Meet Personal Rawkin Chef BeLive

Chef BeLive believes that if you want to feel alive than you must eat alive.

He is a pioneer in the raw food industry and was executive chef and co-owner of one of the first gourmet raw living restaurants in the world, Organica: the Living Cuisine.

Chef Be*Live are you fully raw and, if so, when did that happen?

I eat all plant-based and primarily raw. I was blessed to be raised mostly vegetarian in a meat-eating family. My parents wanted to raise me vegetarian for the first couple of years and then give me a choice. When I was around 2 or 3 years of age, I chose to be vegetarian. Eventually, I wanted to try new things and see what I was missing and at 13 I stopped eating vegetarian for almost 5 years. When I was 18 I became vegetarian again and by 20 I started eating a lot of raw foods. Before that, I stayed away from fruits and vegetables until an organic farmer convinced me to try it again.

I realized it was not the fruits that I was allergic to but the pesticides.

By the time I was 27 I started gravitating towards the raw vegan movement. I went back to cooked foods for a few years but I started to notice a difference in how I felt. I then went back to primarily raw.

Tell me about Organica:The Living Cuisine Restaurant.

I had met Juliano Brotman (founder of Planet Raw) and became the best customer of his restaurant. I was inspired by a woman who had survived cancer by changing her eating habits to the raw living plant-based diet. This truly inspired me because my mother had died of cancer at the young age of 45 years old. When Juliano decided to move to Los Angeles I took over the restaurant. It was ahead of its time though and eventually closed.

Chef, you offer gourmet cuisine that includes dehydrated foods.

What do you say to those that feel that dehydrated foods and recipes with more than five ingredients are confusing to the body and impede digestion?

I strive to offer food that is interesting and reminds them of the foods that they eat in the cooking world. I consider myself a transitional chef and I think that people need really good tasting food to even try any raw food. Once they see how many things we can do with raw food than they will be interested in learning more. I want to attract people who have never eaten raw and those that have but were turned off by a flavorless experience.

What advice do you have for someone who is ready to “go raw”?

It is important to read and get educated so that people can look at, and experience, what really resonates with them. The inner voice must be honored, for me, my inner voice is an overwhelming feeling. The most important thing of all is to love yourself because you are an amazing being and worthy of the best. Take small baby steps, have a great attitude and add a raw salad to the day or a piece of fruit. These are all great steps and to me, the small steps are so important.

When ready to move to the next step a high-powered blender and a food processor are very important.

You will be ready to make these awesome superfood energy balls.

Following that, I feel a masticating/homogenizing juicer and a dehydrator with a temperature gauge are the next most important.

Check out my Watermelon Delight recipe HERE.

He is a pioneer in the raw food industry and was executive chef and co-owner of one of the first gourmet raw living restaurants in the world, Organica: the Living Cuisine.

You have catered many high profile affairs and fed many high profile folks such as Jake Gyllenhaal, Keenan Ivory Wayans, Woody Harrelson, Nick Nolte and Angela Basset. What was that like?

I just feel so honored. It’s so great that people are interested and want to explore different things. When it is high profile folks that are eating my food and talking about it that really helps to spread the word. Raw food just makes you feel amazing and everyone should feel that way.

What is next for you?

I am excited to be promoting my book “Going Going Gone Raw.”  We really try to give answers to all of the questions that people have with raw living. Plus we want to offer recipes that are easy and delicious. I also work as a personal chef. A passion of mine is to cater events and just see what life has in store for me. I have thousands of recipes and can create them in my sleep. There are many more books and products to look forward to.

Chef Be*Live you are a warm and compassionate soul. You are well known for being true to your word and offering caring guidance and support with an open heart.

What final piece of advice would you like to leave our readers with?

Find your bliss! We are all limitless beings and we can create and be anything that we desire. Realize that everything that happens to you is a gift, a lesson for you to evolve and grow from. I have grown from some pretty terrible things. While I was in jail I took this time to reflect on myself. I looked at what I have done to put myself in that place. As well, I looked at what I can do to get out. That was many years ago.

Now I am living a compassion-filled life surrounded by Rawmazing people.