Food Synergy is the answer to cancer

Watch William Li prove that food as medicine works using food synergy by choosing plant based foods sourced from local, sustainable, anti-adrogenic crops which could be the key to the prevention of most diet related cancers.

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About Samantha
Growing up at the restaurant table during the gastronomic boom of the ’70s, being fed canned soybeans and boarding school food, it is little wonder that Samantha Gowing became a therapeutic chef, an award-winning clinical nutritionist and a renowned teacher of Food as Medicine.
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She founded Gowings Food Health Wealth twelve years ago – a business service that celebrates organic produce and encompasses her teachings, complemented by her previous incarnation as a highly successful restaurateur and hotelier of the historic Grace Darling Hotel in Collingwood, Victoria. During this time she has written extensively about food, fitness, travel, nutrition and wellness for magazines, newspapers and online arenas.

Her Organic Cooking School specialises in creating her signature Surf Spa Food for luxury health retreats worldwide and provides dynamic, fun and interactive Corporate Chef experiences for Workplace Wellness and Executive Team Building incentives.

The popularity of Now and Zen, a seasonal online newsletter, created a demand to share her online marketing skills and present Social Media Seminars to help food and health professionals become successful business owners and entrepreneurs. Celebrated for her warmth, wit and wisdom, Sam offers proven methods of wellness business Mentoring and delivers compelling, entertaining food and wellness presentations and keynote address for conferences, summits and business groups.

Born, bread and raised in the inner city of Melbourne, Sam now lives in Byron Bay, New South Wales where she enjoys the beautiful beaches, great surf and revered produce and lifestyle of the Northern Rivers region. She writes a popular gluten free recipe blog called Bitter Sweet Sour and is enjoying her new role as Head Chef at the brand new Cabarita Ocean Retreat

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The beautiful header image of Byron Bay is by Kirra Pendergast

By Kay O’Sullivan, SMH Traveller
Read more about Cabarita Ocean Retreat 

Australia is to get a new health retreat with the opening of the Cabarita Ocean Retreat at Casuarina in northern NSW scheduled for the end of September. Overseeing operations is Brook Ramage, who was the general manager of Queensland’s Golden Door Health Retreat for 17 years. Ramage was also involved in the early days of Camp Eden, which, like the Golden Door, is situated in the Gold Coast hinterland.

Joining him at the beachfront retreat will be nutritionist/chef Samantha Gowing, who has worked at Gwinganna and Gaia and at health retreats in Sri Lanka and Bali. Previously, Gowing owned the Grace Darling Hotel, the hotel where the Collingwood Football Club was formed and which she took to one-hat status in The Age Good Food Guide during the 1990s.

Ramage says Cabarita will differ to other Australian health retreats in that it will be smaller – the new retreat will accommodate only 16 guests – and it is also the only one with beach access. “Because of that we will be able to offer a more bespoke approach and there will be a lot of marine-based activities,” he says.

What A Nuisance; Melbourne Cup Parade 2006

Recollections of the 1985 Melbourne Cup

The Day before the running of the 1985 Melbourne Cup, my Dad and I were at Gowings Restaurant. The torrential rain began around lunchtime and continued throughout the night. With every downpour, came the cry from my father, “Open another bottle of champagne!”….What A Nuisance loved a wet track. Awake at five and abundant with nervous energy, we set out for Flemington around seven that Cup morning. The car park was already awash with muddy puddles and the Heavens were constantly dousing the track. It was going to be a great day.

We nervously watched the bookies set up and waited for their financial appraisal on the probability of What A Nuisance’s chances. Their economic judgment hovered around the 14-1 mark. Pretty good odds for such inclement weather, enough to entice my brother Chris to leave the country soon after with all his winnings. The rain subsided a little and we visited What A Nuisance. We wished him winning vibes as he stood nonchalantly in his stall, looking as if he his race was already run and won.

Soon we were ensconced in the Owners & Trainers stand – the moment had arrived. The race itself was quite a blur – my hand firmly clenched within my Father’s, his eyes half closed, mine shut tight. We could hear the call and What A Nuisance featured prominently. The roar of the crowd as they came around the home turn drowned out any hope of hearing the result. The trainer, Geoff Murphy, was sitting behind us throughout the race. He leant down to my father at the finish and said, “I bet you a thousand bucks your horse has won”. To which my stunned father responded “You’re on!” The happiest bet he ever lost! Next we were flying down the stairs, pirouetting at each turn and onto the mounting yard.

The trophy presented, we were whisked upstairs – it was time to formally meet the Prince & Princess of Wales who where the esteemed guests of the Club on that day. Greetings were exchanged and congratulations offered; yet nothing could ever come close to the exhilaration of what had just occurred – not even the once in a lifetime opportunity of meeting a real Princess.

My Father’s traditional public persona took an unusual turn on that day. There was to be neither car park celebration nor parading of the trophy to the masses and media. He wanted to be private. He insisted I go to the Secretary’s Office to find something to secure the prize for transport. “What no box?” I asked them when they told me they had never been asked for such a thing. With no other option, we clumsily wrapped the Cup in The Age and headed straight for the car, dodging many a well wisher along the way.

Once back in the solace of the Restaurant the party began with friends, family and guests all enjoying a swig of champagne from the hallowed vessel. A tradition which has been enjoyed in our restaurants on Cup day ever since. Throughout the night, a familiar cry could be heard from an exuberant, once orphaned, Cockney lad, “Open another bottle of champagne!”

“It is my pleasure to introduce Samantha Gowing.   A talented woman, Sam has proven skills and expertise as a Nutritionist she is a wonderful Chef and is an excellent business woman.  She is rare talent who will tantalise your tastebuds, educate your mind, develop your business acumen and delight your clients.  Enjoy!”
Sharon Kolkka, General Manager, Gwinganna Lifestyle Retreat

Business coach and motivational mentor Samantha Gowing meets health practitioners daily who undersell their expertise and knowledge. “The fact is over 90 per cent of practitioners will never become wealthy. I specialise in working with practitioners to identify self-limiting beliefs, then motivate and support them to change their mindset and increase their wealth beyond what they imagine,” says Samantha.

With over 25 years experience in business Samantha, formerly an award-winning restaurateur, learnt her most recent business lessons working in private practice as a therapeutic chef and clinical nutritionist, and at premiere retreats.

Samantha is in demand nationally and internationally for her organic cooking presentations, corporate cooking demonstrations, kitchen keynote seminars and public speaking.

Global highlights include being the nutritional voice and menu designe for Surf Haven Bali, a luxury women’s only surf spa retreat; she created the nutritional theme and recipes for the stunning boutique hotel Kahanda Kanda in Galle, Sri Lanka. In 2010, she was recruited to Africa to share her Conscious Cuisine philosophy at the prestigious Kempinski Zamani Retreat, Zanzibar, Tanzania.

Locally, she has been a guest chef for the Nourish program at Gwinganna Gold Coast; delivered a Food as Medicine workshop and motivational seminar for at Gaia Retreat & Spa, Byron Bay. Using strategic techniques, Samantha now teaches other practitioners and spa owners in her proven methods of business coaching.

Samantha’s dynamic business coaching and motivational mentoring programs are available for on-site practice or organic luxury spa retreats or corporate health incentives.

“Anything is possible”

Samantha Gowing was 20 years old when her father’s horse won the Melbourne Cup. His hand gripping hers, she watched as What A Nuisance came hurtling over the finish line – and even, later on, meeting the Prince and Princess of Wales could not compete with that entrancing moment.

This was the Before part of Sam’s life. As an even younger child she would fall asleep over chocolate souffles in her father’s restaurant, 2am and the air thick with smoke from his cognac-accompanying cigarettes at shift’s end. A self-educated man, Dennis Gowing went from the car trade into stud farms, race horses, art collections and eventually Jackson’s restaurant in Toorak via a stint as a television personality; he became restaurateur, according to Sam, ‘by default and by discernment’. It was almost inevitable that Sam and her brothers would carry on the tradition though, in Sam’s case, not before a Fine Arts degree she never completed, a kimono-wearing period as maitre d’ in a Japanese restaurant (she had been studying Japanese since she was nine); a motorbike accident putting an end to that; her own catering business with friends.

The accident led her toward yoga and Pilates (a foretelling, perhaps), though when her father became ill she was, to use her expression, ‘recruited back into the fold’. By now it was Gowings in East Melbourne, a fine-dining, two-and-a-half-hatted establishment doing 85 covers a night. Sam, loving it, threw herself into it with vigour until the late 80s, when Fine Dining was suddenly what people no longer wanted – or could afford. This was the era when pubs transformed their dining spaces into fashionable bistros serving up ‘contemporary Australian cuisine’ (Caesar salads, salt and pepper squid, pumpkin and fetta combinations), and the Grace Darling Hotel Sam’s family acquired was one of the forerunners. At the tender age of 24 there she was a publican – and for the ensuing seven years she and her brother ran this bluestone hotel built in 1854, steering it into a multi-faceted dining emporium complete with acoustic venue where the likes of The Waifs, Linda and Vika Bull and Stephen Cummings were launched. Some of her father’s glorious art collection – Clifton Pugh, Tim Storrier – hung from the walls. Those were the hard-living hard-drinking days of parties and wine launches, a 3am licence and unprecedented outside dining, pizzas at midnight, coffee and cigarettes for breakfast

Seeing Sam now – the After period – I find it hard to imagine. Small and blonde and glowing, this is a woman whose degree in Nutritional Health Science has turned her into a culinary nutritionist; a yoga and Pilates instructor; a teacher of Japanese cooking; a campaigner  for organics well before became the word became fashionable. She works at Gwinganna and takes people on wellness retreats to Sri Lanka; she is up at 5am, steaming broccoli with tamari and ginger for breakfast. Having moved to Byron Bay for her ‘physical and spiritual health’, she still commutes to Melbourne where she does cooking demonstrations at the Prahran markets and consults as nutritionist at the Grand Hyatt. With half a lifetime of food, hospitality and charm in her blood, she has managed to transform the passion and the instinct for all into a way to help others eat better and feel better – and I have the sense she has only just begun.

Growing up around a restaurant table for all of her childhood years, it was only natural that Samantha Gowing would follow in her father’s footsteps and become involved in the food business.

For more than 20 years, this renowned Melbourne restaurateur has been involved in the industry owning and running some of Melbourne’s finest eating establishments. When her father died in 1991 Samantha and her brother took over the family restaurant Gowings East Melbourne where she worked for eight years.

But, it was her father’s death that led Sam to expand her mind and her food business to concentrate on the relationship between good nutrition and good health. ”When my father died I really had no great knowledge of health food,” Samantha said. ”I had a yearning for an understanding of the healing benefits of food and its relationship on the body, mind and spirit.”

That yearning has led Samantha on a world journey that has included time in Japan and South East Asia embracing centuries old cooking and healing techniques; years of study at university to gain a Diploma in Health Science; becoming a qualified pilates and yoga instructor and the establishment in 2002 of Gowings Food and Health an innovative business service that combines nutrition, pilates and yoga, an organic cooking school, corporate health seminars and food styling.

But, the latest step in Samantha’s journey is a move to Byron Bay. ”I have always wanted to live in Byron Bay and let’s face it living in Collingwood for 18 years wasn’t exactly spiritually uplifting,” Samantha said.

“My business was thriving in Melbourne, but I just wasn’t getting what I needed there.” So three weeks ago Samantha packed up her house and her dog and headed to Byron.

“I was looking at houses to rent on the internet and saw this photo of a kitchen that had a six-burner gas stove,” she said. ”I just knew it was the right place, so I took it.”

And indeed it has turned out to be the right place with an area to establish a pilates studio, a large kitchen ideal for cooking classes, a vibrant, lush garden reminiscent of the gardens in Bali where she is a regular visitor and a study from where Samantha can grow her food and health business which currently services the Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney markets.

Horizons “I have already been to the Byron Farmers Markets and was really impressed,” Samantha said. ”We really need to rediscover the path from paddock to plate and farmers markets do this really well.”I am also a staunch supporter of organic food and really believe in seasonability and sustainability.”

And while Samantha practises what she preaches including eating steamed broccoli with fresh ginger, tamari and a pinch of good salt for breakfast she does have a weakness. ”I love a good glass of French champagne, that’s my weakness and every so often a cold beer goes down well too,” she said.

“Food has taken me all over the world and expanded my horizons and I really believe there is a connection between food and healing.” Samantha is looking forward to making a new life in Byron Bay.”I am following my heart and I can’t wait to see what directions are going to open for me,” she said.

By Kay O’Sullivan, SMH Traveller
Read more about Cabarita Ocean Retreat

Australia is to get a new health retreat with the opening of the Cabarita Ocean Retreat at Casuarina in northern NSW scheduled for the end of September. Overseeing operations is Brook Ramage, who was the general manager of Queensland’s Golden Door Health Retreat for 17 years. Ramage was also involved in the early days of Camp Eden, which, like the Golden Door, is situated in the Gold Coast hinterland.

Joining him at the beachfront retreat will be nutritionist/chef Samantha Gowing, who has worked at Gwinganna and Gaia and at health retreats in Sri Lanka and Bali. Previously, Gowing owned the Grace Darling Hotel, the hotel where the Collingwood Football Club was formed and which she took to one-hat status in The Age Good Food Guide during the 1990s.

As a young whippersnapper, I was introduced to the culture and cuisine of Japan. In the fourth grade at my primary school I began learning Japanese language in a charming schoolroom decorated with all things from the East. Our teacher Miss Machida, would help us to learn and draw the intricate characters of the two alphabets, hiragana and katakana. She would flash cards at us throughout the class and entice us to recite the various images depicted. Our homework was to learn both alphabets by heart and then move on to basic Kanji.  

The highlight of this early language learning was when Machida-san took our class to dine at a traditional Japanese restaurant in Collins Street called Teppanyaki Inn, which still thrives today, now located across the street from its initial digs. It was a great surprise to me that we were presented with delicious seared beef and seafood dipped in shoyu and sesame sauces.

Rumours had been flying earlier that the menu would feature only raw fish, green tea and seaweed. However, much to our youthful delight, the Teppan grill was fired up and a Japanese chef resplendent in his formal duds began slicing and dicing his way through an assortment of meat and vegetables to be seared and sizzled on the traditional hot plate in front of us.

Once received, we fumbled with chopsticks – of course we’d been practising in class for weeks – and cautiously dipped our mouthfuls into the accompanying sauces. Oishi-so! We declared, and from that day on a myriad of cuisine unfolded and I was immediately inspired by its simplistic versatility. The journey had begun.

What is so familiar and comfortable to me now was so foreign to a nine year old in 1976 when my Japanese language class travelled to Japan for a rather exotic field trip. On arrival into Tokyo, I was promptly separated from my best friend Helen and couriered to a traditional suburban Japanese house for a two day home stay with a host family, being fed miso shiru, oshinko and ham salad for breakfast. Clearly, things were not good! Needless to say, one year of Japanese language was an insufficient tool for communication.

Our mission was to present the war memorial at Hiroshima with 10,000 origami (paper folded) cranes – the symbol of peace – which we had been painstakingly making for months. We travelled on the Shinkansen to Hiroshima eating Obento – a traditional lunchbox of delicacies and treats  – as we railed passed the icon – Mount Fujiyama.  Everything was so beautifully presented, orderly and compartmentalised – it remains etched in our minds to the point that it is simply part of our lives to this day. Ten years later I would find myself managing a Japanese restaurant ion South Yarra called Minami, while I returned to study the language part time at Melbourne University. My interest in Japanese culture had extended into the practices including Japanese wheel thrown ceramics.

My year at Minami saw me costumed in traditional kimono – complete with under yukata and obe – much to the delight of visiting friends. The poise and grace of Japanese women dressed in their finest was unfortunately lost on me. Clearly another instance where East should not meet West so it was not long before I retreated to my black suit. Still, the experience taught me important Japanese etiquette.

Every aspect of the Japanese restaurant is steeped in tradition: greeting guests, avoiding the displeasure of the ‘Salary Man’, pouring sake and cooking Sukiyaki, Shabu Shabu and Yosenabe. These shared dishes were all prepared at the table amid the ‘oooohs and aaaahhs” of the unaccustomed non-Japanese clientele. Imagine how intimidated this gaijin was shuffling in her pace restricting kimono towards a table surrounded by Aussie blokes.  Rapidly imported banter became my salvation.

I was devastated.

Nevertheless, I am grateful that my father’s premature death ignited my own deep interest in healthy living, healthy food and a concern about not only my own lifestyle but also about the one encouraged by the restaurant industry into which I was born.  

After years of witnessing guests devour many a plate of fried fish with chips, it became increasingly obvious that what the palates of Melbourne were really hungering for was the comforting foods of their youth, which certainly did nothing for the linings of their arteries, nor their waistlines. Sadly, the preference lay not with Gowings Restaurant’s less processed, healthier signature dishes: Beluga caviar, Papillote of Whiting or the Venison Saddle with Bordeaux glaze.   Overcharred steak or anything that was sweet and/or salty, especially the beer-battered flathead and frozen, machine-cut potatoes– foods that were then fried in thick lashings of molecularly damaged oil – won hands down! 

When my father was diagnosed with cancer, his doctor endeavoured to persuade him to reduce his consumption of smoked salmon and chargrilled fare. As he had not been given a logical reason as to why, he made little effort to do so.  Had he been aware that his illness was being exacerbated by Benzpyrene, a carcinogen that is produced by the smoking and the chargrilling of foods and the overheating of oil, he may have been more vigilant.