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Vera Richter (1884-1960) was a raw vegan cookbook author and restaurateur in Los Angeles, California. She has been called the mother of raw vegan dining.
Early life edit
Richter was born in Pennsylvania in 1884. In 1917 she and her husband moved to Los Angeles.[1]
Career edit
Restaurants edit
Along with her husband Richter opened the first raw food restaurant in the United States[2] and possibly in the world at 640 S. Olive St. in Los Angeles in 1917.[1][3] The restaurant was known as The Raw Food Dining Room.[1] By the 1920s they had moved to 833 Olive Street and opened a second restaurant at 209 S. Hill Street, operating both locations under the name Eutropheon, which they said was Greek for "uncooked" or "good nourishment."[1] By the late 1920s there were multiple others in the chain, and one of the restaurants could seat 350.[1]
The restaurants attracted a following in LA, and Richter's husband gave free weekly lectures on nutrition and health. Los Angeles Times health columnist Phillip Lovell ate lunch there daily, and Richter occasionally contributed to his column with fiery opinion pieces comparing meat-eating to cannibalism and advocating raw vegan food as a healthy-weight-maintenance diet.[1][3] The restaurant attracted members of the lebensreform and naturemensch movements and became the center of the proto-hippie movement in LA.[4][5] eden ahbez got a job playing piano in the restaurant when he first moved to LA.[4][5]
In 1927 LA Times columnist Lee Shippey reviewed the restaurant, saying,"These restaurants also, of course, serve a great many nuts. But most of the diners we saw looked like extra-intelligent people."[1] In 1932 the LA Times reported the restaurants' popularity had spurred creation of a raw foods club, "The Trophers," named after the restaurants.[6]
Cookbook edit
In 1925 she published a raw vegan cookbook, Mrs. Richter's Cook-Less Book, with Scientific Food Chart, likely one of the first such books published,[7][6] which Lovell reviewed in the LA Times.[1] In addition to advocating raw veganism, Richter asserted that combining fruits and vegetables in one meal was likely to produce fermentation and that ideally a meal would only contain one class of food. She said drinking water was not necessary as long as sufficient fruit was included in the diet. [8] The book is still in print under the title Vintage Vegan.[9]
The book included recipes for Cabbage-Cocoanut Salad, Avocado Soup, and Carob Fruit Cake.[3] The introduction recommended raw foods because, she wrote, they wouldn't "readily decay and ferment in the alimentary canals and so produce toxic elements."[3]
Feminism edit
Richter considered herself a feminist and believed a raw vegan diet would allow women to claim their rightful place in the world by preventing them from becoming "chained to the stove participating in the black art of cooking." She argued against hoopskirts, corsets, bustles, and high heeled shoes, comparing them to shackles.[1] She also advocated nude sunbathing.[1]
Impact edit
In 2017 LA Weekly called her the mother of raw vegan dining.[1]
Personal life edit
Richter was married to John T. Richter, a naturopathic physician.[1] She was widowed in 1949 and died in 1960.[1]
References edit
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Meares, Hadley. "L.A. Has Been Eating Raw Vegan Food Since 1918, Thanks to This Communist, Feminist Angeleno". Retrieved 19 February 2019.
- ^ Andrew F. Smith (May 2007). The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink. Oxford University Press, USA. ISBN 978-0-19-530796-2.
- ^ a b c d Jonathan Kauffman (23 January 2018). Hippie Food: How Back-to-the-Landers, Longhairs, and Revolutionaries Changed the Way We Eat. William Morrow. ISBN 978-0-06-243732-7.
- ^ a b Lawler, Mike. ""Nature Boy" Lived in Big Tujunga Canyon". Crescent Valley Weekly. Retrieved 22 February 2019.
- ^ a b Barragan, Bianca. "How Cultists, Quacks, and Naturemenschen Made Los Angeles Obsessed With Healthy Living". LA Curbed. Retrieved 22 February 2019.
- ^ a b Akasha Richmond (19 January 2006). Hollywood Dish: More Than 150 Delicious, Healthy Recipes from Hollywood's Chef to the Stars. Penguin. pp. 300–. ISBN 978-1-4406-2814-6.
- ^ Kauffman, Jonathan. "How carob traumatized a generation". New Yorker. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
- ^ Mark Thompson (8 December 2014). Vintage Vegetarian Cuisine: Early Advocates of a Vegetable Diet and Some of Their Recipes, 1699-1935. BookBaby. pp. 171–. ISBN 978-0-9795510-6-2.
- ^ "VINTAGE VEGAN". Easons. Retrieved 19 February 2019.