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Gorilla Food: Living and Eating Organic, Vegan, and Raw
Raw food diets have exploded in popularity in recent years; some believe that the cooking process destroys nutrients and even produces dangerous chemicals by the interaction of heat with fat, protein, and carbohydrates. Enter Aaron Ash, a charismatic chef whose organic raw vegan restaurant Gorilla Food has taken Vancouver by storm for its inventive and delicious dishes, all prepared without use of animal products or a stove. Aaron is a conscientious raw vegan whose beliefs about food are tied to personal and social well-being. Gorilla Food strives to promote the idea that a sustainable, healthy culture depends on humankind living as "lightly" as possible, mitigating the damage wrought on the environment and ourselves. Gorilla Food the book is both an innovative cooking manual and a raw vegan bible; recipes include a raw lasagna made with zucchini noodles, kale, and a "cheese" made from walnuts, and a raw soup made from seasonal greens, tomatoes, and avocado. There's also amazing raw pizzas, fruit pies, and chocolate desserts that will delight vegans and non-vegans alike with their complex flavors. The book also contains recipes for dehydrated and cultured foods, important for a raw food diet but surprisingly simple to prepare. Gorilla Food will make you go ape for living life to the rawest! In addition to running Gorilla Food, Aaron Ash was a former personal chef to Mike-D of the Beastie Boys. He is also an in-demand caterer for high-profile events around North America, and is making plans to open additional Gorilla Food locations.
208 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2012
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56 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
March 29, 2013
I've been to the Gorilla Food restaurant in Vancouver and it's amazing. The flavours that they manage to create from raw foods are incredible and if you could eat like that every day you would be insanely well nourished and never feel deprived. I was excited to find this cook book in my local library, but as I sort of suspected, the recipes are bizarrely complicated. I actually own a food dehydrator, which is required to make these recipes, but the time investment might be prohibitive with a young baby at home. You sometimes need to dehydrate things for up to three days. You might also have to make 3-4 separate recipes in order to put together one meal. If I didn't have a job and didn't have a baby I would be thrilled to make every recipe in this book. I'll be lucky if I manage one under real world conditions though.
Update: I actually made one of the "bread" recipes. I didn't dehydrate it long enough and the texture wasn't great. It then went mouldy. Blah!
However, due to the potential of the recipes in this book and my overambitious dreams of making some of the recipes, I ended up buying a copy. It's inspiring I guess, even if I'm incapable of successfully reproducing anything in it.
Update: I actually made one of the "bread" recipes. I didn't dehydrate it long enough and the texture wasn't great. It then went mouldy. Blah!
However, due to the potential of the recipes in this book and my overambitious dreams of making some of the recipes, I ended up buying a copy. It's inspiring I guess, even if I'm incapable of successfully reproducing anything in it.
September 8, 2015
YUM.
Key tools: I don't think there's a recipe in this whole book you can do that doesn't require the use of a food processor with an S blade and/or a dehydrator. Make sure you've got one of each!
A lot of these recipes make larger batches of a particular foodstuff. That's totally OK, but I may need to monkey with one or two recipes to make smaller amounts.
I'm definitely going to come back to this book.
Key tools: I don't think there's a recipe in this whole book you can do that doesn't require the use of a food processor with an S blade and/or a dehydrator. Make sure you've got one of each!
A lot of these recipes make larger batches of a particular foodstuff. That's totally OK, but I may need to monkey with one or two recipes to make smaller amounts.
I'm definitely going to come back to this book.
June 10, 2019
Great recipes but you will need a dehydrator for most of them.
January 5, 2025
Beautiful plant-based recipes!
May 20, 2013
I was very interested to receive this copy of Gorilla Food, by Aaron Ash, of the Vancouver restaurant by the same name. Oh, this book is nice! Enticing new flavor ideas, fresh innovative recipes, pretty pictures – oh my! Get this book here
This is a recipe book – you asked for raw recipes and here they are. After a two page introduction, which tells the curious how the Gorilla Foods restaurant in Vancouver, BC, Canada came into being, and shows a picture pictures of a 1960s-throwback-looking space, it launches into a clarification of terms and descriptions of the appliances and tools needed to work the magic, as well as a shopping list, i.e., all of the ingredients which will be eventually called for in the recipes.
After that come the recipes. Now, if you like more or less “instant food” (not much more than a food processor involved), and don’t like to plan a day or two in advance, many of these recipes will not work for you as they are written (many require dehydration, or include dehydrated recipes detailed on other pages), but, often, the “raw” parts, i.e., the parts before you dehydrate, are good enough on their own – for example, although the Morning Curry Crepes call for the dehydrated Ginger Tomato Crepe, recipe would be just as good sitting in a bowl for you to spoon up. So it goes… I see this book as requiring a bit of creativity if you are to get the most from it – just about every page has something exciting, mouthwatering, or really curious.
That said, there are some truly innovative (as in: I haven’t seen this before) recipes for vegetable mixes, sauces, cheezes, condiments, crackers/breads/wraps/chips, and desserts. If you take the often unique vegetable mix ideas, and start adding different sauces, you get altogether different and exciting experiences. If you are willing to do the dehydrated breads/crackers/chips/wraps (which you can do in advance and freeze – you knew that, right?), you expand your options exponentially
When you get to the desserts in Gorilla Food, you will start to drool. Many of the desserts just involve combining the ingredients, and voila! Of course, the really fancy-looking ones in the pictures the use of a dehydrator, but, often, the ingredients will taste good without the dehydrator, and just will be more like goo, or something you have to eat with a spoon.
There! I’ve just taken apart Gorilla Food and digested it into a recipe book for people who only have a knife, or, at best, a food processor. You can make almost all of these things (save the breads, the chips, the crackers) in a beginner raw food kitchen.
If you are a beginner, if you are an old hand, Gorilla Food will be worth your while. So, do check out Gorilla Food. It is so very fanciful, and just this side of very basic raw food (which you don’t see much in recipe books anymore), with a kick!
This is a recipe book – you asked for raw recipes and here they are. After a two page introduction, which tells the curious how the Gorilla Foods restaurant in Vancouver, BC, Canada came into being, and shows a picture pictures of a 1960s-throwback-looking space, it launches into a clarification of terms and descriptions of the appliances and tools needed to work the magic, as well as a shopping list, i.e., all of the ingredients which will be eventually called for in the recipes.
After that come the recipes. Now, if you like more or less “instant food” (not much more than a food processor involved), and don’t like to plan a day or two in advance, many of these recipes will not work for you as they are written (many require dehydration, or include dehydrated recipes detailed on other pages), but, often, the “raw” parts, i.e., the parts before you dehydrate, are good enough on their own – for example, although the Morning Curry Crepes call for the dehydrated Ginger Tomato Crepe, recipe would be just as good sitting in a bowl for you to spoon up. So it goes… I see this book as requiring a bit of creativity if you are to get the most from it – just about every page has something exciting, mouthwatering, or really curious.
That said, there are some truly innovative (as in: I haven’t seen this before) recipes for vegetable mixes, sauces, cheezes, condiments, crackers/breads/wraps/chips, and desserts. If you take the often unique vegetable mix ideas, and start adding different sauces, you get altogether different and exciting experiences. If you are willing to do the dehydrated breads/crackers/chips/wraps (which you can do in advance and freeze – you knew that, right?), you expand your options exponentially
When you get to the desserts in Gorilla Food, you will start to drool. Many of the desserts just involve combining the ingredients, and voila! Of course, the really fancy-looking ones in the pictures the use of a dehydrator, but, often, the ingredients will taste good without the dehydrator, and just will be more like goo, or something you have to eat with a spoon.
There! I’ve just taken apart Gorilla Food and digested it into a recipe book for people who only have a knife, or, at best, a food processor. You can make almost all of these things (save the breads, the chips, the crackers) in a beginner raw food kitchen.
If you are a beginner, if you are an old hand, Gorilla Food will be worth your while. So, do check out Gorilla Food. It is so very fanciful, and just this side of very basic raw food (which you don’t see much in recipe books anymore), with a kick!
March 29, 2013
I was very interested to receive this copy of Gorilla Food, by Aaron Ash, of the Vancouver restaurant by the same name. Oh, this book is nice! Enticing new flavor ideas, fresh innovative recipes, pretty pictures – oh my!
This is a recipe book – you asked for raw recipes and here they are. After a two page introduction, which tells the curious how the Gorilla Foods restaurant in Vancouver, BC, Canada came into being, and shows a picture pictures of a 1960s-throwback-looking space, it launches into a clarification of terms and descriptions of the appliances and tools needed to work the magic, as well as a shopping list, i.e., all of the ingredients which will be eventually called for in the recipes.
After that come the recipes. Now, if you like more or less “instant food” (not much more than a food processor involved), and don’t like to plan a day or two in advance, many of these recipes will not work for you as they are written (many require dehydration, or include dehydrated recipes detailed on other pages), but, often, the “raw” parts, i.e., the parts before you dehydrate, are good enough on their own – for example, although the Morning Curry Crepes call for the dehydrated Ginger Tomato Crepe, recipe would be just as good sitting in a bowl for you to spoon up. So it goes… I see this book as requiring a bit of creativity if you are to get the most from it – just about every page has something exciting, mouthwatering, or really curious.
That said, there are some truly innovative (as in: I haven’t seen this before) recipes for vegetable mixes, sauces, cheezes, condiments, crackers/breads/wraps/chips, and desserts. If you take the often unique vegetable mix ideas, and start adding different sauces, you get altogether different and exciting experiences. If you are willing to do the dehydrated breads/crackers/chips/wraps (which you can do in advance and freeze – you knew that, right?), you expand your options exponentially.
This is a recipe book – you asked for raw recipes and here they are. After a two page introduction, which tells the curious how the Gorilla Foods restaurant in Vancouver, BC, Canada came into being, and shows a picture pictures of a 1960s-throwback-looking space, it launches into a clarification of terms and descriptions of the appliances and tools needed to work the magic, as well as a shopping list, i.e., all of the ingredients which will be eventually called for in the recipes.
After that come the recipes. Now, if you like more or less “instant food” (not much more than a food processor involved), and don’t like to plan a day or two in advance, many of these recipes will not work for you as they are written (many require dehydration, or include dehydrated recipes detailed on other pages), but, often, the “raw” parts, i.e., the parts before you dehydrate, are good enough on their own – for example, although the Morning Curry Crepes call for the dehydrated Ginger Tomato Crepe, recipe would be just as good sitting in a bowl for you to spoon up. So it goes… I see this book as requiring a bit of creativity if you are to get the most from it – just about every page has something exciting, mouthwatering, or really curious.
That said, there are some truly innovative (as in: I haven’t seen this before) recipes for vegetable mixes, sauces, cheezes, condiments, crackers/breads/wraps/chips, and desserts. If you take the often unique vegetable mix ideas, and start adding different sauces, you get altogether different and exciting experiences. If you are willing to do the dehydrated breads/crackers/chips/wraps (which you can do in advance and freeze – you knew that, right?), you expand your options exponentially.
August 25, 2013
No. Just no. Don't get me wrong; I'm not finding fault with the writing, and many of the recipes sound tasty, like something I'd order to try at a restaurant.
However, these are NOT recipes I'd try at home. Ever. I don't think I've ever read a more complicated cookbook, with more obscure/ expensive ingredients and more expensive appliance requirements. There are some recipes with simple lists of ingredients, but they are usually only a spread or cracker that is used to assemble some larger recipes. Most of the sandwiches, for example, involve 3 or more ingredients made in other recipes. This is a LOT of work for a diet I'm not entirely sold on. Raw food sounds like a good idea, but when it involves the large quantities of high fat, calorie dense nuts and avocados and coconut that these recipes do, I'm skeptical of it for a lifestyle diet. Unfortunately, many of those same ingredients are also common migraine triggers. So if you're limiting foods that can act as migraine triggers, or trying to limit your fat intake on a vegan diet, or both (like myself), these recipes can't be a significant, common part of your regular diet.
So while there were a few recipes that were intriguing enough to be worth trying (Zucchini Hummus?!), they simply weren't enough to make this cookbook worth buying, not for me, or even for keeping around until it's due back to the library. I know I won't be making any of these recipes, so why bother. Instead, maybe if I'm ever up in Vancouver, I try Ash's restaurant instead.
However, these are NOT recipes I'd try at home. Ever. I don't think I've ever read a more complicated cookbook, with more obscure/ expensive ingredients and more expensive appliance requirements. There are some recipes with simple lists of ingredients, but they are usually only a spread or cracker that is used to assemble some larger recipes. Most of the sandwiches, for example, involve 3 or more ingredients made in other recipes. This is a LOT of work for a diet I'm not entirely sold on. Raw food sounds like a good idea, but when it involves the large quantities of high fat, calorie dense nuts and avocados and coconut that these recipes do, I'm skeptical of it for a lifestyle diet. Unfortunately, many of those same ingredients are also common migraine triggers. So if you're limiting foods that can act as migraine triggers, or trying to limit your fat intake on a vegan diet, or both (like myself), these recipes can't be a significant, common part of your regular diet.
So while there were a few recipes that were intriguing enough to be worth trying (Zucchini Hummus?!), they simply weren't enough to make this cookbook worth buying, not for me, or even for keeping around until it's due back to the library. I know I won't be making any of these recipes, so why bother. Instead, maybe if I'm ever up in Vancouver, I try Ash's restaurant instead.
March 7, 2014
Fantastic cookbook.
I have so many food allergies it is almost impossible to find something I can eat without a reaction of some sort.
But most of the recipes in this book are easy to do and delicious as well.. Will be buying this book, I borrowed this from the library, but nope this one will become one of favorite go to books...
I have so many food allergies it is almost impossible to find something I can eat without a reaction of some sort.
But most of the recipes in this book are easy to do and delicious as well.. Will be buying this book, I borrowed this from the library, but nope this one will become one of favorite go to books...
February 25, 2014
Approachable, fun book about raw food written by a restaurant owner from BC. The recipes are easy to understand and you will be able to find most of the ingredients fairly easily. Many recipes use a dehydrator for the "cooking" but there are enough interesting ones that don't that you can get started right away in trying them out.
November 7, 2013
This book is by the owner of Gorilla Food. It gives you insight into the dishes made at the restaurant. If you enjoy the culinary arts and raw (vegan) food, you'll definitely want to experiment with the recipes in this book to expand your repertoire. Well done Mr. Ash!
November 1, 2013
(Review originally published in The Byron Shire Echo - February 5th, 2013)
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews