‘Slow eaters think they are morally superior. But they’ve lost their appetite for life. They will claim it makes them healthier. But that’s absurd.’
So begins an article in the Observer by Restaurant Critic Jay Rayner, decrying people who eat too slowly. Jay, a self-proclaimed fast eater, claims that ‘we like life more than slow eaters like life. Slow eaters aren’t just doing something they love more slowly than others. They simply don’t like food, not enough. No one with a real instinct to feed can ever eat slowly.’ I’m sorry Jay, but I beg to differ. The health benefits of slow eating are simple and common-sensical. It was put to me once by Michael Rossoff that the single most effective thing you can do to improve your eating behaviour is to just chew your food more. Breaking down your mouthfuls helps to reduce the workload on your digestive tract. People often throw ‘optimum numbers of chews’ at you (30, 50, 100 chews) but don’t be put off. I suspect the main intention behind this idea is to create space for yourself, and your body, to reflect on your food, become open to appreciation and nourishment. Ultimately, this is not just about ‘eating for health.’ This is about enjoyment, and the nourishment that we obtain from food, in our Being. But I have some sympathy for Jay. I am also in the habit of bolting my food. I suffer from a gluttonous streak. It’s more apparent when I’m alone, and not in the company of others, when my more socially-acceptable eating behaviours kick in. But I know that when I do slow down, and take a moment to take in what is in front of me, I am filled with appreciation and gratitude. I am struck by the colours, the shapes, the smells on the plate. I sometimes reflect on the journey this food has taken to get to me. I recall the people who produced the food, or the exchange we had when I bought it from them. There are sometimes items I’ve collected on that day, partnered with ingredients from my cupboard, and contributions from others. In doing this, my body softens and my appetite is fed, before I even take a bite, and it continues, as I enjoy my meal, with real appreciation. Slowly, attentively. An opportunity is provided to not just feed myself, but to nourish myself fully.
Jay, I understand your aversion to slow eaters. They make you uncomfortable. Perhaps they give you the suspicion that despite your obvious love and appreciation of food, you might be missing out on something richer and more satisfying.
A lunch cooked for day one of Michael Rossoff‘s three day workshop Basic Alchemy, hosted by the Concord Institute. We created a delicious Puy Lentil, Pea, Mint & Lettuce Soup, followed by a plate of Rice & Barley, Age Dashi Tofu with a rich Mushroom Gravy, Carrots slow cooked in Sesame Oil with Chives & Butter and a Watercress Salad with Daikon, Granny Smith Apple and a Tahini Orange dressing. To finish, an Almond Cookie dessert served with Oatly Vanilla Cream.
Excuse me for banging on. But there’s a course happening on May 20-22 called Basic Alchemy, held by a guy called Michael Rossoff. Not just any guy, he’s one of the pioneers of integrated health, incorporating Eastern and Western health and nutrition in a readily accessible and very powerful way. Its no exaggeration to say that my time spent with him has helped to transform my relationship to health and wellbeing. I also had a personal consultation with him, which provided some tools for me to address my approach to nutrition, shed some light on my constitution, and happened to give me a full and comprehensive breakdown of my personal history and current challenges based on an examination of my face, tongue and eyes, and by drawing a quick sketch. Bargain.
When we are engaged in regular workshops and practices where we are seeking to advance ourselves, there is a danger of everything merging together to appear to be of a similar nature, and perhaps benefit. I have taken part in a whole array of things, as perhaps you have too. But if you want to explore the very core of our Being in a fundamental way, our relationship to health and the idea of ‘illness,’ then Basic Alchemy is simply the business.
If Basic Alchemy appeals to you, or a private consultation with Michael while he is here, please contact him directly by email.
Hello Wholefood Kitchen Lovers, my name is Zoë and I have a story to tell you. Three years ago I started to explore the area of macrobiotics as I had been having far too much fun on the London party scene. My body had been asking me for a while to take better care of it and so when a friend of mine recommended I take a course called Basic Alchemy I decided that this was life offering me an opportunity to connect more fully to that thing called my body.
I had been learning about macrobiotics on a more practical level, having participated in some cooking intensives and thought I had a pretty good idea of the energy of food, how to balance a plate out with grains/greens/proteins etc, that was, until I sat down on the Friday morning of Basic Alchemy and met the course leader Michael Rossoff.
I had a couple of specific health issues: My liver and kidneys had taken a bit of a bashing over the years but mainly I wanted to be a healthier human being, and as a side thought I wanted to see if I could start to harness the mass amount of energy that I have into a more focused direction instead of frittering it away. After spending 3 days with Michael I was more than equipped to start a life time’s journey into taking real care of these issues.
I wanted to share part of my story with you as Michael only comes to London once a year. I wholeheartedly recommend anyone to spend three days in this workshop.
Michael is booked to teach Basic Alchemy at the Concord Institute on May 20-22. Here’s what he has to say about the course:
“This 3-day intensive will give you a solid foundation in the art and practice of self healing. You will gain insights into the connections between your body, mind, emotional and spiritual consciousness. You will learn how to use the simple tool of yin-yang thinking for understanding health and sickness; you will gain practical information on foods and other approaches to healing. I will guide you in understanding many issues from the perspective of both oriental medicine and contemporary western thought about food and health. There are many ways to discover and explore a new way of seeing. I will also teach powerful acupressure points, basic shiatsu massage techniques and simple qi gong exercises. You will receive useful handouts and there will be ample time for discussions.”
Zoë x
Course details
Fee: £350 (deposit: £100, non-refundable)
A wholefood lunch will be provided each day
2011 dates
May 20, 21 & 22: 10am to 7pm
If you would like to register please call 020 7607 1140 or 07818 231 298
This is an invitation which goes out to one and all. Basic Alchemy is a wonderful overview of Eastern medicine, explored by a Westerner (Macrobiotic Healer, Counselor & Teacher Michael Rossoff) who manages to bring the two worlds together, within an incredible grounding of traditional Macrobiotics. That’s the philosophy, not the ‘diet’ which exists, an interpretation which veers towards a weird sort of health and healing fanaticism. I recommend the course fully. You’ll be introduced to ideas both new and yet vaguely unfamiliar. If you’re prepared to go in leaving your preconceptions at the door, you are likely to leave inspired and empowered in your relationship to health. The course takes place on May 20,21 & 22. Contact the Concord Institute for details.
Jean Torné interviewed by Naomi Ricketts
Concord newsletter, Issue 18, Summer 2010 (pdf)
Can you tell me a little of your history and how you found your entry into the macrobiotic way of cooking? There is an old Berber song which says:
“What brought you here?
The sand? The wind…?
What brought me here?
The waves pushed me onto this shore…”
It was quite a long time ago. Were you to look at pictures of me at that time you would be surprised; I looked older than today, with more wrinkles, swollen lips, long disorderly hair… That person had been travelling south, in all sorts of uncanny circumstances, and had caught some tropical bug, which meant I was not able to eat any foods, or keep them down – I was constantly ill.
I was in the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in London, ill and half dead, when a friend of my first wife came and said “Why don’t you try that?” ‘That’ was macrobiotics.
This guy who introduced me to macrobiotics was called Andy Whitaker, and it was he who introduced me to Bill Tara. Taking on macrobiotics made me feel even worse for weeks. I was more ill than before. However, I stuck to the dietary recommendations given to me, because I had previously attended an ‘Introduction to Macrobiotics’ lecture by Michio Kushi who truly inspired me. So my early commitment was based on blind trust.
How strictly do you yourself adhere to this way of eating?
I do not adhere to anything nor do I stick to anything. But I know that I am (in terms of food and eating) consistent to what I say and teach.
How did you becomeinvolved with Concord?
I became involved via a link, or an ‘invitation’, to obey the tradition of this work. Although I had met Greg Johnson before, I came in first to take on teaching cooking for the first JumpStart programme via shiatsu teacher Andy Jukes. That was a long time ago. Prior to this, I had been invited to take part as a participant in Being-in-Action, which I had resisted for quite some time!
How do you see your work complements the otherprogrammes available at Concord? I would not use the word ‘complements’ or even say ‘my work’, but state that the space I hold – nutrition and whole food cooking – is integral to the work we do as an educational centre. We cannot say that the parts – bodywork, dialogue, cooking, Tensegrity – complement each other. They are intrinsically One. If you ignore anyone of them you do not get the full Taste.
Can anyone, regardless of experience, learn wholefood cooking and, if so, what demands does the wide range of students’ experience in your classes bring to you as a teacher? Anyone, indeed, can learn. Just practice. Study and practice. I have to constantly stalk myself, revise my teaching, bring something fresh and everyday I continue to learn, to study, to research.
How do you feel your work makes a difference topeople’s lives? I can see that my work makes a difference, especially when I teach cooking outside the context of Concord’s body of work. Elsewhere, I may inspire people and suggest to them to change their cooking habits, but that stops there. Within Concord’s context, more takes place – a lot more. So, I feel good – very good. But I feel also that it is a huge responsibility. My wife may now and then suggest ‘Why don’t you retire?’ (she means ‘give up’). This is tempting. But a voice calls upon me. Can I ignore it?
Have you found your classes have evolved since taking on your role at Concord, and has this taken your own cooking to a new level as an individual? Yes, absolutely! Not only have the classes evolved, but also my views on cooking and my cooking. In this regard, I am indebted to having had the privilege to work alongside with remarkable teachers like Mutsuko Johnson and Michael Rossoff – from both I have learned a great deal in the area of nutrition – as well as to have had the coaching, the support and the constant questioning of Greg Johnson, who was pivotal in creating our approach to macrobiotic nutrition at Concord, and to be around Sheila Parmar who knows a great deal about ‘real’ food.
I understand you have several children. Can you tell me a little about how your lifestyle has helped and challenged you in this area of your life? Also how do you see the importance of healthy living in the development of children? I have five children. I will set aside the expression ‘Healthy Living’ as it seems to refer to some ideal or Utopia and, besides, my lifestyle has been, and still is, challenging mostly for my family. However, those five children had the following benefits:
– dedicated and loving mothers who took care of them right from the first days of their pregnancy.
– they were all breastfed past 10 months old.
– they were exposed for at least the first 12 years of their life to a wide variety of organically grown whole foods, in large part whole grains and vegetables with some animal foods as an addition.
– they were never given sugar or Coca-cola.
– they grew up in communities. (Macrobiotic communities)
– they were educated in multi-ethnic schools.
– they grew up close to nature and animals.
All these important points are a function of being macrobiotic, surely. On the other side of this idyllic picture I managed to remain Human. This implies that I messed up in many ways, left the kids behind many times, got them in my own drama, which is by all means un-healthy. And of course life went wrong. Good.
It can often seem that both looking after yourself and living a busy life just isn’t possible. What would be your top pointers for people that live active lives and still want to nourish themselves through Macrobiotics? I am not buying that! This is a recurrent concern for many people. However the solution is deadly simple. This is a question of priority, or commitment. So what is this magical solution and how does one commit fully? The approach needs to be very methodical:
1. Do The Foundation Course. If you have already done it and you are not there yet, redo it. The Foundation Course will open and fertilise the soil on which everything else will grow.
2. Study Basic Alchemy with Michael Rossoff. This is pure Science (of the Heart). Basic Alchemy will provide you with an in-depth knowledge of your body and of nutrition.
3. Take on at least three Cooking Intensives with three different teachers. This will expose you to an extraordinary array of recipes and cooking techniques.
From there you can go back ‘to the market place’ in other words the kitchen, the ‘Athanor’. You will have grounded your commitment in such way that you won’t be able to turn back.
(Editor’s note: in alchemy, an athanor is a self-feeding furnace used to provide heat for alchemical processes.)
Remember: in the kitchen, you do not cook – you transform and create; you create life, your life and the life of those you love. There is a secret though: KEEP IT SIMPLE and follow these few instructions.
– Take a stand: no cheap takeaways, processed foods, MacDonalds, frozen pizza leave these for teenagers – but use high quality foods. Alive foods. Always.
– Keep basic ingredients on your shelves like: 2 Oils, 2 Vinegars, Soya sauce, Kombu, Wakame, Toasted Sesame Seeds, Nori, whole grains and fast cooking grains, pickles, noodles, Mochi, onions, garlic, things like that.
– Buy fresh foods as you need them, mainly organic, foods easy to prepare but whole.
– Invest in high quality cookware to gain in efficiency and improve quality. A good pot can contain your life.
– Never spend more than one hour in the kitchen.
– Develop a spirit of gratitude.
– Cook!
Consider the time one may spend during the course of a day complaining, gossiping, grooming, procrastinating, speaking rubbish, reading the Sun or the Daily Mirror… what is one hour of cooking then? Just a moment. And that moment is your life in the making.
As a top chef in your field, I’m sure you’ve been asked many times if you’ve written any recipe books? What are your views on such books & do you think you ever will write one? I own lots of cookbooks. I do not buy so many now. I think that recipe books are things of the past. Most cookbooks today are constructed around the personality of the author or based on sensory judgement. They are sold for their design or the pictures. Very few have to do with education or practicality.
In 2010 we have access to remarkable cooking eBooks, excellent applications for smart phones, lots of YouTube cooking series. Type ‘carrots’ into your Mac or PC, click – up pops on your screen dozens of recipes in praise of the carrot. Most of them are useless but one can source some extraordinary materials this way and create your own recipes file. You can then shop directly for your ingredients from the internet and get them delivered to your door, if you want. Great! You do not need a greasy book anymore, full of sauce standing between the flour and some cabbages!
Where do you find inspiration in your life outside of your work? I do not separate my life from my work, as some of you may have noticed!
One of the principles of Macrobiotics is that ‘Everything Changes.’ Change is a major source of inspiration for me. Back in the sixties (the decade of a major leap in consciousness for humanity) there was in France a beautiful love song on almost everyone’s lips.
A lifetime comes and goes
And as my friend the rose
said only yesterday
“The good lord smiled on me,
so why then should it be
I feel I’m falling now,
oh yes, I’m falling now.
My heart no-one can save,
My head begins to bow,
my feet are in the grave.
The rose God smiled on me.
Tomorrow will be gone,
forever gone away.”
That’s about impermanence. DEATH – and Beauty. Nothing lasts.
There is another expression of change, which fascinates and inspires me: this is the transformation of people taking on Concord programmes. That’s about creating LIFE.
Death, Life and Love are the three fountains of my inspiration.
Jean Torné
Article Links
To learn more about Michio Kushi & Bill Tara and their relationship with Macrobiotics and The Community Health Foundation visit the Concord website.
Jean Torne
Chef Jean Torné specialises in both classical French and international wholefood cuisine, and since 1997 has served as principal cooking teacher at Concord Institute for Integral Studies, and Director of Catering for all Concord’s major events. Prior to this, Jean was Head Chef at Kientalerhoff (the international holistic health teaching centre in Switzerland) for ten years, during which time he co-founded and ran the Kientalerhoff Catering Training School, training students from all over Europe.
Bill Tara
Bill Tara is an active advocate for natural health care. He has been a health counsellor, teacher, author, entrepreneur and creator of health education centres in Europe and North America. In 1975 he founded the Community Health Foundation in London, England, a Charitable Trust that was the largest natural health education center in the world. He is co-founder of the Kushi Institute and served as Director of the Institute’s programmes in London, England and Boston, USA)
Tensegrity
Tensegrity is the modernized version of some movements called magical passes developed by Indian shamans who lived in Mexico in Times prior to the Spanish Conquest. A Mexican Indian shaman Don Juan Matus introduced Carlos Castaneda, Carol Tiggs, Florinda Donner-Grau and Taisha Abelar to the cognitive world of shamans who lived in Mexico in ancient times. Don Juan explained to his students that those shamans discovered through practices that he could not fathom, that it is possible for human beings to perceive energy directly as it flows in the universe. For more information, visit the cleargreen website.
Concord Institute
The Concord Institute is dedicated to developing and promoting an integral model for health that takes into account nutrition, bodywork practices, communication and self-expression. By emphasizing a body-mind approach to living the institute aims to empower people to move beyond personal limitations in terms of health and vitality, creativity and joy in living.
Basic Alchemy
Basic Alchemy is a programme led by Macrobiotic Teacher, Counsellor and Healer Michael Rossoff. It provides a gateway for personal change through an understanding of the essentials of Oriental medicine and macrobiotic principles.
Foundation Course
The Foundation Course is an integral part of the educational curriculum offered by the Concord Institute. It is by far the most comprehensive programme that the Institute offers in terms of variety and depth of training. The aim of The Foundation Course is to secure the breakthrough achieved in i Evolve by establishing an integrated body-mind foundation. Such a foundation enables participants to better manage their health and well-being, and continue to explore the endless possibilities that life or evolution has to offer.
A hearty lunch prepared with Jean Torne during Day One of Basic Alchemy, the weekend workshop run by Michael Rossoff at the Concord Institute.
A Spring Vegetable Consomme, Millet cooked with Onions, served with a light Mushroom & Onion Sauce, Blanched Carrots and Asparagus Spears, a side plate of Rocket with Tempeh chips with an emulsified Wholegrain Mustard and Balsamic Vinegar dressing.
Followed by a delicious fruit Tart, using Wholemeal Flour, Coconut and Safflower Oil. A Blind baked Pie base, filled with a Apricot and Strawberry puree, and topped with Summer Fruits.
I invite you to take part in a weekend workshop called Basic Alchemy, with Michael Rossoff, May 28, 29 & 30 at the Concord Institute. It’s a course which has provided vital reference points for me in my understanding of my own health and wellbeing. Michael provides an explanation of Oriental Medicine & Nutrition in accessible, simple, straightforward language, and provides a vivid contrast with Western Medicine which tends to view illness and disease as an external force which must be eradicated or overcome. Fear of illness is pervasive in the world, but Basic Alchemy is a step towards a more accepting and compassionate understanding of ourselves and our bodies. As time goes on, I am less adamant about knowing the right answers, but also less fearful in not knowing. Basic Alchemy played a huge part in this emerging sense of freedom.
