KARYN CALABRESE REVIVES KARYN’S COOKED WITH POP-UP

Karyn Calabrese, a well-known raw food advocate, has revived her Karyn’s Cooked, with a partnership with Jam, located at 2853 N. Kedzie. Photo courtesy of Karyn Calabrese
Karyn Calabrese, a well-known raw food advocate, has revived her Karyn’s Cooked, with a partnership with Jam, located at 2853 N. Kedzie. Photo courtesy of Karyn Calabrese

 Karyn Calabrese revives Karyn’s Cooked with pop-up

BY TIA CAROL JONES
     Calabrese is best known as being the first in Chicago to advocate for the raw food movement. She has been a vegan for more than 30 years and operates Raw Bistro at 1717 N. Ashland Ave., as well as a Karyn’s Inner Beauty Center Day Spa, at the same location.
     Calabrese said the partnership between herself and Anthony Fiore, owner of Jam, came about because of a conversation the two had. Fiore was not sure he would be able to open the restaurant with the city of Chicago COVID-19 guidelines of 25 percent capacity for restaurants. He suggested Calabrese sell some of her cooked vegan items out of the restaurant.
     Calabrese said she wanted to bring Karyn’s Cooked back because it was so popular and people loved it. “Everybody is not going to go 100 percent raw. Everybody is not going to go 100 percent plant-based. So, I’m figuring my conscious comfort foods people would eat there—and they wouldn’t know they were eating vegan all the time,” she said. “I had a proven track record, so why not?”
     Calabrese had the second raw food restaurant in the country when she first opened on Lincoln Avenue. She said she’s excited about seeing so many raw food and vegan restaurants coming up today, adding it’s become “a household word.” She said she wants her fellow humans to be and feel as healthy as she is, so “the more the merrier.”
     Calabrese is donating the leftovers from the restaurant to Meals on Wheels. She said giving the food serves as an extra benefit in helping people to eat better.
     Although Calabrese is raw, she had to taste all the dishes on the menu for Karyn’s Cooked. She said she likes all of the dishes, but she did point to the mac and cheese, chili and the green enchiladas.
     “I don’t put anything on the menu I hadn’t tasted. I had to develop and taste everything before I sold it and this is primarily my original menu before the world was doing vegan. So, it’s a lot of my old dishes that were very popular,” she said.
     Calabrese said humans are the only animals who voluntarily cook their food. So, when people eat raw, they eat the way God intended everyone to eat. So, they are in balance and in harmony.
“I’m 73-years old, people think I am in my 40s or 50s. I take a professional advanced ballet class with girls 18 and under. I’m clearly not aging at the rate my peers are,” she said. “You just don’t age at the rate because you’re getting living food. You have living cells that require living foods. Life begets life.”
   Karyn’s Cooked is available through DoorDash or Uber Eats.
For more information, visit karynraw.com.

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