Steffy Sue is my self-made nickname, short for Stephanie Suzanne, and inspired by "Peggy Sue"!
I am a registered dietitian/nutritionist (Bachelor of Science in Human Nutrition), a classically-trained culinary artist/chef (Associate of Applied Science in Culinary Arts), an environmentally-concerned animal lover (especially cats!), a crafty fashionista (sewing, collage, photography), and a bike-riding, hula-hooping, ukulele-playing singer/songwriter!
What my obese, diabetic grandmother told me when I was a small child, "Don't use too much sugar! You'll get Diabetes like me", stuck with me forever. She eventually died from complications of the disease when I was sixteen and that year I became a vegetarian, obsessively interested in nutrition. Living in meat & potatoes Chicago, this was an unusual obsession.
At first I "gave up" red meat and relied on chicken and fish which I understood to be healthier options, according to mainstream media dietitians. This quickly passed. I told my Spanish teacher about my dietary change and she promptly handed me a PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) magazine with recipes she said I would find useful. Of course, the pictures of chickens stuffed and suffering in tiny cages, the details of what net-caught sea creatures endure and what fishing and fish-farming does to the environment, touched me deeply and I chose to become a vegetarian, virtually the only one I knew! Soon friends were telling me they liked those "not dogs" better than the real thing and almost all my friends became vegetarian too, and still are today, sixteen years later!
My mother was extremely concerned with my new lifestyle choice..."Where will you get your protein?", she (and everyone else who is new to the concept) asked. So I started reading every nutrition-related thing I could get my hands on. This multi-dimensional area of "FOOD" peaked my interest so deeply that today I am still learning and experimenting in the area of food: Culinary Arts, Nutrition, Environment, Animals, Food Politics/Policies, Sustainability, etc.
So after high school, I went to the local community college mostly for art and general education credits, since I didn't know what I wanted to do yet. A few artist friends and I moved to San Francisco when we were twenty and my first job was at Herbivore, now a Bay Area vegan restaurant chain. Since the restaurant was new and in a trendy, hipster area of town, it was always very busy. I realized what a wonderful impact the restaurant's existence was having because most of the patrons weren't vegan and many didn't even realize it was a vegan restaurant when they walked in. I thought of how many animals' lives were being saved and how much healthier people could be eating there than at the local burger & pizza joints.
I also worked at OrganiCity, an organic, vegan restaurant (now, sadly, defunct) that focused on nutritional concerns such as cancer, heart disease, AIDS, etc. The chef wanted to have gluten-free menu options as well, and truly wanted to provide healing cuisine. He didn't yet know about the virtues of a raw food diet.
I first visited RAW, Juliano's first restaurant in San Francisco, in 1997 and was blown away. I couldn't believe the amazing flavors, the freshness, seeing the tomato soup made from a bowl of tomatoes the server carried past me, and the way I felt afterward: HIGH. I knew I would want to learn more.
I returned to Chicago to live more cheaply while I went to school for Nutrition, my main interest, at the University of Illinois at Chicago. After graduation and completing the registration exam I immediately began attending culinary school at the Illinois Institute of Art. I knew which general direction I was going to take within these fields (vegan) and I wanted to take the classic, western, scientific approach to both of them so I could have a well-rounded experience. I even became a "tastarian", tasting animal products, while I was in school to build my palate, something I still do (to a vegetarian extent) as a chef. I have to know what I'm trying to impersonate when making food designed to fool the tastebuds and give that comforting feeling of familiarity given to us by many of the animal-based foods we were raised on!
After culinary school, I moved to the Bay Area to do a 3 1/2 month internship in the kitchen of the famous (and delicious!) Chez Panisse. While I learned a lot and it was a wonderful experience overall, I realized I could never work with animal products again. I loved the historical, classic, art nouveau feel of the place and its approach toward food, but crushing the boiled bodies of chickens, with their different-colored eyes looking up at me, with a ladle and a strainer to make stock, and tossing lively crabs into boiling water, and sawing through a pig's head for sauce all seemed completely unnecessary, to say the least. I realized that although the restaurant is credited with the local, organic, slow food movement in the Bay Area (thank goodness!), even if a cow is grass-fed, it is still not okay to eat him or her by my standards. Especially not in a case where eating these animal products is purely for entertainment and not for health reasons. And no matter what a cow's diet is, he or she is still producing 14% of the atmosphere's methane, which is far worse for global warming than carbon gases!
The day after my internship at Chez Panisse ended, I started training at Cafe Gratitude, the famous California raw restaurant chain. So why Raw Food? Raw Food is the bridge between all my main areas of interest. It is wide open for creativity, as new recipes are developed all the time. It is the most nutrient-rich diet which results in less overall consumption. It is vegan so no animal products are consumed, with the exception of honey (for some). It promotes organic, sustainable agriculture and eating locally as much as possible. And, most importantly, Raw food is some of the best food I've ever tasted and it makes me feel energized and invigorated in a way that cooked food does not. Like a clean-burning engine: Vibrant, Fun, Energized, and Alive!
Since Raw food is a choice many people are now making, or at least the inclusion of more raw food in their diet, I want to share my experience in any way I can. I have been a personal chef for people with serious health challenges, such as cancer, who have chosen the "raw path". I spent a year at Cafe Gratitude, both in the kitchen and making desserts. I also worked at Cafe Soulstice, a raw cafe in the Equinox gym (raw diets are perfect for working out!) in San Mateo and Palo Alto. I've also been a class assistant for Elaina Love, a master raw foods chef of 11 years, chef-owner of Cafe Soulstice, and instructor at the Living Light Culinary Arts Institute.
My experiences in different kitchens
around Chicago and the Bay Area, as well as in my own kitchen, have
allowed me to develop my current raw food practice which I am looking
to share with you. I want, more than anything, to spread the word about
how great raw foods make you feel, look, and think. Try it & see!
Currently, I am a manager at Berkeley's Cafe Gratitude! I also teach RAWkin' classes at the various Bay Area Cafe Gratitude locations, which you can learn more about on their
website: cafegratitude.com. An instructional DVD is my next plan!
Thank you for reading!
