EMMA DUNN dines at the only Swindon restaurant serving up a raw food menu, where what’s good for you is also good to eat

TUCKING into generous portions of nachos, wraps and tacos, I wasn’t feeling any of the guilt I would normally associate with such a spread.

Nor did I feel any sense of remorse as I tucked into not just one, but three, desserts after I finished my Mexican feast.

The Core, in Old Town, was hosting one of its special raw food nights, which sees the juice bar serving meals inspired by everyone’s favourite dishes, but with a difference.

Everything in them was raw, and the ingredients were much healthier too. For example, my first dessert, the chocolate pot, was made from avocado, banana, chilli, cinnamon, cacao powder and palm sugar, while my second dessert, orange and vanilla cake, was made with buckwheat, lucuma, coconut nectar, dates, orange, cashews, coconut oil, vanilla and blueberries.

Kris Talikowski, owner of The Core, said: “Raw food is uncooked – it hasn’t been heated over 42o so all the vitamins and minerals are maintained. With cooked food, you destroy most of the goodness.

“When you eat food, your body extracts nutrients. If you eat things that don’t have any nutrients or have the nutrients cooked out of them then it’s dead food.”

The Core is best known for its juice programmes, which have seen hundreds of people losing weight and getting healthier by swapping meals for nutritionally balanced juices for a number of days. It also recently started serving a selection of superfood bowls.

But at the end of September, the juice bar is set to start serving a whole menu of food. After a makeover of the furniture and fittings, it will operate as a juice bar and cafe in the day, and as a restaurant on Friday and Saturday evenings. This could include Thursday evenings too.

The vegetarian, vegan and raw food menu will include a selection of raw food dishes, which have proved popular at the restaurant’s raw food nights, but it will also serve a selection of warm food too.

There will be raw food versions of popular dishes, including lasagne, stir fry, curry and chow mein.

And after sampling the Mexican fare at a raw food night, I can vouch for the delicious dishes.

One of my favourites was the nachos, where instead of my usual cheese and meat-laden crisps with sour cream, I had raw nachos made using chai seed, olives, sundried tomatoes, walnuts, paprika and turmeric – they were sensational.

The dish was accompanied by mango salsa, tomato salsa and guacamole, made using fresh and natural ingredients – a far cry from the usual unhealthy toppings but even more tasty.

“You can make raw versions of all major food types,” said 31-year-old Kris.

“Eating out doesn’t have to be a bad health experience. You leave here buzzing and that’s great. It sits alongside juicing perfectly.

“A lot of people get into our juice programmes but you can’t live on juice forever. Raw food is the perfect thing.

“You don’t have to be 100 per cent raw, just try some raw food at The Core and learn about making it in one of our workshops or online – then you can have it for two or three meals a week and see how you feel healthwise.

“A lot of people who juice then go back to their normal eating programmes because they don’t know what to eat.

“My goal is to get Swindon healthy because it’s a challenge. Swindon isn’t your typical juice market. But as long as you teach people why it’s good for you people will come, and they will tell their friends too.”

The Core opened in March 2013, and Kris said serving nutritious food was a logical next step.

“The biggest bit of feedback we have had since being open is that they love the juice and the juice programmes but they wish we did more food. Now we have a real plan to roll out delicious food all the time. We’ll do food programmes as well as juice programmes,” he said.

The juice bar has a specially trained raw chef, Jay Halford, and they are also training up a new team of raw chefs. They have also been teaming up with Russell James, who is the Jamie Oliver of the raw food world.

As well as serving raw and healthy food, The Core will also be running fortnightly workshops to teach people how to make it at home.

It already runs juicing workshops, where people can learn how to make their own juices.

For more information email info@thecoreswindon.com, phone 01793 610300 or search for The Core Swindon on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.