Rating: 
Summary: I was inspired
Review: When I first looked through juliano's cookbook, I was attracted to the colorful photos of raw foods. I had been vegan for a few years and had doubts about the nutritional quality of what I was eating; with raw food recipes, I've had no doubt. To me, everything in this book, with the exception of the "cauliflour mashed potatoes" tastes great. A person who is accustomed to a "typical American" diet including butter, meat, pancakes and casseroles might not think so, at first. For me it was a good introduction to raw food cooking. I do think it's silly that Juliano names many of his dishes after cooked foods that bear little resemblance to the raw food result, and I did substitute and modify the recipes when I didn't have all of the ingredients or didn't like something; however, it serves as a great template for raw foods and has some nice photos of the food. It's perhaps not as good as some others, now that I've read more (ie The Raw Gourmet), but I would definitely include this in my raw food library.
Rating: 
Summary: Is this really healthy?
Review: If you're looking for a book filled with beautiful pictures of raw food recipes, you've found it.
If you are looking for healthy recipes, look elsewhere.
This food is NOT healthy!
Juliano uses huge quantities of fat and salt in almost all of his recipes. Call that genius? Anything with lots of salt in it tastes good. Remove the salt and most recipes are just a bunch of ingredients mashed together, or blended, or dehydrated. That's not cuisine and that's certainly not healthy cuisine. Here is an example: Meat Loaf (serves two) 409 grams fat
77% fat, 14% carbs, 10% protein
4748 calories
6000 mg. sodium Almost entire cup of oil per person!
15 tablespoons of oil per person! There are other recipe books out there for raw foods that may not be as pretty, but are a lot easier and healthier. But still, Juliano's book is nice to look at and entertaining.
Rating:
Summary: Recipes look good, but seem complicated
Review: If you are new to raw foods this isn't the book. I asked for this for Christmas, and received it but haven't used it yet. The recipes seem very time consuming and, if you don't have a good dehydrator, the kind that has a temperature gauge, then that is another investment you need for most of the recipes. I have the cheap Mr. Coffee dehydrator, that actually cooks the food at high tempteratures, therefore not making the food raw any more. If you have the funds to buy a nice dehydrator and the time to prepare the foods, then this would probably be a good book as the recipes look delicious!
Rating: 
Summary: Juliano over-exposed; Recipes under-explained.
Review: I'm new to raw foods "cooking", so I'll start with the first salad in Juliano's "Raw". Let's see, the ingredients include: anise hyssop, borage, bronze fennel, chickweed, meadow rue... What the heck is meadow rue? Let's check the glossary, "a delicious leaf"...Thanks Juliano. I'll also need mizuna, salad burnet, society garlic and summer purslane. I've heard of some of these items, but I've never seen them in Seattle natural markets, and Seattle's a very vegetarian cuisine savvy city. Unless you can grow these things yourself, good luck finding them. I must admit that despite the fact that I prepare food from scratch quite a bit, I found Juliano's recipes too complicated and under-explained to attempt a single one. Other raw foods "cookbooks" explain raw foods prep in considerably more detail, such as "Warming Up to Living Foods" by Elysa Markowitz, and "Sproutman's Kitchen Garden Cookbook" by Steve Meyerowitz. Juliano writes that the purpose of the book is to introduce or reacquaint the reader to raw foods, and to provide the tools to eat this way. Unfortunately, I'm not sure Julanio succeeds in these goals, although he certainly gave himself a nice modeling portfolio. Since most readers will be unfamiliar with raw foods, he needs to provide more guidance than most cookbooks in what are the ingredients, how to shop for them, the kitchen equipment needed, and how to prepare the foods. The guidance is too sparse and at times inadequate in these areas. A few of the many examples of inadequate instruction:
* Many recipes require a dehydrator, yet there's zero guidance on how to select one.
*Several recipes call for "coconut meat", such as the carrot cake which calls for 2 cups. Approximately how many coconuts will I need to buy or find on the beach to yield 2 cups? Will one do, or do I need to buy a second one? Juliano doesn't say.
* Rejuvelac is common fermented beverage among raw fooders. However, as the Sproutman points out in his raw foods book, "there can be good fermentation or bad fermentation." There should be guidance on how to tell if the liquid has fermented, and when exactly should you discard it and start over.
* Sprouting seeds is an important prerequisite to many of Juliano's recipes, yet he briefly outlines only one method of sprouting, and one of the less common/less effective methods. It would be nice if he discussed and provided photographs of several options. Afterall, there was room in the book to provide several full-page pictures of Juliano. (The book contains about 8 pictures, several of them full-page of Juliano doing something other than food preparation.) Which brings us to book's design. Some call it beautiful, and it's true it's full of beautiful colorful food photography. However, overall, I find it busy, wasteful and extravagant. The designers seemed to go wild displaying every design element they could. Every page is glossy and has multi-colored striped horizontal rules of varying thicknesses running through it, often bisecting an otherwise gorgeous plate of food. Some pages have writing at a 90 degree angle running up the page. I could go on with examples, but my point is, what could be a very visually appealing coffee table book is loud and annoying with a multitude of inconsistent design elements. Despite the busy design elements, it certainly was inspiring to look at glossy photos of delicious-looking raw foods. (And if you like that Romance novel cover look, you might find it inspiring to look at glossy photos of Juliano. :-) However, I'm sticking to less expensive raw foods books that do a better job of explaining how to prepare this healthy, but often complicated cuisine.
~Reviewed by Groovy Vegan for Amazon.com
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful and complicated
Review: The colorful photos and imagination of ingredient components that put together this wonderful work of food art called an uncook book is worth 4 stars. RAW is indeed worthy of coffee table status. Each recipe appears to be indescribably delicious and full of adventure to the chef looking for a challenge. One such recipe, Hummus a L'orange was gold. I've prepared raw sprouted hummus before and the taste was never very desireable, yet Juliano's version with the addition of cashews, miso, amongst other obscure ingredients and exotic spices has turned this ordinary dish into a festival for the tastebuds. The falafel patties were more of a dissapoinment to me. Since this recipe also required sprouted chickpeas, I made it alongside the hummus recipe. The high percentage of salt called for in this recipe was overkill, leaving the main ingredients without a note of possibility in taste. Suggestion: if you must use salt, add at the end and a little bit at a time. Juliano's intentions for the high amounts of sodium chloride (present in both sea and table salt) is understandably to impress upon the palate of a cooked food eater. Since many of the recipes within this book are multi-stepped, and some requiring other recipes within his book, they appear to be meant for company or pot luck type functions, rather than simple meals a raw eater could throw together to enjoy by his raw self. In other words, if you are a begninner in the kitchen, RAW will prove quite a challenge for you. Yet many recipes DO seem easy to put together, like the soups, salads, and some of the drinks, and as long as you have all the ingredients or good substitutions on hand, you are good to go. Good-quality blenders and knives are a necessity for most of these. There are many more complicated recipes that appear sublimely delicious which I do desire to try, and with some careful planning for several days of soaking and sprouting; and ensuring other recipes are prepared before-hand to be ready to add with the list of ingredients to the one I eventually DO prepare; and perhaps adding in the necessary dehydrating time involved - I am quite certain that I may win over the approval of many family and friends to the raw eating way of life. Timing may be everything so my suggestion to you is to whip out your calendars and make sure those soaking, sprouting, other recipe-making and dehydrating works with your own schedule. Whether the recipes are actually accomplished by the reader, or the photos and recipes are merely visually enjoyed, any raw fooder would undoubtedly glean good ideas and insight from the wonderful work of RAW.
Rating:
Summary: Are you REALLY into RAW? Than this is for you...
Review: I am SOOO glad I got this book from the library FIRST! I recommend that. I am a Michigan mom that is into healthy foods, where organic food is quite costly. I'm a health educator with nutrition as a major and I am always interested in new and exciting ways to be healthy, prepare vegetables, and healthy food. BUT....JUST in case you are not totally engrossed in RAW food yet, I recommend you borrow it. I read about this book, and its author from a Fitness magazine I read. It sounded GREAT! I thought it would be a great book to get recipes for my juicer and learn some other healthy recipes as well. Well, I sat down to read/look at the book, it has beautiful pictures and text, and some fun sounding recipe titles etc. But I soon realized that this was not going to work for me and my family. I have 2 kids ages, 5 and 3, and a husband that is healthy and fit, but would not touch most of this stuff with a 10 foot pole. I would be putting a LOT of time and preparation into stuff that only I would probably eat. This type of dieting is a bit over the top. And may be fun once in awhile. It would be a fun trip to his restaurant, to have SOME ONE ELSE make it. Juliano is as interesting looking as his food. But unless you are totally committed to this way of life, you may be totally flustered by the amount of time and energy it will take to sprout, dehydrate, chop and chop, and prepare more than half the stuff in this book. The list of ingredients is also daunting to say the least. Anyway, I suggest you get the book from the library first, and see if this is what you really want. It saved ME some money! If you are a single vegan, or have kids and a spouse that can handle all the vegan ingredients, and they don't mind you living in the kitchen preparing, and/or if organic produce is readily available and affordable to you, than this book is for you. I applaud the healthy ideas, colorful foods, and interesting recipes, but be sure you have the time, or care enough to spend your time on this.
Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful, delicious, inspirational!
Review: Impressed by the glorious health and natural beauty of people who eat raw foods, I started eating at Juliano's Raw restaurant in Santa Monica. The first time I went in, I sat in wide-eyed astonishment as each spoonful delighted my taste buds beyond what they've ever experienced-the food absolutely knocked my socks off, and my partner's as well. Wanting to imitate this style of eating at home, I purchased Raw, the Uncook Book. First, the colorful pictures are so inspiring you can't wait to try a few simple recipes. Mmm! The result is food that is as tasty as the pictures are beautiful. The presentations in the book are as artistic as they are in the restaurant. After a few successes, you're ready to create more and get deeper into the preparation of raw foods. It's soo worth it. Some people here are naysaying the virtues of this book but I think they really don't see the value of a raw diet. And, if raw isn't for you and you don't want to take the time to prepare healthy food, then don't buy the book. But, if you want to lose excess fat, feed your body with living food and enzymes, have clearer eyesight, &c., you will be happy you found Juliano's book. As far as Juliano looking too yin, I have to laugh. He's not huge and bulky but he is super fit with extraordinary energy~more yang, I tend to believe. Keep it up, Juliano!
Rating:
Summary: Delicious approach made simple
Review: I can't recommend this book highly enough. I was on the way to raw food when I bought this book, so I was sprouting and already had the dehydrator. However although I was preparing raw meals using recipes I got off the web, they weren't always the most tasty and they seemed to be settling into a pattern of boring repetition. I was feeling doubtful about maintaining this approach although I felt the health benefits of it. Juliano's cookbook has opened my eyes to the potential of raw food. This book is full of delicious recipes that are easy to make. Raw soups take seconds to blend up. Having raw condiments on hand for new flavours. Yes the dehydrating takes up to 24 hours, however unlike ordinary cooking where you have to watch the food and check it all the time, dehydrating just goes on in the background while I get on with my life - and because I can cook in bulk, the breads stay fresh and tasty for weeks. The detail and the photos in the book are great, and so is the flexible approach where if one ingredient or three are not available then we are encouraged to improvise. This book is the most innovative, practical and delicious cook book I have ever used - and I use this all the time now. Highly recomended.
Rating:
Summary: Some of the best raw recipes I've tried
Review: I've purchased many raw food "cook"books over the last year -- and this one has the best-tasting, most delicious recipes yet! Yes, some of the recipes are complicated, but save those for a Saturday afternoon and a special dinner. The salad and soups are divine, and Juliano's recipe for raw hummus (as well as his flax seed cracker recipe) is out of this world! If you're serious about raw food, and want to evolve out of salads and fruit smoothies -- this a great book to help you do it.
Rating: 
Summary: This book sucks raw eggs!
Review: The book, while inspiring, leaves a lot to be desired, like recipes that actually work. It has been more than disappointing when time and again, after spending literally days to sprout ingredients, chop, food process, blend, and dehydrate to have an unedible mess come out. Maybe in the la-la land Juliano lives in, everything just 'works out' somehow, even with incomplete recipes. I, however, am having a bit more trouble. Buyer beware.
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