Flavor Magazine

Epicure
2001
Editor and Publisher
Paul Jerome
UNCOOKED DELIGHTS

when Annette Larkins turned vegetarian, the transformation was clean and abrupt. It was one day in 1963 after she had placed frozen pork chops in the kitchen sink to thaw for dinner. Her husband, Amos was a butcher, which meant the family could at anytime have its fill of meat, whether white or red. But later that day, Larkins said when she returned to the sink she was grossed out by the sight of the thawed animal flesh. “This was food that I was accustomed to eating,” said the Asheville, N, C, native who came to Miami as a child. “I had had little inklings before, (I had) been concerned about eating what I call dead flesh for some time. Thoughts would enter my mind, Should I be eating this? But then they dissipated.”
In that sudden life-changing moment nearly 40 years ago, however, Larkins impulsively stopped eating animal products. “That was the beginning of a metamorphosis that led me down a path, she said that took her through other phases of dietary change which included abstaining from refined sugars and flour. Later it was dairy products that she eliminated from her diet.
These days, Larkins has gone to what might be considered an unusual extreme. She consumes only raw fruit, nuts, vegetables and seeds. She eats nothing that’s cooked or heated. Anything that touches her lips must be “alive,” she proclaimed in her southwest Miami kitchen as she chopped lettuce and tomatoes to top off one of her favorite dishes—Mama Mia Pizza.
At age 59, Larkins is on a health crusade that is quickly attracting adherents both on the consumer and scientific sides. Last year she wrote and self-published a booklet (Journey to Health) on the subject of raw food consumption and its benefits.
“I can hardly keep up with the orders for the booklet (which costs $4.95),” she said. Plus, she has just begun a series of lectures, imparting her uncooked wisdom to people considering that lifestyle change. For those people she preaches a refrain: “Welcome to my world, the kingdom of living food, where live is king, raw is queen, and I am a willing and loyal subject.”
What’s so unique about raw foods? She theorizes that sprouts are living food that are still growing even after they are harvested and refrigerated. When you harvest mature vegetables, they are alive in the sense that, “they are not debilitated by cooking, they have not lost their life force, she said. “It gives you energy,” said Larkins. “Lots of energy.” She can only speak from personal experience. And in her years of following a strict raw foods diet, Larkins says colds, the flu and sniffles don’t bother her. Nor does she count calories, check her cholesterol or have problems with arthritis.
“By being on uncooked foods I have vitality and the fruitfulness of youth,” she said.
Eating raw vegetables and fruits would likely be a bland and monotonous routine were it not for recipes she eloped to make an unfired diet tasty and delightful.
One of the many colorful and savory dishes she created is the Mama Mia Pizza which starts out with a ground corn tortilla-type rust that is topped with fresh vegetables and slices of a nut ball to simulate meat. For the crust, she grinds fresh corn in food processor or blender and adds hone to bind it. “With four ears of corn use, one teaspoon of honey,” she said. “It gives it a pancake mix consistency.” The mixture is then dehydrated.
When she’s ready to make the pizza, she takes the dehydrated crust and puts on a layer of pesto made of garlic, pistachios, walnuts, pine nuts and basil. On the pesto, she piles chopped lettuce, mushroom, onions and sliced tomatoes. She tops it off with slices of nut ball (nut mixture, carrots, liquid amino and onions) which serves as a meat substitute.
Beyond fruits and vegetables, Larkins eats a variety of seed and bean sprouts, plus wild rice. She sprouts the seeds by soaking them in water for a few hours or overnight. They are then drained as they germinate and later eaten raw.
“It’s living food you are eating,” she said, “live food that’s still growing.”