Matt Dobson is Head Chef at Fountainhead Organic retreat.

Born and bread in Yorkshire, England, Matt has spent a lot of time traveling to France during 5 year culinary Apprenticeship. His European influences see him Classically trained, working with heavy food and hot ovens. Eventually, Matt got tired of spending money on fresh raw ingredients, only to be cooking all the goodness out of it. He grasped onto the idea of raw food cuisine.

His philosophy? “You don’t mess with what nature intended.”

Matt is passionate about producing food that nourishes our bodies. At Fountainhead, every item of food and drink is organic and living. There is no plastic, cling film or aluminum foil, no polystyrene or tinned food and not a microwave oven in sight. In an organic lifestyle, food in its pure and natural state - always the best way to feed the human body. The more colourful a meal is, the more minerals and vitamins it contains. We caught up with him to share his thoughts on his healthy, delicious cuisine.

What natural sugar alternatives can you use to sweeten food?
Stay away from sugar substitutes. They are full of chemicals. I recommend Palm sugar or Agave syrup, which are both unprocessed. Or you can use honey, which is fairly inexpensive. If you eat a balanced diet with fruit and vegetables– 80% of our recommended daily sugar intake is already in the food that we eat.

What are some cooking techniques to get the most out of our ingredients?
Not to cook them at all. Raw is a lot better for you, rule of thumb – the longer you cook something, the more the goodness disappears. People think ‘raw food’ means completely raw, but it’s not. You can warm things up to under 50 degrees, which is still classed as raw food. Obviously you can’t eat everything raw, like potatoes.

Would you share your favourite recipe with us?

A delicious raw recipe for chocolate and orange cookies. See the recipe below!