"Cooked Raw" is the dramatic memoir detailing a celebrity chef s remarkable, and often riveting journey through the culinary world. As a youth who embraced healthy living as a teenager, swearing off processed foods to heal a body badly damaged by consuming them, he was an unlikely chef candidate to begin. Still, an unusual journey brought him into a chef career in late 80s New York, where he soon found himself on national television, carrying full pages in fashion magazines and being flown all over the world to consult and appear. As his career and empire grew, he became more and more disconnected from the work he was doing and searched for a way out. This dilemma finally took care of itself, as his overextended business soon crumbled in such a big way that it made for years of gossip columns and shattered life as he knew it. This ending, while brutally painful, evolved into one of the most exhilarating opportunities of his life, a chance to embrace his more mature passions and finally bring together his personal and professional vision for a balanced, sustainable lifestyle. This path was much more challenging than his original, and yet, when intentions are in the right place, magic things may happen. From turban wearing guru s pushing powders, cleanses and colonics, to sophisticated housewives searching for health, he announced his intention to prepare food not only without cooking but also without heat, devoid of animal products and processed foods: a cuisine made of plants and no heat.

The reaction and initiation into this new journey was even rockier than the crash and burn he endured just a couple years earlier. He persevered, fighting some seemingly winless battles, risking his entire career and reputation. The years leading close to his mid-life, he found himself barely hanging on at times, journeying through a series of oddball and bizarre business relationships, fighting off the vultures, and eventually bringing light to the obvious fact that food and health go hand in hand. Despite whatever setbacks arose, he used every opportunity to improve the cuisine and its methods. Speaking at TED conferences, moving to Los Angeles and raising awareness globally about the fact that great tasting food can promote health, his brand grew. Nearly 25 years after becoming a disillusioned young chef, he felt at home in his own life for the first time. Not only was he working with the sexiest and healthiest food imaginable, he had managed to identify the future of our food, and the future of his company.".