Vivo Raw: Philly's Raw Chocolate Gurus.

I've been raving about raw chocolate ever since I first got my hands on it, but it's something that, until recently, I've had to purchase online and in New York City. I always try to emphasize that raw chocolate is the way to go if you're going to eat chocolate for nutrition, as well as taste. And now, I'm finally happy to share that Philadelphia is getting into the raw chocolate game.

"We want to be the Green & Black's of raw chocolate,"  Juliet Burgh says of  Vivo Raw Chocolate.

Locally-produced here in Philadelphia, the brand new handmade raw chocolate company is the brainchild of Burgh, Mackie Root, and Sam DeLuca. Burgh and Root are the founders of Feed Your Power Nutrition, an on-site service at Fusion Crosstraining Gym. Both are graduates of the Institute of Integrative Nutrition, where raw chocolate was having its moment, and businesses like Gnosis Chocolate got their roots. DeLuca has a background in food service, sales, and PR, and is excited to bring raw chocolate to a more mainstream market with Vivo.

Vivo got its starts after the fitness-minded chocolate lovers decided to introduce raw chocolate as a "Weight Management. Hearth Health. Antioxidant Rich" product.

Raw chocolate is kept at a lower temperature (under 115 degrees) during the tempering process, to preserve its nutritious properties and benefits, which include hormonal balance and appetite suppression. Vivo tastes less sweet than most raw chocolate brands out there, and has a rich mouthfeel, with a little bit of crunch from the coconut sugar. If you're used to regular dark chocolate, such as Green & Black's, this is a completely different, much more intense bar. And if you're a fan of raw chocolate already? Well, Vivo gets even deeper.

I tried a piece of the chocolate a few hours before dinner and felt a sustained level of energy throughout the evening, as well as a sated appetite.

 The Vivo trio will officially launch their brand at a raw chocolate and bourbon "Pop-up Bar" at One Shot Coffee on March 10th from 7-9pm. The chocolate is currently available in Vivo's Online Store and will be sold at One Shot. They hope to offer it at other local shops, as well as Whole Foods, with the goal  to expand nationally. In the meantime, they're planning chocolate events and workshops.

The team is currently hard at work developing additional flavors and bars (their current offering is heart-shaped chocolates which were a hit during Valentine's Day). They use Peruvian cacao, cacao butter, and coconut palm sugar in their recipe. Vivo hopes to partner with a Peruvian farm in the future and donate a percentage of sales to charity.

"We'd love to mentor under Brad from Brad's Raw," Burgh adds when discussing their inspirations, along with raw visionary David Wolfe.

When the conversation turns to health hotspots, the trio lists Pure Fare, Sweet Freedom Bakery, and Essene as some of their local haunts. Later, I discover that Burgh makes a special batch of chocolate for herself that contains no sugar, just pure cacao butter and powder. Now that's hardcore.

Golden Curried Cauliflower, 2 Ways.

Two easy ways to turn cauliflower into edible gold.

You'll need just one head of cauliflower. Initially I wanted to prepare cauliflower as steak, but after slicing it into appropriately-sized pieces, I was left with enough florets to fry to golden perfection. This no-waste meal provides a little bit of variety in the way of technique and texture, and guarantees that you up your cruciferous veggie intake. Too much cauliflower? No way. Just try not finishing each crisped up, melt-in-your-mouth bite.

Curried Cauliflower, 2 Ways


For the cauliflower:

• 1 head cauliflower
• 1/2 onion
• 1 tbsp curry powder
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp ground fennel seed
• 1/2 inch oil + 2 tbsp grapeseed oil
• sea salt
• pepper to taste

For the puree:

• 1.5 cups white beans
• 1 cup squash (kabocha or butternut), baked until fork-tender and cubed
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp scallions, minced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• pepper to taste
• drizzle of olive oil
• dash of curry powder

For the sauce:

• 2 tbsps vegan mayonnaise
• 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 1 tsp stone ground mustard
• 2 tsp of capers
• drizzle of lemon juice
• sea salt, pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350. Slice 1-inch thick slabs of cauliflower from head to stem. Reserve florets to the side. Create a spice blend from the curry, coriander, fennel seed, sea salt, and pepper. Coat each side of the cauliflower steak with the blend, then toss florets in remaining spice blend. You want a nice coating on the cauliflower, so add more seasoning if needed.

Prepare puree by adding white beans, squash, lemon juice, scallions, garlic, sea salt, pepper, curry, and olive oil to food processor and pulse until you have a creamy consistency. This will be the base of your plate.
Prepare sauce by mixing mayo, vinegar, mustard, capers, lemon juice, sea salt and pepper together. This will be drizzled over the finished cauliflower steak.

Back to the cauliflower, heat 2 tbsp oil in a pan on high heat. Add chopped onion to season the pan. When onion starts to brown, push to the side of pan and add your cauliflower steaks. Cook until brown on one side, 4-5 minutes, then flip. Place pan into oven and let bake for 5 minutes.

While cauliflower steaks are baking, heat 1/2 inch of oil in another pan. I use a 2.5-inch deep saute pan so that there is enough room for the oil. When oil is hot, carefully add florets and let fry for 4-5 minutes, until nicely browned. Use slotted spoon to remove and drain on paper towels. Most of the oil will still remain in the pan.

Arrange cauliflower steak on top of puree, finished with sauce. Add florets to plate if you like, but I like to pile them on a plate or long platter if you have guests over, served with extra dipping sauce (just double the sauce recipe if you like).

Veg Out: Gingersnaps Organic

It always amazes me that in the raw food world, you can turn blend, mix, mold and dehydrate live foods to your fancy, beyond the everyday salad and crudites. While I certainly enjoy cauliflower and a handful of almonds in their basic form, the fact that you can make a burger out of them is even more compelling to me. If you're looking for nutrition, this is the bold, beautiful, screw-boring way to go about it. Given the choice between a cooked pasta, vegan pizza, taco, or veggie burger, and a raw one? I will almost always opt for the raw version simply because the flavors are going to be lively and I will have more energy than most six year olds shortly after eating it. I'm hooked. (Here in Philly, you can get your raw food fix at Pure Fare and Essene).

So I sat there in wonder awaiting my cauliflower-and-almond composed raw burger at Gingersnaps Organic, a newly opened raw, organic food bar in NYC's East Village.  The small, casual space encourages communal seating and raw-cracker-snacking with shelves lined with various raw crackers and kale chips. The 18-seat BYO was empty on my lunch visit, but I wished it wasn't so I could see it in full swing cranking out kelp ramen and hempseed pizza from its open air kitchen. Desserts (caramel brownies, carrot cupcakes, all raw), juices, and namesake raw gingersnaps rounded out the edibles.

So how'd my burger rate? I only have one other raw burger by which to compare, and that is the burger from One Lucky Duck. While I found Gingersnaps' tasty, it was harder to eat, simply because of the raw crackers that were the "bun". Although the chipotle ketchup was fantastic, I wanted some type of burger sauce. Both burgers are completely different and delicious in their own ways, from the buns to the burgers to the condiments. But if Gingersnaps added cashew cheese or sauce to the burger, I'd melt a little more.

I could have eaten 8 plates of the side salad, the dressing was that subtly beautiful. I go wild for thinly matchsticked radishes in anything and when a dressing is perfectly balanced and applied, the food geek in me purrs happily. Looks like I'll be sampling a bit more of the menu in the future.