The Heavenly Foods Soul Vegetarian Restaurant is probably the first fully vegan eatery in Guyana. Its concepts and daily menus are grounded in the objectives and mission of the Hebrew Family of Guyana, which Hodayah Stewart explained is not based on religion, rather on demonstrating that eating more natural foods is one key to longer life.
Fruits, vegetables, ground provisions and whole grain brown rice are the staples. They are usually served with vegan cheeses, tofu, butter, macaroni and condiments made exclusively by the ‘family’ at their North Ruimveldt headquarters.
Much of the produce comes either from their own farm at Rockstone in Region 10, or is purchased from other farmers at Linden and Berbice who grow their produce without applying urea or other types of chemical fertilizer. “Foods, even coconuts, grown without fertilizers take longer to mature, but when we gather them, we’re sure that the products are largely uncontaminated,” Stewart told Stabroek Business. “What we can’t grow in Guyana we import directly from Whole Grain Foods of America,” he added, “because they are compelled by strict American food production and food handling laws to distribute unadulterated foods”.
Stewart believes that the Golden Brook coconut oil is one of the best food products made in Guyana. The cooks at Heavenly Foods make liberal use of it in food preparation, for cooking and in their manufacturing processes. They are trained and then re-trained at intervals.
Since the concept of opening a vegetarian restaurant was first floated some six years ago, several cooks and kitchen aides have had continuous training from professional Israeli and American dieticians and nutritionists who are associated with the global Hebrew Family.
“We make vegan ice cream and organic tofu from scratch,” Stewart stated, explaining that Tofu is becoming the vegetarian staple. It is derived from curdled soya bean milk. In much the same way that traditional dairy cheese is made, the curdled soya milk is solidified and pressed into a bond that can be cooked in different ways to change its texture from smooth and soft to crisp and crunchy. Tofu is known to contain all eight essential amino acids and is an excellent source of iron, calcium, manganese and vitamin B1. Heavenly Foods classifies their tofu as organic because they buy the raw material, soya beans, from growers who do not use chemical fertilizers.
The doors of Heavenly Foods opened in September 2014. Over the year, the budding Guyanese nutritionists have taken the bulk of knowledge they acquired in the past six years and converted it into imaginative dishes made with Guyanese products and based on our cultures and ways of life.
Menus change daily and may include Eggplant Parmesan, carrot rice, stir-fried vegetables, soft and bar-b-cued tofu, vegan lasagna and vegetable ‘meat’ loaf. Sometimes vegan ice cream is served along with natural juices made from pureed mangoes, guava, carambola, cherries, lemons and other fruits grown in their farm.
In business parlance, this is authentic backward integration to control the source of raw materials. Heavenly Foods engages in both secondary and tertiary level-added value production, not just in food preparation and distribution, but for manufacturing pineapple jam and jelly. This particular cottage industry began many years ago when one of the founders, Vashti Warner, was trained in fruit preservation. She began experimenting with products from the farm and perfected the art. She has been passing on her knowledge to young women who now manufacture the natural preservatives and utilize the seasonal bumper pineapple crops from their farms.
Heavenly Foods is part of a global network where skills, knowledge and research are exchanged and adapted. In fact, the Guyanese restaurant had the privilege earlier this year of being selected to provide all of the meals for reggae superstar, Taurus Riley, when he visited Guyana to perform at the Guyana Defence Force’s anniversary show. They were recommended by their Jamaican counterpart.
Heavenly Foods is not just about food. Stewart, a member of the Board of the Hebrew Family, said that they provide counselling services often free of charge to people suffering from preventable lifestyle diseases and conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, obesity and high cholesterol levels. Stabroek Business learnt during a recent visit to the restaurant that the best coconut water with a higher content of electrolytes comes from brown coconuts that have no jelly. In the space of two hours, several people from all walks of life had walked into the establishment seeking advice on appropriate meals for a diabetic, and for a patient recovering from a particularly bad motor accident.
Stewart said that in they interact with people from every religion and culture through their radio programmes or in impromptu interface sessions. The key objective is to promote acceptance of cultural diversity and the most basic commonality, that all bodies require healthy food, exercise and spiritual sustenance. “We support anybody who need help whether they are Hindu, Muslim, Christian or unaffiliated. We have no target groups,” he declared. “There are no fundamental differences among people. We all need good health in body, mind and spirit.”
The Genesis Fitness Gym and Tap-in exercise classes add to the range of health-related services the family provides. It also includes distribution of free meals for the elderly and disabled, and counselling for the young and not-so-young often to help people to appreciate the harmful effects of abusing sugar and salt, alcohol and generic fried foods.
Their plans and projections for the immediate future include the bottling and packaging of King’s Natural Wines made from local fruit, and packaging of tofu and mixed Tea Barks for local supermarkets and overseas distributors. Stewart said that they are currently in the process of securing the necessary barcoding and nutritional facts to be included on all labels. Their marketers are sourcing appropriate eco-friendly packaging and they expect to begin distribution to Guyanese supermarkets later this year.
Members of the 37-year-old Hebrew Family of Guyana live by the teachings of the Old Testament of the Holy Bible which means that they keep the Sabbath on Saturdays. The Heavenly Foods restaurant, the fitness gyms and the counselling services are open to the public from Mondays to Fridays.
