About the author
Natalie Prigoone is an educator; she works as a high school teacher, yoga teacher and is a passionate speaker on raw food. Natalie has owned her own restaurant but turned to raw food when she took some uncooking lessons at a detox retreat in Thailand. She also has a Bachelor degree in Exercise Science and a love of creative writing.
I’ve always been a foodie.
At age eight I worked in my parents restaurant. Ferrying plates of vegetables to the customers who either thought I was cute or took pity on me and tipped me handsomely with silver coins. As a teenager I used to talk aloud in the kitchen at home as I pretended to do cooking demonstrations to an imaginary audience. In year 12 I won the dux of the school for Home Economics. This soothed my wounded ego when I was awarded a D for maths. I shared both the math and the kitchen classroom with Celebrity chef Peter Evans. Who back then was not a celebrity but tall lanky kid whom I had a crush on.
Throughout university I worked as a waitress and cocktail bar attendant in some swanky (and humble) establishments. Often quizzing chefs in the kitchen about the minutiae of each dish. I loved the old world charm of silver service and Gueridon service. Where a silver trolley would be wheeled to the guests table and I’d prepare a caesar salad from scratch, whisking the dressing in a bowl by hand. No one really eats like that anymore. I miss this theatre of food, it’s been replaced with reality television.
After a brief foray into owning my own restaurant “MYLK – my little kitchen,” with my then chef husband, the love affair with food came to a halt. The combined pressure of being filmed for television alongside working with a fiery spouse was the perfect recipe for disaster. Food can be a very serious affair. Heaven help the person who tells me I’m eating too much. An ex boyfriend once said I was a fat girl in a skinny body. I’m not sure what he meant by that? Perhaps he was pointing out my insatiability for food? That’s never gone away so I’m glad to have found raw food.
In 2011, A gorgeous woman by the name of Melanie Proctor, introduced me to raw food when I took her five hour cooking class at Phuket Raw. It was a revelation to say the least. She was so alive with energy that she almost glowed in the dark. Melanie presented me with course after course of amazing raw dishes. Since then, raw food seems to be everywhere. I’m so happy to share this experimental journey with you, reinventing old favourites into a healthier version. Raw food is a way to nourish while still eating delicious food. That’s why we eat after all isn’t it? To nourish, both body and soul.
Natalie xx