Tasty treats from a group of raw food enthusiasts open Tom Foot’s eyes to a meat-free future

RAW food? The idea sends shivers down the spine. As I approached The Little Earth Café – one of the country’s few raw food restaurants tucked inside the Triyoga Centre in Primrose Hill – it was hard not to feel guilty about last night’s roast chicken, Saturday’s fry up, and that I ever ate a Pepperami.
Guilt turned to fear at the entrance where a sign read ‘Please remove shoes’.
Stone Buddhas, incense and candles burn within. Was I about to be taken in by a vegan cult?
A flurry of images comes to mind. Holier-than-thou hippies sitting cross-legged on cushions picking pumpkin seeds from their gluten-free salads. Mystic mentalists – or should that be lentilists? – finding inner peace through stuffed seaweed. Or a gaggle of ‘yummy mummies’ like Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Moss or Sadie Frost, supping down an organic carrot smoothie.
The fact that the café is in a yoga centre invites further cynicism.
But although the surroundings do live up to all stereotypes, the food is sophisticated, tastes great and has a tangible effect.
After sampling some of the mouth-watering raw treats – the immune system-boosting green peace salad or the hormone-balancing veg power wrap – even the most ardent carnivore will think again about their next meal.
All the ingredients are carefully selected for their healing, revitalising and energising properties. And anyone leaving the Little Earth Café with a brown rice and cocoa milk shake, powered by the extra shot of flax seed oil, will feel like cart-wheeling home.
Everything on the menu is wheat, gluten and dairy free. “As soon as you start heating something it depletes all its nutrients,” explains chef Katia Narain.
“After 104 degrees enzymes in food are destroyed. This means our bodies have to use their own enzymes to break down food. This tires us out. When you eat raw food it digests itself and saves you energy. People don’t realise a lot of the time the reason they are so shattered is because of what they’re eating.” But raw food can cure more than tiredness. It cured Katia’s mental stress too.
“It’s like if your bedroom’s full of clutter, you start to feel better when it’s tidy. When you start eating raw food it’s like cleaning out the cupboards. You start seeing things more clearly.”
The Little Earth Café does provide some hot food cooked in a special dehydrator that warms the food without destroying its nutrients.
Katia says a Chinese doctor told her she needed to balance a raw food diet with something hot.
She says: “If you live in a cool country you really need something to warm you up. If your spleen gets cold it can cause trouble. That’s why we brought in the dehydrator. It’s not an oven but it means we can make the Moroccan aubergine and haricot salad, the quinoa and the Johnny sandwich, which is a biodynamic rye filled with watercress, red onion, cucumber, avocado and balsamic beetroot paté.”
She adds: “Biodynamic food is only harvested when there is a full moon.”
So does the chef ever hanker after something that’s bad for you?
“What do you mean like sugar? Of course I do. I used to eat a whole Green and Black’s chocolate bar everyday. Sugar is like crack cocaine – you start having it and you can’t stop and have to make a effort to get off it again.”
She adds: “I think everything’s okay as long as it’s in moderation.”
Katia and Christophe believe that food and medicine have the same origin. Katia says: “We are trying to eat and drink in a way where we extract energy from our environment in a harmonious way.”
You can see how people get hooked. If getting healthy becomes enjoyable you have a formula.
And the café, which opened in January, has just won the LBC award for best leisure café.

• Little Earth Cafe, 6 Erskine Road, NW3
020 7483 3344