Kicking and screaming I fell into
the Paleo/Primal path of eating.
Everyone who knows me knew that “Cuisine” not just food, was very
important to me. I am a “Foodie” and
will always be one. I would ALMOST
rather stay fat and sick than to eat food that was not splendid. Almost was the key word. I had no choice but to change everything I
understood about food. I had to learn
about food as fuel and not just as something to satisfy my appetite for sublime
flavor. For someone who grew up in the restaurant
business and spent the majority of my adult life in pursuit of gourmet dining
experiences, learning how to give up the rice and noodle dishes of my Chinese
heritage, the wonderful artisanal breads that my husband had perfected in
baking or the delicate French pastries found at the local patisserie was
absolute torture. But I also understood
that indeed my much loved foods would actually do me in because I was
overweight, diabetic and also mildly gluten intolerant.
Another thing that people who
know me understand is that I am extremely persistent and stubborn. I looked at this dilemma between tasty food
and food that was healthy and decided that I had to find a solution. I tackled the easy things first such as
meats, vegetables by tweaking my favorite recipes to make them Paleo/Primal. After a few months my husband and I were enjoying
our usual standard of dining equivalent to and sometimes better than the
non-paleo meals of the past. However there was still
a hunger for the things that were off limits; the cakes, cookies, breads,
etc. I yearned to have a lazy Sunday
brunch with crispy waffles, fluffy pancakes or luscious muffins. Oh I scoured the internet for Paleo websites
looking at recipes for treats and breads.
The word disappointing would be an understatement. They were edible; just edible.
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| These simply were not going to work for me |
To some people this pickiness about taste may
seem a bit much. But I like to think
that I simply have a Refined Palate due to my exposure to really good
food. Whatever the case, my stubbornness
and persistence would not let me give up on finding a way to have my cake and
eat too. During the next year and a half I
found myself in the kitchen every spare moment creating, tweaking, creating and
tweaking again and again to find that perfect combination of ingredients and
spices to develop recipes for my beloved treats. There were plenty of failures. Trying to make non-grain and non-processed
sugar ingredients behave and taste like grain and processed sugar ingredients
is really, really hard. However there
were also successes and boy were they successes. One success led to another as I
learned more and more about the properties of each ingredient such as almond
meal flour, flax seed flour, coconut flour and coconut palm sugar. For example I learned that I had to balance
the slight but very distinguishable off aroma of the coconut flour with certain spices
and extracts in order for it to not overpower the end product. There are so
many characteristics of food that determines whether or not it is really “good”. There is visual appeal and smell; there is
the texture and finally but most importantly there is the taste. However all these characteristics have to harmoniously
come together to be truly considered “cuisine” and not just food.
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| These treats made me happy And guilt-free |
Life is too short to drink bad
wine and life is certainly too short to eat mediocre food. Yes I had to learn how to fuel my body
properly so that I can thrive and be healthy.
But my soul had to thrive also and it is just as important for my soul
to be happy. There had to be others like me
out there; people who cared tremendously about their health and were committed to
that lifestyle but also were not willing to compromise on enjoying great
food. So a business was born. Sharing my passion for great tasting healthy food with other like-minded people has been a dream come true.
