SUGAR HOUSE ?? The food is divine ?? it is the natural way to eat, described one frequent customer at the first raw food restaurant in Utah.

The Living Cuisine, also known by its customers as the raw food bar, opened last July for lunch and dinner. It provides fresh organic food seasoned with familiar herbs.

The exotic taste features foods from India to the Middle East to the Americas, explained owner Omar Abou-Ismail, 26, of Lebanon who moved to Utah in 1997 to attend the University of Utah.

A framed quote by Gandhi sits on the inviting counter where the food is prepared and many customers sit. It reads, "Men often become what they believe themselves to be. If I believe I cannot do something, it makes me incapable of doing it. But when I believe I can, then I acquire the ability to do it even if I didn't have it in the beginning."

The framed quote was a gift from one of the Living Cuisine's customers as a thank you for changing the way this customer was eating. The customer, like Abou-Ismail and his employees, believes eating only raw-organic food makes them healthier and can heal diseases, he said.

Two years ago Abou-Ismail started eating only raw-organic food and noticed his health improving. At the time he was working in Hawaii as a geophysicist. He began to read nutritional books.

After trying the raw food diet, Abou-Ismail said he was very impressed with how much healthier he felt and continued eating only raw food..

"Eating raw food doesn't mean that everything you eat is raw (uncooked)," Abou-Ismail said, adding a lot of the food is dehydrated at a temperature of 105 degrees F.

Still eating raw, when Abou-Ismail's job ended in Hawaii, he moved back to Utah to be with his family and look for another job in geophysics. However, Abou-Ismail's life changed when his father, at the age of 63, was diagnosed with bladder cancer.

Abou-Ismail began taking care of his father full time while his mother worked, but in December 2004 his father passed away.

"In 2005, I thought, you know it is a new year and I wanted to start my life right because when my father passed away it just really affected me," Abou-Ismail said, noting he didn't want to work as a geophysicist anymore. "I had to find out a way to make a living, but at the same time help people that needed help."

Abou-Ismail decided to use his knowledge of food to help others, he said.

"I feel like I know a lot of truth about food. I have seen a lot of testimonies of healing happening from eating right," Abou-Ismail said, noting the first thing he decided to do to help people was teach awareness classes at Wild Oats educating them about why they should eat raw food and how to prepare the food.

To further help people, he decided to open a raw food restaurant and use his talent of creating healthy-raw food recipes with only natural ingredients that people from all walks of life can enjoy.

"I am hoping to bring a new form of light ?? a healing light that allows people to see things in a simple way," Abou-Ismail said, adding his customers range from vegans to those who don't limit what kinds of food they eat.

Abou-Ismail said his food is unique because of the way he focuses on the nutritional factor of the menu.
"The people that work here are very loving, and we work to help people, to educate people, to make people aware," Abou-Ismail said. "We are here to do nothing but show complete acceptance with no judgment and complete love no matter who they are."
Corbin White, 29, is one of Abou-Ismail's regular customers. He first came to the Living Cuisine in August.

"The second I saw it, I just pulled in here and I knew it was for me because at the time I was vegan so I was thinking a little bit more about the way I ate," White said.

Abou-Ismail "asked me the first time I was here if I was raw, and I said, 'I am now,' " White said, noting he loves the taste of the food. "His food is absolutely world class. I just decided right then and there that there was no sense in ever destroying my food with heat again."

Since White began to eat only raw food his health has improved, he added.

"My health has been improving steadily," White said. "I am a lot stronger than I use to be. I feel my body more so it makes me want to exercise, and I have been rock climbing and snowboarding like crazy."
The Living Cuisine's menu includes familiar items such as pizza, pasta, kiwi pie and sushi.

Prices range from $5 to $16. The restaurant is at 2144 S. Highland Drive, suite 100, inside the Herbs for Health store.