bread. Both recipes worked perfectly and tasted absolutely wonderful. They will be staples for sure. This book, along with Green for Life by Victoria Boutenko, are the 2 that will light my way into the raw vegan diet -- which has already produced remarkable benefits for me in terms of weight loss, energy, and positive mood. I'm grateful to Matt Amsden for sharing his creative and delicious cuisine.Book Review: FIVE BIG PHAT STARS!!
Summary: 5 Stars
I can actually eat these food combinations without going yuck. YAY! for recipe books and information such as this! May all the world become healthier and happier through better eating! It's much more imaginative than any other raw recipe book I've read (and I've read most), and with it's big color pictures, it's sure to delight.
These books will make a great addition to your collection:
Raw Food And Health: The Raw Food Classic By The Founder Of The Raw Food Movement
The Advantages Of Raw Food
The Black Art Of Cooking: The Raw Truth
The Unfired Food Diet Simplified: The Raw Food Guide
Uncooked Foods and how to use them: How to use Living and Raw foods for health
Book Review: BEST Raw Foods cookbook
Summary: 5 Stars
I cured a number of ailments by going raw (RA, Lupus symptoms, two rashes--one the dermatologist said was not curable and lost my last 20 pounds of baby weight) and checked out dozens of cookbooks from the library to get me started.
The recipes were filled with exotic ingredients that I wasn't going to buy in case I hated the finished product and would be stuck with these things. They were expensive too and shipping made them worse.
Matt Amsden wrote a cookbook that is so easy to read with codes for how things are prepared, the difficulty level, pictures of each one and using readily available ingredients. He even thought to put the page numbers right in the middle of the edge so they can be found without any hassle.
I've tried lots of his recipes and ALL of them are fabulous! I've even made substitutions and those turned out great too.
My only complaint is that there are too many photos of him. They are totally unnecessary. If you can look past that, it's a great book. I even like it better than the Cafe Gratitude one that I also got from Amazon.
Book Review: It's about half-half
Summary: 3 Stars
This is just one of about 5 raw food books I own, but it's definitely the easiest with the most basic ingredients (in contrast to Juliano's Raw book, which has recipes with over a dozen ingredients, many of which are hard to find/expensive). The desserts are probably the most tasty & easy to make (the peach pie has only 3 ingredients!), whereas some of the entrees require a bit more prep time & the flavors aren't QUITE right.
For a while I wondered if perhaps I was making a mistake somewhere, but when I visited Matt's raw restaurant in Santa Monica & sampled a variety of his menu options, the same thing happened. That is, the flavors are off just a bit.
I would definitely recommend using less sodium & oil than listed in the recipes, and I usually substitute agave nectar with coconut oil in the pie fillings just to reduce the sweetness.
Basically, it's a decent book that gives you a good idea of raw food options & provides a general starting point from which you can always alter recipes to your liking.