JOHN SHEGERIAN: Welcome to Green is Good. Mike, it’s so great to be here in studio with you today. MIKE BRADY: Really looking forward to the next hour, John, because we’ve got a couple of outstanding guests. JOHN SHEGERIAN: On the first half, we’ve got the founder of Eco Green Cuisine, the celebrity chef Bryan Au is on, and he’s going to talk about cooking vegan food for the stars, so come on back to Green is Good. JOHN SHEGERIAN: Welcome back to Green is Good, and we’re so excited today to have celebrity eco-chef Bryan Au on the phone with us to talk about vegan food. Welcome to Green is Good, Bryan. BRYAN AU: John, thank you so much. I’m so excited to be here. Green is the best. JOHN SHEGERIAN: Hey, Bryan, how did you end up the celebrity eco-chef of choice in Los Angeles? Talk a little bit about your journey. How did you come to get to this point? BRYAN AU: OK, well, when I first self-published my bestselling recipe book, Raw in Ten Minutes, in 2005, I opened a restaurant, and everyone loved the recipes. I was being invited to MTV, the Tyra Banks TV show, all sorts of things in Hollywood. I was actually in Hollywood in Los Angeles more than at my own restaurant, so I ended up selling the restaurant and moving to L.A., which is my hometown, and a lot of celebrities contacted me. They love my food, but I make it for everybody, so you don’t have to be a superstar celebrity to get my recipes or my food. People like Alicia Silverstone, Daryl Hannah, Lisa Bonet, Tobey Maguire wanted me to be his personal chef at one point, and I met with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. It’s actually all of the Hollywood celebrities’ health and beauty secrets, and now they’re only comfortable enough to review and share it with people that this is their secret. Demi Moore did it for Charlie’s Angels 2, and supermodel Carol Alt wrote two bestselling books about how raw helped her career, saved her life, and her health. JOHN SHEGERIAN: So, it’s fascinating. All the people you just mentioned are not just beautiful and talented people, but they exude beauty and energy, and they’re all thing, so you’re saying here one of the key ingredients is eating vegan, which is, like you said, a secret of the past, but now no longer a secret anymore. BRYAN AU: That’s right. We were talking about how Bill Clinton does it, Mike Tyson, Ellen, Oprah, just about every does it. The thing is you don’t have to be completely vegan, and I really want to point this out, because as soon as you say “vegan,” it turns a lot of people off. This is the game changer, where I’m saying you don’t have to be completely vegan to get the benefits. You can eat what you want, but just eat more raw, organic cuisine, and my recipes just added to your diet, and you’ll still get the health benefits. What will happen is you will want to go further with it, and you’ll be so attracted to the energy. You’ll feel so amazing and great, and it’s so delicious, that you’re going to go, “Oh my gosh, I want more of this.” So I want people to try it. It really takes people trying it and sampling it. Once you try one bite, you’ll love it forever, but it is the health secret of the stars, and now we’re revealing it for everyone’s benefit. JOHN SHEGERIAN: That’s wonderful. I’m so glad you brought that up on the front part of the show because our stars have become our tastemakers in society. There’s so much that they are followed on, and this is just another great thing. This is using their celebrity for the good by sharing one of these kind of great secrets because health is ultimately what we all need. There’s nothing else to talk about if we’re not in good health. BRYAN AU: That’s right, John. This is the perfect time too, because it’s the new year, so people are ready for the new you, and this is really going to be the major national food trend for 2011 and the next major media diet is my raw organic recipe book and recipes. All the schools actually just adopted my book and recipes. Everything we’ve tried in the past has created health problems and the health epidemic that we face today, which is national obesity, cancer, and diabetes. Everything we’ve tried created that, so we have to try something new. I coined the term “eco green cuisine” because all my recipes are literally raw and organic, so there’s no cooking, there’s no pollution. It’s the healthy, fun, delicious solution. JOHN SHEGERIAN: If you just joined us right now, we are so lucky to be on the phone with Bryan Au. He has written a book, and he has an amazing website, www.rawintenminutes.com. Please go there. He’s got recipes. You can buy his book. Bryan, tell us a little bit about what is really raw, organic cuisine. For a lot of our listeners out there who are trying to become more healthy, trying to be more green, and trying to become part of the solution, why should people go raw organic? Explain to them. Walk them through this whole process here. BRYAN AU: OK. It actually gets really deep, but I’m going to try to explain it in a few minutes. Basically what we found out is whenever you cook food, bake food, or fry food, it’s exposed to high temperature. Basically plastic is oil that has been heated, so as you’re cooking, baking, and deep frying foods, you’re actually creating plastic in your food, and it’s called acrylamide. There’s no way to solve this. There’s only two types of foods that do not have any acrylamide. The FDA found out that acrylamide is a cancer causer, and it’s a serious health problem. It’s present in potato chips, French fries, pretty much anything that’s baked, cooked, or deep-fried. But only raw foods, boiled foods, or steamed foods do not have the acrylamide problem. Not only that, but whenever you cook your food, you’re making the oil kind of toxic. The food actually becomes toxic. Even though it tastes and looks good and you can’t tell that it’s toxic, it actually really is toxic in that the pH becomes acidic, you’ve cooked all the nutrients out of it, so you destroy all the nutrients, vitamins, minerals, and enzymes, and all that’s left is a lot of sugar, carbs, and all the unhealthy things. That’s why we have the national epidemic that we have today, and no one can solve it, because we’ve just been doing the same thing and the same mistake over and over and over again. Now, thanks to my new recipes, I invented 200 recipes. This is the actual solution, and like I said, you don’t have to completely change your lifestyle or diet. You just have to enjoy more amazing raw, organic vegan desserts and entrees. What it is is there is no cooking, so I invented recipes and techniques that actually look and taste like your favorite fast food, junk foods, comfort foods, international menu, but it’s completely raw and organic, so if you can’t cook or you don’t have time to cook, this is perfect for you because there’s no cooking involved. It’s all chopping, hand mixing, and some blending, and so it’s so easy. Even kids can make it. It’s really amazing and incredible. MIKE BRADY: Well, you know, it’s amazing because Bryan, right now I am on your website, which is rawin10minutes.com, and just looking at the pictures is making me really, really hungry. You talk about how easy it is. Doing a little deeper dive in here, the pictures are amazing, they’re mouthwatering, and to think that it’s really good for you. BRYAN AU: Yes, Mike. Thank you so much. So what I did was I modeled all my recipes to look and taste like people’s favorite junk foods and fast foods because let’s face it, that’s what people enjoy. That’s why it’s number one, like pizzas and chocolate cake, it’s the number one favorite food. So I created the most healthy version possible using the most healthy ingredients that happen to be raw and organic. The thing is that all of our recipes are two minutes, five minutes, or 10 minutes to make, and they’re super fun and easy. There’s nothing else like this because I’ve invented them, so people are really going to love this. I’m so glad that I’m on your radio show, so that people can become aware and discover a whole new gourmet amazing world that will open up for them that will make them happy, healthy. It’s so different and innovative. People are going to absolutely love it. JOHN SHEGERIAN: Your energy is infectious, Bryan. That is for sure. Really what you’re saying here with the pepperoni pizza that you’ve created vegan-style and raw-style, and the burgers, it’s really healthy comfort food. BRYAN AU: It is. I actually was finally able to combine the best in junk food, comfort food, and health food, and no one else has been able to do this. People have tried it, but for the first time in the world, it’s finally happened. It’s only a few minutes, and I’m so glad that John and Mike, that you recognize how incredible this is. As soon as people eat it, right after the first bite, you feel the amazing energy. It works instantly also. JOHN SHEGERIAN: I’ve seen on your website your motto is “Save everything.” I love that motto. Can you share with our listeners how does eating this way interrelate with saving the environment and saving the world? It’s fascinating, your take on it, and I think it’s so important that you share that with our listeners. BRYAN AU: OK. Well, I do want to add really quickly that in high school, I ate the cafeteria food and the junk food, and I felt so awkward and really weird and awful all the time. I was depressed, and I didn’t know why. It was really the food that I was eating, so you really are what you eat. When you make raw organic food, you don’t have to cook anything, so you’re not using any fossil fuels. I coined the term “eco green cuisine” because it’s organic, it’s seasonal, it’s local. There’s no cooking involved, and so it literally is the most eco green food you can make. You’re not creating any pollution. You’re part of the healthy solution, and it works instantly. You will feel so amazing, you’ll go, “Oh my gosh, I didn’t know I could feel this good or be this happy,” and it works even after the first bite. Just one raw organic dessert or entrée, and you’ll totally understand. Now we could talk about it all day long, but until you eat it and try it, that’s when you’ll know, just like the millions of other people that love it, how amazing and truly delicious it really is. That’s the number one reason I want you to try it, is the taste. Everyone wants to try something new. It has bold flavors, textures, and you’re not destroying or cooking it, so you’re really getting the true flavor for the first time of these natural foods. JOHN SHEGERIAN: And, then that leads into it’s also actually good for the environment and good for our planet, correct? BRYAN AU: It is. None of this is processed or packaged. You’re buying basically organic fresh fruits and vegetables, so there’s no pollution, there’s no packaging, there’s no waste. It really is the best for the environment too, and it’s seasonal and local. JOHN SHEGERIAN: I know you’ve studied basically the whole organic approach to this. Culturally as a DNA issue, you understand from beginning to end, and you’ve studied Dr. Gabriel Cousens’s work and others. Can you explain your thoughts about the environment and how it interrelates with what eat and how we live? BRYAN AU: Yes, sure, John. What happens is for millions of years, we actually ate this way. We basically ate what we could find off of a tree, a plant, or a bush, and so it’s actually ingrained into our DNA. I’ve talked to people about this. Because we’ve eaten this way for millions of years, it’s actually become the most optimal way for us to eat. We were designed to eat this way. Even though we’re omnivores and we can eat meat, we were actually designed to be herbivores, meaning we were designed to eat plant-based foods. Just in comparison, animals that eat meat, they’re on all fours; we’re on two feet. They don’t have hands; they have claws. Their face protrudes, and their intestines are only a few feet long, so it digests the meat before it can give them a heart attack or high cholesterol. But as humans, we have hands to grab fruits, and we’re on two feet. We have really long intestines because they were designed to digest plants and fruits and vegetables. They weren’t designed to eat meat, and that’s why we have high cholesterol, obesity, heart attacks, because we just weren’t designed to eat meat. Even though we do and can eat meat, we just weren’t designed to. It’s really important to note that. Now, I’m not telling people to stop eating meat, although if you can eat less meat, that’s very eco and green. Most people aren’t going to do that, so I’m just promoting that they eat more fresh, raw organic fruits and vegetables. The raw food movement is just a fun, easy, fast way to do that. That’s all that we’re saying. It’s all about what you’re eating, but what you’re not eating. If you’re eating fresh, natural foods, you’re not eating the bad, harmful junk foods, and so it makes you healthier, it’s good for you and the planet, and it’s a lot of fun. I hope that people will really want to try it. JOHN SHEGERIAN: Bryan, one of the things that has happened in Hollywood and throughout our society is over the last 10 years, it’s become socially acceptable to talk about addictions, and that A) addictions are part of our life and our culture and our families and our structure, but also getting well. There’s hope out there for people to get well from addictions, whether it’s the celebrities that we read about or most everyone who listens to this show has a family member or a loved one that’s been afflicted, whether it has to with alcohol, cigarettes, food, or other addictions that people can succumb to. I know you’ve written about addictions to toxins, but also how to get well from addictions. Can you speak a little bit about how people can find hope in wellness of getting well from addictions through what they eat? BRYAN AU: Yes, I would love to. That’s such an important subject, John. What we found out through Gabriel Cousens’s research and other doctors and scientists is our mind and brain is actually wired to be addictive in nature, and that’s why people that are addicted to cigarettes and alcohol, even on their deathbed when they’re dying, they just can’t stop smoking or drinking. That’s because we’re addictive in nature. Using that in a positive light, you can actually train yourself to be addicted to healthy, positive habits and lifestyle, so it works both ways. It can be extreme negative or extreme positive, so basically, whatever we do every day or whatever we choose, it becomes a habit. So, why not choose something that’s actually healthy and good for you and your family, your health, your environment, your loved ones? That’s why I want to encourage people to try to eat more raw, fresh, organic fruits and vegetables. Doctors are always telling us to do that. With my recipes, it’s all fresh fruits and vegetables, so you don’t have to worry, because that’s exactly what you’re getting. The more that you eat that, the more you enjoy it, and the healthier you get and the better you feel. That, too, will actually become an “addiction,” and so it becomes a healthy habit. The thing is to be aware, and that’s what I love about your show, is that you’re creating awareness and access and education for people. A lot of people don’t get this information anywhere, so as soon as you’re aware of this, you can go, ”Wow, I want to feel better. I want to anti-age. I want good health. I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired, so I’m going to try this, see if it works, and if it goes, I’m going to go with it and go further.” I guarantee it’s so delicious and fun, and it will work. You will be happy and healthy, and it will become a habit forever. That’s how it works. You can always flip everything to be positive, and I’ve learned that you can turn everything into a positive. MIKE BRADY: Bryan, thank you for those kind words too, and also for sharing that glimmer of hope. One of your clients, I will quote her. Oprah has often said, “When we know better, we make better choices.” That’s exactly what you’re talking about in this instance. BRYAN AU: Thank you, Mike. Yeah. Sometimes I’ve found out that unfortunately, for some people, they have to get sick before they change their ways, and then they wish they didn’t eat all those hamburgers, or they wish they didn’t eat all the bad foods. I really want to prevent that. Prevention is way better than having to get sick and then trying to reverse it, because once you get sick, it’s really difficult. You feel bad, it costs a lot, all your time and energy goes into that. If you can prevent that with raw organic vegan cuisine, if you just add a little bit of it to your diet, preventing it is really the best way. I’m hoping that this awareness will create more awareness, and people will try it so they don’t have to get sick. A lot of people get sick, and then they’re able to reverse it or cure it through raw organic vegan cuisine, and then they wish they had just done that in the first place. MIKE BRADY: OK, I’m glad you addressed that because I know there’s a lot of people besides me that are thinking back to maybe a misspent youth and trying to get the most for the least amount of money. College diets are notoriously heinous when it comes to burgers and all that, so we can start to reverse. It’s not too late to start to reverse. BRYAN AU: Yes. I never try to change people or tell them what to do because when you do that, they don’t really listen. So, I’m just saying to just sample this and add more to it. I’m not saying stop eating this or that, because people won’t really do that anyway. But if they enjoy something else, they’ll eat more of that, and they’ll just naturally drop off the burgers and the bad food. When you feel good and look good, you’re going to want to do more of that, and you’ll finally recognize for the first time that, “Oh my gosh, all the other stuff I thought was food really wasn’t that good for me. It made me feel bad, even though it was cheap. It made me feel cheap.” You really are what you eat, so if you’re eating junk food, you are junk. But if you’re eating beautiful, gorgeous, healthy food, you’re feeling good and looking good. I really want people to feel and taste the difference, and they’ll just naturally know what to do. The only thing is right now, a lot of people, they don’t get that information, so they’re just on this path of unhealthy eating. It’s called the SAD diet, which is the Standard American Diet, which is the burgers, the coffee, the junk food. If you’re just on that level and you don’t know the difference, then you’re kind of trapped in this really terrible, unhealthy path. As soon as you add some more fresh, organic fruits and vegetables, you’ll feel amazing and you’ll go on this incredible journey that’s waiting for you to be discovered. It’s really quite amazing. JOHN SHEGERIAN: Hey, if you just joined us, we’re on the line right now with Bryan Au. He is the founder of Eco Green Cuisine and a celebrity eco-chef with regards to vegan food, and he has an amazing website, www.rawintenminutes.com. If you’ve got your laptop or your iPad open, go to it. You can buy his book. You can read his recipes right online and read more about what he’s speaking about today. It is really well done, Bryan. So talk a little bit about there’s a lot of moms that are listening to this show who say, “This sounds good for me, but I don’t know if little Sally or little Billy is going to eat the food.” What’s your experience when you get families involved with your great delicious food? How are the kids accepting of this? BRYAN AU: Oh, thank you, John. Yeah, I used to be really nervous because I’m actually hired by schools and cities to come into the schools and teach the kids in the classroom. I found out that they absolutely love it. They come back for seconds and thirds. They want to make more. I have videos on YouTube where they’re dancing and they want to make more when their plates are empty. What I found out is that kids are so smart. They’re actually smarter than we think, and they’re smarter than adults. It’s the adults that are feeding them the bad processed and junk foods. They really want the healthy foods. They’re actually really attracted to my raw organic recipes and food. A true story is when I self-published my book in 2005, the adults were buying a special catered delivery service I had that was $100 a week. They got $100 worth of raw organic vegan cuisine and desserts delivered to their office or home, but what happened was their kids were eating all of it because it looked and tasted like their favorite junk foods, but it was even better and healthier and fresher. So the parents came back to me and they told me what happened. They were so happy that their kids actually love healthy foods without them trying to trick them into eating it, that they ordered two orders, one for themselves and one for the kids. What started to happen was they started to request my recipes, and I couldn’t give it to them because they were my secrets, but they were so demanding and aggressive that I actually was inspired and motivated to self-publish my book just for them. I chose the kids’ favorite recipes because they’re so honest. And so I chose the kids’ most requested favorite recipes, and I put them in the book, and that’s why I know that they’re the best because if the kids love it, then you love it too. JOHN SHEGERIAN: Bryan, one of the things I asked you off the air, and I want you to share this with listeners, is the future. Obviously, you are talking about today one of the most important future trends coming to the United States and beyond, and I believe 110% in my heart, after learning more about and reading all about what you’re doing with regards to look at Bill Clinton, a very smart man, and Oprah Winfrey, two of the great leaders in this country who really do influence people more than ever. I come to L.A. a lot, and we were talking about restaurants and stuff. Speak a little bit about your future plans and how you’re going to be bringing this to all of our listeners eventually across this great country. BRYAN AU: Thank you. Yeah, it really takes eating it because we had talked about how until you sample it and enjoy it, you won’t really know what we’re talking about. That’s why it’s really important to have access to this type of cuisine and foods, so I’m actually going to open a national franchise pretty soon, or a national chain, actually, of restaurants. You can go into your favorite area and try my recipes and cuisine, and I’m also working with other restaurants that want to promote and feature my recipes because it’s so important what’s going on right now. People are waking up to the fact that they want to be healthy, happy, and save the environment. Like my new motto says, you can save everything through my recipes. It’s really true. And so pretty soon you will be able to try my recipes and desserts everywhere, either through my chain restaurants or other people’s restaurants. JOHN SHEGERIAN: That is just great. Give our listeners a little taste, Bryan, of the simplicity, two or three of your greatest hits in terms of recipes, and how it really works so they can get inspired while listening to this in their car or at their office or wherever they may be right now, on an airplane, listening on iTunes, which of course we’re so lucky to be on the iTunes network after we broadcast on the Clear Channel radio network. Share a little bit about your two or three top greatest hit recipes, and how easy it really is to follow your recipes. BRYAN AU: Thank you. Yeah, the best part is it really is very simple. So, cupcakes and doughnuts are really popular right now, and I invented a raw organic version that takes literally two minutes to make. They’re basically grinded flax seeds, and I recommend flaxusa.com’s flax seeds because they grinded it with a cold mill process, and it locked in the nutrients for 22 months. If you grind yourself in the blender, it’s exposed to heat, so it starts to degrade real quick. It’s the same price. If you get flaxusa.com’s flax seeds, you mash that with bananas in a bowl, and you add some cinnamon, and that becomes your instant cupcake or doughnut batter, and then you can make a chocolate frosting with either carob powder or honey or you can use carob powder and there’s this new sweetener called coconut nectar. It’s made from coconut flour. There’s actually no sugar, low glycemic, living enzymes, neutral pH. I am going to make coconut nectar the next major natural sweetener because it’s so incredible and healthy. So you can mix carob powder with either honey and coconut nectar, and it becomes an instant chocolate frosting. You put that on top, and you have an instant two-minute chocolate cupcake or doughnut. It looks and tastes just like it, and it’s actually healthy because when you eat organic flax seeds, it gives you fiber, protein, it increases your vision and eyesight, and it also lowers your blood sugar and blood pressure. It’s an incredible healthy ingredient. Weightlifters are adding it to their smoothies to increase muscles because of the protein. Now you can enjoy it in a junk food, fast food type of way in a few minutes. So those are really popular recipes that I have, but all of our recipes are really simple and easy. JOHN SHEGERIAN: So, what’s the next step now? You’re working on the restaurants. You’re consulting to different restaurants and also to celebrities. Are you going to come out with a second book? How are you now going to make this a national trend? Are you going to end up on cable TV with your own show called Raw Stars or something like that? I think that’s where we’re going here, Bryan. BRYAN AU: I do have a national cable TV show series confirmed already. It was kind of a secret, but I’m going to let people know. What I’m doing is I’m going to go into a school and teach the kids and change and improve their lunch menu, and they’re going to film it, and that’s going to be my next TV show series. Everyone can watch so they can learn how to make my recipes, see how much the kids love it, see the improvement in the kids. They’ve been able to prove that if you just add a little bit more fresh organic fruits and vegetables in their lunch menu, they don’t ditch school, their grades improve, their performance improves, their behavior improves. It’s so incredible how much food really affects your mood and behavior. It makes us superheroes and superhuman, and that’s why I use the Raw Star logo. Because when you eat the food, you become the superhero and the raw star. You’re saving your health, you’re saving money, the environment, the world. But it’s such a fun, fast, easy way. People wonder, “Wow, why didn’t we know about this sooner?” The thing is it really takes being on the radio, like your wonderful radio show, it takes being on TV. You still have to really promote it to the world, and I’m doing all that I can. I have so much energy from eating this way that I channel it into creating awareness for people. I want people to be happy and healthy. Pretty soon you’ll see my book everywhere. You’ll see me on TV, radio, magazines, newspapers, the national chain of restaurants, my own TV show, and I’m doing whatever I can to make it fun for people to enjoy. JOHN SHEGERIAN: Bryan, your energy is not only massive, but it’s also positive. We’re so honored to have you on the show today, and the only promise I need you to keep with us is that you’ll come back on the show and do a follow-up and talk about your restaurants coming out, your new television show. But we are just thrilled today and we’re so thankful. For all our listeners out there again, this was Bryan Au, and his website is just amazing, www.rawintenminutes.com. He also has a book on that site that you can buy and you should buy, because he is the founder of Eco Green Cuisine, and he is the celebrity eco-chef. Bryan Au, you are living proof that green is good. BRYAN AU: John and Mike, thank you so much. I’m so happy to be here, and it’s so nice to team up with superheroes like yourself, creating awareness for people. They’re going to absolutely love this, and they’re going to thank us, and it’s going to be so much fun. It really is a major food trend for 2011, and it’s going to be a wonderful journey together. Thank you.